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Human life resembles a bridge that leads from the shores of mortality to the shores of eternity. A one-way bridge that cannot be turned back on. Today’s Gospel parable shows us two people who crossed that bridge: the beggar Lazarus and the rich man. The former lacked everything in life, even basic necessities. The second one was so obscenely rich that he was unable, or perhaps did not want to, to see the cause and relationship between his wealth and someone else’s poverty. 

Finally, we can see both of them on the other side of the bridge, on the edge of eternity. And there their fate changed radically. Lazarus “in the bosom of Abraham” experienced an eternal happiness that he did not experience on earth as he patiently waited for “the waste of the rich man’s table” and when “the dogs came and licked his sores.” The rich man suffers in hell among people who fall into two categories. The first group includes those who have made their lives meaningful to do evil. The second group, in which we find the rich man of the Gospel, includes those who have failed to do good. It seems that there can be definitely more people like these.

Each of us is today in a specific place on the bridge leading to eternity. We must remember that the quality of the eternal life depends on the quality of the earthly life. Life on earth and the decisions we make here will be saved on the other side forever.  So, what kind of life is here, such kind of the eternity will be there.

How many people are trying to imitate – in about 100% – the rich man Jesus speaks of in the present time? How many overworked people, out of breath, just to accumulate some money to be rich? To possess as much as possible! More often we hear the tragic words repeated as a motto of life: “Stupid, because poor, poor because stupid.” There is no reason to be surprised. After all, it is not the amount of wealth itself that is important, but the attitude towards it. Christ condemned the rich man not because he had a lot, but because he gathered to eat, drink, rest and use only. And it doesn’t take thousands of dollars for that. You can have several thousand in your pocket, collected over a week only to be spend in one Sunday evening. For this man, the money collected for a week becomes a deity. He thinks about it from morning to evening, he offers everything for it. What is not done on earth just to get some money? In reference to such a man, the Lord Jesus uses this strong word: “fool“. How many baptized people, how many among us would hear this hard word from God: “fool“? The wisdom of the Gospel lies in the fact that it places everything in its right place, knows what is truly worth, what is really a treasure.

According to the Gospel, the rich man is not the one who has accumulated treasure for himself, but the one who has acquired a great treasure in God’s sight. Christians, as disciples of Christ, should amaze the world with great wisdom of the Gospel, with this constant effort to accumulate true treasures: justice, goodness, mercy, prudence, etc. This is the wealth which decides about a man’s value, and and whoever strives for it is wise. Whoever has understood that true wealth is the wealth of the heart, not the pocket, has discovered the beauty of the Gospel and true Christianity. When faced with wealth, we stand at a crossroads. If we reach for temporal goods to use them, the world will recognize us as wise, but God – as we read in today’s Gospel – as foolish. If we put spiritual goods above money, the world will consider us foolish, but God will consider us wise. We have to choose which wisdom we want to participate in: Divine or Human.

“If any of you, fathers, a son asks for bread, will he give him a stone? Or for a fish, will she give him a snake instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?”

The Greek word scorpios – scorpion – can be rendered “to be sharp”, “cut,” “to prick.” It expresses well the character of an animal called a scorpion, often found in Palestine, and considered a formidable enemy of man.

Scorpions are great in the dark and mostly feed on various types of insects, spiders and other scorpions. Poisonous scorpion’s bites, even if they usually do not lead to death, are very painful. The Apocalypse of St. John mentions “torments after the scorpion” (Rev 9: 5) – an almost proverbial expression.

The scorpion, next to the serpent, is in the Bible a classic symbol of the cruel world hostile to man. The Lord Jesus refers to this symbolism when He says to His disciples: “Behold, I have given you the power to walk on serpents and scorpions and in all the power of the opponent” (Lk 10:19). The journey from Egypt to the promised land is described in a similar way, “through a great and terrible desert, full of poisonous serpents and scorpions” (Dt 8:15). The Prophet Ezekiel calls his enemies scorpions. The Book of Syracides likens a wicked wife to a scorpion: “whoever takes her for himself, as if he had grabbed a scorpion with a hand.”

Christ explains to the apostles the meaning of prayer with three comparisons. He teaches that being a student is similar to the relationship of a son to a father who is asking for something to eat. While the first two comparisons seem understandable – the bread and the stone, the fish and the water snake – seem at least a bit similar to each other, the egg and the scorpion are rather difficult to confuse. The possibility of giving someone a scorpion instead of an egg is surprising, it is unlikely. What we are dealing with here is a gradation: these comparisons ultimately tend to compile a real thing with unreal, so as to the perfect degree indicate the trust we should have in God.

The attitude of child’s trust does not prevent us from praying to God persistently. Let the conclusion of today’s thoughts be the famous prayer:

“I asked God to give me the power to succeed,
 – He made me weak so that I might learn a humble obedience.
I asked for health to accomplish great deeds,
 – He gave me a disability so that I could do better things.
I asked for wealth so that I could be happy,
 – He gave me poverty so that I could be wise.
I asked for a power so that people would value me
 – He made me feel helpless to need God.
I asked for a companion not to live alone,
 – He gave me a heart so that I could love all my brothers.
I asked for a joy,
– and I received the life so that I could enjoy with everything.
I got nothing that I asked for
 – but I got what I expected.
Almost in spite of myself
 – my prayers not formulated were answered.
I am the most gifted of all people.”

Anonymous text in Rehabilitation Institute in New York

Martha and Mary, mentioned by St. Luke, are most likely sisters of Lazarus of Bethany, about whom St. John the Evangelist wrote, although some believe that they are completely different families. The Aramaic name Martha means “lady”.

Martha is presented by St. Luke as a meticulous housekeeper who “has been troubled by various services.” Jesus rebukes her because, out of concern for hospitality, she neglected to listen to His words. In fact, however, it is not about being opposed to two different ways of behaving. Mary does the right thing not because she does nothing in particular and does not care of the visitor. Rather, her attitude of listening to Christ’s speech shows the model of a disciple who is always looking for what is most important. Martha, on the other hand, is “devoted to things”, she is immersed in what she absorbs, but does not decide about a person’s value. It is not work itself that distances you from God, but the one that makes man lose sight of God in his pursuit of activity.

Jesus tells the woman: “Martha, Martha“. The repetition of the name shows a special feeling, is an expression of an emotional approach toward the other. In this way Jesus also speaks to Simon Peter, this is how He speaks to the inhabitants of the ungrateful city: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill prophets, and you stone those who are sent to you. How many times have I wanted to gather your children like a bird, its chicks under wings, and you did not want to.”

If Martha was the sister of Lazarus, she learned a lot from the lesson she received at the meal. In Bethany, it is she – and not her sister Mary – will demonstrate a luminous faith in Jesus and His messianic mission: “I still believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God who is to come into the world”.