Thursday of the Second Week of Lent

Scripture Readings

You’ve probably heard the saying something like, “people see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear.” I think there’s some truth to that, at least when we are in a closed or resistant frame of mind, or maybe in denial about something. Our perceptions can be influenced by what we believe to be true (or not true). Unfortunately, this can result in “blind spots” or a sort of selective hearing. This can be true in our spiritual lives as well. Today’s gospel reading (Luke 16:19-31), the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, provides us with a good example of just this sort of thing on two different levels.

About this parable, I’ve heard it said that it’s possible that the rich man did not blatantly ignore Lazarus in his suffering, but was so self-absorbed with his own comfort and desires that he did not even see or notice Lazarus. Was the rich man “blind” to him? What are our blind spots?

After death, when the rich man is separated from God by a great chasm while Lazarus is being comforted in the bosom of Abraham, his eyes are fully open. As he realizes that it is too late for him, he wishes for his brothers to be warned of their fate should they, too, remain blind to repentance and what God is calling them to. He asks Abraham to send Lazarus back from the dead to his brothers to warn them, believing that they will surely listen to him. But in this parable that Jesus is addressing to the Pharisees, Abraham tells the rich man that if his brothers “will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.” 

With this response, Luke is foreshadowing the rejection of the call to repentance even after Jesus rises from the dead. In other words, he’s pointing out that those who are closed or resistant to the message of truth are not going to believe – see or hear the truth -- no matter what they see or hear (even a resurrection won’t convince them).

I know I don’t want to identify with the Pharisees or the rich man in today’s gospel, but I think that is what we need to consider lest we, too, allow our blind spot and selective listening to prevent us from hearing and seeing the truth, the call to some form of repentance in our own lives this Lent. 

Today’s first reading from Jeremiah (17: 5-10) reminds us that our trust and hope is to be in God not in human beings/ourselves. The rich man was placing his trust and hope in his wealth and comfort, rather than in God. I believe there is a real temptation for us to trust in the things of this world. But as Jeremiah so beautifully reminds us, the one who’s hope is in God is “like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: It fears not the heat when it comes, its leaves stay green; In the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit.” I believe this is God’s desire for each of us. 

Let us pray for God to open the eyes and ears of our hearts to truly hear and see what God will reveal to us. What have we been blind or deaf to in our own hearts, in our families, in our communities, in our work places, in our world? Let us pray for the grace and strength to place our hope and trust in God so that we may bear the fruit of the tree planted near water, even in times of drought. May this be part of our Lenten journey to the cross and to new life with Jesus.

- Eileen Miller