“but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented”

We must remember that our actions have consequences. What we say, think, and do all comes around on us. When we only focus on the narrow horizontal plane of our earthly life and seek its pleasures the consequence is eternal death. Earthly pleasure “is itself a denial of faith; it is godlessness and atheism in practice, with a consequent lack of concern for the needs of others. In short it is the road to ruin for time and for eternity.”[i]
 
The things that we have or experience in this life last only for a short time in compared to eternity. We may have millions of dollars, but it will only last for a time, and then we die and take nothing with us. Likewise, if we are dirt poor, the poverty we face is also for a short time as we do not take temporal poverty with us Abraham says in the Gospel, “My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented.”
 
What does the conversation between Abraham and the rich man tell us? The conversation helps “underscored the inexorable fixity of our eternal end in correspondence with the attitude we have freely taken during our life. Those who have believed in God and placed their trust in him will receive from him an eternal reward; those who have given themselves to pleasure, acting as if God did not exist, will be separated from him for all eternity. It is an obvious conclusion that instead of poverty and suffering being signs of rejection by God, they are means he uses to induce us to seek the better things and to put all our hope in him.”[ii] The poet Robert Frost said, “What we live by we die by” or often paraphrased “as we live, so we die”. Do we live for Christ, and thus die for Christ. He lived for us and He died for us. Do we expect our death to be any different that our life?  Do we expect to change all of a sudden in the end? This is why we pray in the Hail Mary, “pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death”. Let our “now” be the same as the “hour of our death”. Let our now and then be made perfect in holiness. The Church prays each Thursday night, “May the God of peace make you perfect in holiness. May he preserve you whole and entire, spirit, soul, and body, irreproachable at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”[iii] Let us not wait for God to make us perfect, now is the time of perfection, the time to be holy.
 
Along with the previous lesson (selfishness), the parable Jesus tells in the Gospel Reading dispels the error that there is no afterlife. At the time of Jesus, many Jews and other people believed that if someone was rich or successful then that meant God had greater favor towards them. If someone was poor or had a disease, that meant God was punishing them. These are false teachings and today’s parable expresses the truth about the afterlife, “that of those who denied the survival of the soul after death and, therefore, retribution in the next life; and that those who interpreted material prosperity in this life as a reward for moral rectitude, and adversity as punishment. The parable shows that, immediately after death, the soul is judged by God for all its acts – the ‘particular judgment’, and is rewarded or punished; and that divine Revelation is by itself sufficient for men to be able to believe in the next life.”[iv]
 
“The dialogue between the rich man and Abraham is a dramatization aimed at helping people remember the message of the parable: strictly speaking, there is no room in hell for feelings of compassion towards one’s neighbor: in hell hatred presides.”[v]
 
“When Abraham said to the rich man ‘between us and you a great chasm has been fixed…’, he showed that after death and resurrection there will be no scope for any kind of penance. The impious will not repent and enter the Kingdom nor will the just sin and go down into hell. This is the unbridgeable abyss”[vi].
 
What do Catholics believe happen to us when we die? A simple and straightforward answer to this question is “We believe in eternal life. We believe that the souls of all those who die in the grace of Christ – whether they must still make expiation in the fire of purgatory, or whether from the moment they leave their bodies they are received by Jesus into paradise like the good thief – go to form that people of God which succeeds death, death which will be totally destroyed on the day of the Resurrection when these souls are reunited with their bodies”[vii].
 
What if there is no afterlife? There have been many philosophers and theologians who have wrestled with this idea. The most famous is Henry Pascal. Pascal was a French philosopher and mathematician. Pascal is know for his famous “Paschal’s Wager”.
 
Activity – Pascal’s Wager
Henry Pascal put up a wager or “gamble” for the idea of the existence of God and an afterlife. If you have a white board or chalkboard make two columns and title one “God’s existence”, and the other “God does not exist” Then make two rows for each column. One that says “True” and below that “false”. It should look something like this:
 

 
 
Explain to the group that either God exists or He does not exists, there are only two options, choices. When we die we find out which is true. To believe that God exists and to find out that it is true that He exists, would this be a positive, a neutral, or a negative? Obviously this would be a big positive. What if we believe that God exists, but when we die we find out that He does not exist and that there is no afterlife. Would that be a positive, a neutral, or a negative? The main point here is that at the very least it would be neutral because even if we believe there is a God and the find out there is no and that there is no afterlife, that doesn’t mean that people will be left with a bad memory of us. In other words, we would still have lived as if there was a God and that would have been a good life.  People will hopefully remember of how good of a person we were, and may remember us for a very long time like Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King Jr., or Blessed John Paul II. In a way, it can still be seen as a “small positive” on how we impact the world. People may argue about there being no afterlife, but in the end it won’t matter because in the end we will not exist and therefore will not be around to be angry.
 
We can go through the same steps but in the opposite scenario of not believing in God. If God we don’t believe in God, but then come to find out in the end that He does in deed exist would it be positive, neutral, or negative? If we believe there is no afterlife and no God and we are right then at the very best you will be neutral. We might be right, but we have no way of telling anyone because we are dead. If there is no God and no afterlife it can be very easy to live only for self and the short time we are on this earth. If we didn’t believe in God and an afterlife and then we find out at the end that God indeed does exit and there is an afterlife this would be a big negative. After discussion, look at the chart. Are we on the fence about the afterlife, about the existence of God. Paschal realized that if he believed God existed the result would be positive/positive or at the worst positive/neutral. If he denied the existence of God the result would be at best neutral/negative. From a mere mathematical sense Paschal realized that it was better to believe in God.
 
What should we learn from this parable? In a way this parable is a cautionary tale. The rich man is like the souls crying out from hell warning us today to have a deeper conversion to Jesus right now, not when we are older. “I ask you and I beseech you and falling at your feet, I beg you: as long as we enjoy the brief respite of life, let us repent, let us be converted, let us become better, so that we will not have to lament uselessly like that rich man when we die and tears can do us no good. For even if you have a father or a son or a friend or anyone else who might have influence with God, no one will be able to set you free, for your own deeds condemn you.” [viii]
 

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[i] Fr. Gabriel, Divine Intimacy IV, pg. 82
[ii] Fr. Gabriel, Divine Intimacy IV, pg. 82
[iii] 1 Thessalonians 5:23
[iv] Navarre Bible, Luke pg. 183
[v] Navarre Bible, Luke pg. 185
[vi] Aphraates, Demonstratio, 20; De sustentatione egenorum, 12.
[vii] Paul VI, Creed of the People of God, 28
[viii] St. John Chrysostom Hom. On 1 Cor.