Lazarus and Job

 

The reading at mass was the story of Dives and Lazarus. Yet the sermon was on Job. The gospel reading was taken merely as a warning that bad things can happen to good people. We must not always expect sunny skies. 

This was only half right, and being half right, wrong. It is at least an antidote to the demonic idea of the gospel of prosperity, and the “happy happy joy joy” form of Christianity. But it is not the point of the story. It ignores Dives in hell, and does not explain why Lazarus suffers in this life, or why Dives does in the next.

In the story, suffering is not random--it actually isn’t random in the Book of Job either. Job is sent suffering BECAUSE he is a righteous man. Suffering in this world is a mark of God’s favour.

“Woe to you who are rich,

    for you have already received your comfort.

Woe to you who are well fed now,

    for you will go hungry.

Woe to you who laugh now,

    for you will mourn and weep.

Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you,

    for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.”

(Luke 6: 24-6)

Conversely, blessed are the poor. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the persecuted.

Abraham explains to the rich man: “Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.”

Not necessarily that Dives is being punished for being rich. That would not seem fair; although lack of charity is worthy of such punishment. But compare Lazarus: there is nothing to say he has done any thing to deserve heaven, either--it is a pure reward for his suffering. Suffering in this life must be seen as a sign of God’s favour. God sends us only the crosses we can bear, and Dives was not strong enough to bear any cross. 

As St. Ignatius says, if God sends you suffering, it means he wants to make you a saint.