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Our Gospel account of poor Lazarus and the rich man sees Luke again address the theme of the ‘coming great reversal’.  At death the rich man goes to Hades and Lazarus to ‘Abraham’s bosom’.  “These “destinations” reflect conventional imagery of the afterlife at the time.  They do not need to be dwelt on. . .  as though [they] had something important to communicate regarding Hell as a place of fiery torment and so forth. The chief point that the parable makes is that across the change from this life to the next the fixed nature of the situation remains” (Brendan Byrne).  On earth Lazarus longed for food and the rich man was indifferent.  Now the rich man is the one longing for comfort and the poor man is in comfort.  However, there now exists “an eternal fixity that cannot be dissolved” (ibid). The rich man pleads for his brothers on earth.  Abraham notes that if they will not accept the scriptural exhortations to care for the widow, the orphan and the needy stranger, then they will not change even if someone should rise from the dead. Of course, Christians see this as an allusion to the resurrection of Jesus. Today is World Migrant and Refugee Sunday and a week of prayer and action (25-30 September) to build a better future together.  Pope Francis urges us to act “wherever we might be right now”.  Fr Andrew Hamilton SJ says we can all “take refugees into our heart by reading their stories, listening to them speak, allowing time to imagine what it must be like to flee from Ukraine fearing for your life and desperate to find food and a night’s shelter for your family, or what it must be like to be locked in a Melbourne hotel room, able to see people living normally outside but unable to join them.”  Hamilton goes on to say, “If our heart is moved the way we spend our time will naturally follow.”  The Catholic Alliance for People Seeking Asylum (CAPSA) offers suggestions as how we might welcome those seeking asylum and treat them with humanity and respect. See www.capsa.org.au/nwpa_2022/ (and see notice below). To hear and to respond to the cry of the displaced can have life-changing consequences, now and beyond death.

Fr John