Thursday of the Second Week of Lent 2019

I suspect that we have all experienced the painful experience of looking back over our shoulder and realizing that we had a wonderful opportunity to help someone in need and we blew it! Maybe we were too busy or too consumed with the stuff of our lives, but the fact is we lost an opportunity to put our life as disciples of Christ in practice.

The rich man in today’s gospel is the quintessential example of this tragic reality. He blew it big time. Nobody was asking him to serve at the local soup kitchen three days a week on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Nobody told him that he had to open a hospice for sick and abandoned street people. All he had to do was STOP, LISTEN, SEE and respond with some kind of loving act of charity.  Sometimes what the poor really long for is to be seen, acknowledged as a human being and not passed by as if he or she were a pile of garbage on a street corner. Sharing a smile and a kind, “Good morning … Buenos días” is worth a hundred sandwiches.

Lazarus was invisible to the man who dressed in purple garments and dined sumptuously each day. Lent is a time in which we are being asked to open our eyes and our hearts and SEE the Image of God in our neighbor.  A sandwich brings relief to the stomach. A kind smile brings peace to the heart.