For daily readings, see http://www.usccb.org/nab/022108.shtml
+JMJ
Mary, Queen of Vocations, pray for us
‘Do whatever He tells you.’
The story of the rich man and Lazarus is so rich with spiritual insight and theological meaning. Trying to move quickly, we see first that our material possessions really do blind us to the presence of Christ. Almsgiving is essential to having a good Lent, to renewing our conversation with Jesus and our ability to recognize his voice and his face, especially in the poor. Without almsgiving, we risk having a lukewarm faith. Secondly, we see in this reading that the day of our death has significance. On the day of our death we must make an accounting of how we used our freedom. To put it bluntly, by the day of our death, we have developed an almost determinate habit of loving ourselves or loving God, and it is almost impossible for us to have a ‘death-bed’ conversion. Keeping death daily before our eyes, then, is a good way of reminding us that now is the time to create habits of loving God and our neighbor, as Moses and the prophets teach us how to do. On the day of our death, then, having listened to Moses and the prophets, we can be sure to recognize the voice and the face of Jesus when He comes to greet us and to show us the way to eternal life. Consonant with this theme is the theological maxim of the Church that grace builds on nature. The law of Moses and the prophets teach us how to do good and to avoid evil, and by so doing to create a virtuous nature that is the foundation on which grace can build. If we are not good and virtuous people, we do not have a realistic chance of believing in the resurrection of Jesus, nor of growing in his life through the grace of the sacraments.
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