My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime”
Pope Benedict XVI once said, “The world will give you comfort. But you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness.” In the Liturgy today read in the Old Testament the warning of a pleasure seeking life. We see Amos chastising the rich who only seek luxury and comfort, and telling them they will be the first into exile. In the Second Reading Saint Paul warns against greed and the love of money is the root of evil. Finally, In the Gospel reading Jesus speaks of how the rich man lived a life of total comfort. He had amassed so much wealth that he was able to live comfortably. He did not have think or worry about anything or anyone but himself.
Why does Jesus say “Abraham’s Bosom” instead of “Heaven”? Jesus says “Abraham’s Bosom” rather than “Heaven” because Heaven is the beatific vision; Heaven is where we see God “face to face”. At that time no one was able to see God in His beatific vision because the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Our Lord had not yet occurred and thus Heaven’s gates were not yet opened. However, the people who died in God’s grace before Jesus’ resurrection were not destined to Hell, they instead were awaiting Heaven. Jesus uses the term Abraham’s Bosom. The Church has also used the term “Limbo” to describe this place. Abraham’s Bosom is the “Term used by St. Luke (Luke 16:22) to describe the abode of the just persons who died in the Old Testament, before they were admitted to the beatific vision. In patristic literature it often means heaven. It implies a return of Abraham’s spiritual descendants to the embrace of the earthly father of all the faithful.”[i] The Catechism of the Council of Trent describes Abraham’s bosom in another way as a place or state “into which the souls of the just before the coming of Christ the Lord, were received, and where without experiencing any sort of pain, but supported by the blessed hope of redemption, they enjoyed peaceful repose. To liberate these holy souls, who, in the bosom of Abraham were expecting the Saviour, Christ the Lord descended into hell”[ii]
What is Limbo? The word Limbo is Latin and comes from the word “limbus”, which means border or literally hem. We can think of Heaven as a garment, maybe the vestment of a priest or deacon at the very bottom of that vestment is the hem. The hem is still part of the vestment but the furthest part. Limbo is still part of heaven but the furthest part, the hem or border. There are two kinds of Limbo. “The limbo of the Fathers was the place where the saints of the Old Testament remained until Christ’s coming and redemption of the world. The limbo of infants is the permanent state of those who die in original sin but are innocent of any personal guilt.”[iii]
Does the Church still teach Limbo? In regards to the limbo of the Fathers, the Church teaches that it was a place, but it no longer exists because of the Resurrection of Christ. In other words the Fathers or Old Testament Saints are now in Heaven, they no longer awaiting Heaven. In regards to the limbo of infants, the Church has never formally defined the existence of limbo. The limbo of infants is a theological theory. It is a theological explanation of where the souls of the unbaptized go. The Council of Trent said, “Since the Gospel was promulgated, this passing [natural life to supernatural life] cannot take place without the water of regeneration or the desire for it, as it is written, ‘Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God’ (John 3:5).”[iv] Theological theories are fine, but they cannot be presented as doctrine because the Church has not formally defined them. The limbo of infants is one of the greatest examples of this. Putting all theories aside, the Catechism of the Catholic Church simply says that we should entrust the souls of children who have died without Baptism to the mercy of God. “As regards children who have died without Baptism, the Church can only entrust them to the mercy of God, as she does in her funeral rites for them. Indeed, the great mercy of God who desires that all men should be saved, and Jesus’ tenderness toward children which caused him to say, “Let the children come to me, do not hinder them,” allow us to hope that there is a way of salvation for children who have died without Baptism. All the more urgent is the Church’s call not to prevent little children coming to Christ through the gift of holy Baptism.”[v] The word “limbo” regarding the limbo of infants is not found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Search: Call to Baptism
Why did Lazarus end up in “Heaven”? Why does the Rich man end up in Hell? Many people would be quick to say Lazarus was in Heaven because he was poor and the Rich man was in Hell because he was rich, but this is wrong. “Lazarus was received into Heaven because of his humility and not because of his poverty. Wealth itself was not what kept the rich man from eternal bliss. His punishment was for selfishness and disloyalty.”[vi] “The Rich man did nothing wrong as he amassed his fortune. He was not responsible for the wretched poverty of Lazarus, at least not in any direct way…He lived for himself as if God did not exist.” Since he did not think of God he thought little to nothing of Lazarus. This was his sin; “He did not see Lazarus. He could have cared for Lazarus if he had not been so selfish.”[vii]
What is selfishness? Selfish is “lacking consideration for others; concerned chiefly with one’s own personal profit or pleasure.”[viii] The root sin of selfishness is Pride. Pride is “an inordinate esteem of oneself. It is inordinate because it is contrary to the truth….It despises others and, depending on its perversity, even looks down upon God.”[ix] The man showed signs of pride by completely ignoring Lazarus and ignoring God. “Nowhere does Christ condemn the mere possession of earthly good as such. Instead, he pronounces every harsh word against those who use their possessions in a selfish way, without paying attention to the needs of other…”[x] How else did the man show selfishness and pride?
How we to live our lives? We should live life as if we are the rich man’s brothers; the one’s whom the rich man wants to come back and warn. The rich man says, “Then I beg you, father, send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment.” The rich man is no longer in the world, yet he now sees the world for what it is. He does not want his brothers to cling to the world and thus make the same mistake that he made. Saint Paul says, “Be not conformed to this world.”[xi]
What do we mean by “world”? By world we mean, “the false maxims [teachings] of the world, and the society of those who love the vanities, riches, and pleasures of this world better than God.”[xii] We are called to live a life of detachment from the things of this world, a detachment from vanities, riches, pleasures that keep us from God and false teachings. What are some examples of the false teachings of the world? What are some vanities, riches, and pleasures which we tend to love more than God?
Search: Detachment from things
Jesus teaches us “It is better to give than to receive.”[xiii] We must remember that God will never be out done in His generosity. If we live a life of ignoring everyone else we will ignore God. If we ignore God our actions have consequences. “Christians must not sit idly by as the tide of materialism sweeps over our entire culture. Nor should we become entrapped by a purely economic vision of the world.”[xiv]
How are we supposed to help the poor? The easiest thing to do is to never ignore them. The next step is to see the people around us as our brothers and sisters in Christ. When we do this we are able to not look solely on the economic hardships of the person, but the well being of their soul. The next step is to pray for those who suffer. When we pray the Our Father we say, “Give us this day our daily bread…”. However, when we ask for bread we come to realize we are dependent on God to provide this for us, and the fact that there are many people out there that do not have bread. “But the presence of those who hunger because they lack bread opens up another profound meaning of this petition. The drama of hunger in the world calls Christians who pray sincerely to exercise responsibility toward their brethren, both in their personal behavior and in their solidarity with the human family. This petition of the Lord’s Prayer cannot be isolated from the parables of the poor man Lazarus and of the Last Judgment.”[xv]
Search: Love for the Poor
It does not matter how rich or how poor we are economically if we do not possess God then we are dead. Saint Augustine says, “For what do we possess if we possess not God.” When we rely on God and detach ourselves of this world we can begin to understand the beauty of God and a beauty of charity to our neighbor. “We will be able to live solidarity with those who suffer, with the poor and the sick, with the marginalized and the oppressed. Our sensitivity will grow. It will not be so hard for us to see Jesus Christ in the needy person in front of us. It is Christ who speaks to us those memorable words: ‘As long as you did it for these the least of my brethren, you did it for me’ (Matt. 25:40). These will be our credentials on the day of judgment. We will all understand at that time that Heaven is reserved for those who loved their brothers in deed and in truth.”[xvi]
Love of the poor is not only required of the Christian, but poverty is to be respected for poverty is the means in which God reveals Himself fully to man. Today’s Gospel verse reads, “Though our Lord Jesus Christ was rich, he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.”[xvii]
How does it feel to live in service of God and man? Saint Augustine says it best in his writings, “How lovely I suddenly found it, to be free from the glamour of those vanities, so that now it was a joy to renounce what I had been so much afraid to lose. For you cast them out of me, O true and supreme Loveliness, you cast them out of me and took their place instead, you who are sweeter than all pleasure, yet not to mere flesh and blood; brighter than all light, yet deeper within than any secret; loftier than all honour, but not to those who are high and mighty in their own estimation.”[xviii]
[i] Hardon, Modern Catholic Dictionary, pg. 6
[ii] Catechism of the Council of Trent, I, 6, 3
[iii] Hardon, Modern Catholic Dictionary, pg. 319-320
[iv] Hardon, Modern Catholic Dictionary, pg. 319
[v] Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1261
[vi] St. Augustine, Sermon 24,3
[vii] Fernandez, In Conversation with God 21.1
[viii] Webster’s Dictionary
[ix] Hardon, Modern Catholic Dictionary, pg. 437
[x] John Paul II, Homily in Yankee Stadium, 2 October 1979
[xi] Rom. 12:2
[xii] The Penny Catechism
[xiii] Acts 20:25
[xiv] Fernandez, In Conversation with God 21.2
[xv] CCC 2831
[xvi] A. Fuentes, the Christian Meaning of Wealth, Madrid 1988
[xvii] 2 Corinithians 8:9
[xviii] St. Augustine, Confessions, 9, 1, 1