If I Were A Rich Man...

“There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table.”  -Luke 16:19

At first glance, it would seem that the rich man in today’s Gospel goes to hell simply for being rich, while Lazarus goes to the “bosom of Abraham” simply for being poor. But the message of Jesus’ parable goes much deeper than that.

In medieval Catholic tradition, the rich man is known as Dives, which is simply the Latin word meaning “rich” (yeah, I know…real creative). Dives does not go to hell for being rich. Dives goes to hell for putting too much stock in his riches and allowing them to “turn his heart away from the Lord,” specifically from God’s will for his life.

Everything with which God blesses us is good, and this includes material wealth. Wealth, like any gift from God, is meant to be used in accordance with His will.  Money is sometimes necessary to accomplish a certain good. God might bless a person with wealth because He has a specific good in mind for that person to do with his wealth, a mission to accomplish. It would seem this was the case with Dives. Perhaps God gave him his wealth just so he could help Lazarus with it. But Dives does not even go so far as to give Lazarus the scraps which “fell from the rich man’s table.” He selfishly keeps everything for himself, even that which he cannot actually use. He would be right at home in our materialistic 21^st century culture of wastefulness and “#first-world problems”

The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried. There is a poignant finality to the way St. Luke goes out of his way to point out that Dives “was buried.” My pastor back home likes to say, “You never see a U-Haul behind a hearse.” The most tragic part of the parable of Dives and Lazarus, is that, by putting his selfish desires before God’s will for his wealth, Dives trades eternal bliss for temporary happiness. He cannot take any of his belongings with him into the next life. For Dives, who put so much stock in the things of the world, life is truly over with his burial.

How well do we use our “purple and fine linen,” the gifts with which God has blessed us? Do we use them for the good which God intended, or are we wasteful like Dives? Almsgiving is probably the most forgotten of the three components of a holy Lent. Of course, most college students are hardly rich like Dives, but we should still try to do something, especially for the hungry like Lazarus. If we have the chance, we might buy a meal for a poor person, or we could skip lunch on a certain day and put the money we would have spent in the poor box at church. Most importantly, we should pray that we may use the gifts which God has given us for His glory and not hold on to passing things.