Daily Gospel Reflection

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March 20, 2025

Thursday of the Second Week of Lent
Lk 16:19-31
Listen to the Audio Version

Jesus said to the Pharisees:
“There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen
and dined sumptuously each day.
And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,
who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps
that fell from the rich man’s table.
Dogs even used to come and lick his sores.
When the poor man died,
he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham.
The rich man also died and was buried,
and from the netherworld, where he was in torment,
he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off
and Lazarus at his side.
And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me.
Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue,
for I am suffering torment in these flames.’
Abraham replied, ‘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.
Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established
to prevent anyone from crossing
who might wish to go from our side to yours
or from your side to ours.’
He said, ‘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.’
But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets.
Let them listen to them.’
He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham,
but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
Then Abraham said,
‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded
if someone should rise from the dead.'”

Reflection

Amirah Orozco ’27 Ph.D.
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“Ernesto, how is your daughter?” “Don Alex, has your wife perfected her recipe yet?” As I follow my cousin Alma around the small Mexican village our family comes from, I notice how she notices people. She’s lived there basically her whole life, but more than knowing who people in the town are, Alma sees them, remembers things about them, and greets them with kindness.

Nothing is more clearly set out in the gospels than the obligation to encounter our neighbors. In today’s gospel, we are reminded that it is the neighbors who are most invisible to us that serve as the greatest reminders of Jesus’s preaching about the kingdom of God. Theologian Virgilio Elizondo coined the term “Galilean Principle” to describe how God chooses for himself that which human beings neglect. In today’s gospel, Lazarus is neglected by human beings and chosen by God.

When the rich man asks Abraham to warn his family, Abraham responds that the prophets and Moses have already acted as such warnings. The rich man and his relatives live lavishly, forgetting to account for the small things and small people around them. When enamored by wealth, we forget that we believe in a God who became poor and humbled himself. When we desire big signs from God, we stop noticing how God is already speaking to us in the small, minute details of life and through the forgotten peoples.

I pray I can be more like my Alma, who notices Lazarus at her gate. She worries herself about the particularities of people’s lives, and in that, she reminds me that God was in the details all along.

Prayer

Rev. Steve Newton, C.S.C.

Loving God, we ask the help of your Spirit to keep us from using our poor brothers and sisters to maintain our own comfort. Compel employers among us to provide living wages to all we employ. Constrain our greed and expand our awareness that we are all one in you, whether rich or poor. Give us the grace to do all we can to assure that the needs of all who are your special favorites – the ones who we most often ignore- are met. We ask for the compassion and justice of Jesus, Your Son, and Our Lord. Amen

Saint of the Day

St. Martin of Braga

St. Martin of Braga was a bishop and evangelizer who spread the faith in the Iberian peninsula in the 500s. He was born in central Europe and made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land before joining other pilgrims who were returning to an area in the northern part of present-day Portugal, where he settled.

He was a highly-regarded scholar—said by contemporaries to be the smartest man of his age—and preached against the Arian heresy, which was gaining ground in the region. His preaching attracted many who had wandered from the faith, including the king. He also built several monasteries.

Because of his connections to the king, he stayed in the royal court for a time, but he continued to live like a monk. He oversaw his monasteries with strict discipline and was promoted to oversee the Church in the region from the city of Braga, a role he kept until his death in 580. His relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.

St. Martin of Braga, you evangelized Spain and Portugal—pray for us!


Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Martin of Braga is in the public domain. Last accessed February 6, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.