Mk 11: 11-26 Have Faith in God

Today is a long Gospel reading.  Jesus is at the temple, looks around then leaves.  He curses the fig tree outside Bethany, then returns the next day to Jerusalem, to the temple where he drives people out and overturns tables.  The following morning as Jesus and the twelve return to Bethany the disciples notice the fig tree that Jesus cursed had withered.  Jesus uses the withered tree as a teaching lesson in faith for the disciples; teaching that what we ask for in prayer will be given; teaching the importance of forgiveness of sins of others so that our sins may be forgiven by the Father.

There can be much written of, but those last three thoughts:
-have faith
-pray for what you need, believing it is possible
-forgive, that you may forgiven

These are ultimately what Jesus preaches again and again.  Do we not hear these same ideas when we pray the Our Father?  In it we profess our faith, our belief in God in the Father.  We petition him for what we need, our daily spiritual bread.  We pray that we may forgive others, and that God will forgive us.

When we say the Lord's Prayer today, let us think more clearly on the meaning of each of the words that we are saying, and not as something that we have simply memorized.  Let us reflect on the meaning of each word.  Amen.

Lk 16:19-31 The Rich Man and Lazarus

Just as innocently as a child we can find ourselves in situations where our pride and greed get the better of us.  Once is not a bad thing.  However, we need to be cautious that they do not become bad habits which eventually will turn into great sins. 

In today’s Gospel Luke gives a beautiful contrast between the rich man and Lazarus.  The rich man has a lavish lifestyle and has fallen into bad habits which become a bane to him, prohibiting him from seeing that they are truly sinful.  He exhibits what we would consider the cardinal vices: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth.  Thus for these he is condemned to suffering eternally.  As we hear in Jeremiah, “Thus says the LORD: Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD.”     

Lazarus on the other hand was a poor man who spent his days in the doorway of the rich man.  Seeing Lazarus across the chasm with our father of faith, Abraham, the rich man begs Abraham to send Lazarus over so the Lazarus could drop some water on his tongue to refresh him.  The rich man even in death hasn’t fully learned.  Abraham must explain to him that Lazarus was a good faithful man.  In fact we can almost imagine him the very opposite of the rich man exhibiting in his difficult life the Cardinal virtues:  prudence, justice, temperance (meaning restriction or restraint), and courage (or fortitude), faith, hope, and charity. 

Why are we given these two men as examples?  Jesus wants us to understand the correct way of living the way that Our Father wants us to live in our covenant with him.  For the rich man he had Abraham to explain and show him the error of his way.  For us, we have Christ.  And he reminds us, “If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.”  Let us not be hard headed like the rich man, but prayerfully ask the Lord his mercy and forgiveness that we may one day be ushered through the door of Heaven, just as poor Lazarus who sat patiently at the door waiting to be asked in. 

(Side note: Cardinal comes from a Latin word meaning hinge.  They are the hinge upon which the door swings good or bad.)