Divine Justice!

Thursday, March 20, 2025

Jer 17:5-10; Lk 16:19-31

Today’s Gospel highlights the theme of Divine Justice through the parable of Dives and Lazarus. 

The parable shows that while some are blessed with a life that keeps them above their needs, others battle hard even to fulfill their daily basic needs. 

However, having shown the reality of human life, Jesus underlines how divine justice works in favor of the poor, oppressed, victimized, and marginalized. 

Accordingly, there are at least five points for our reflection from today’s Gospel. 

1.Jesus’ way of reassuring humanity of divine justice that works in favor of the suffering starts with his method of storytelling itself. Jesus only names Lazarus, the poor man, and not the indifferent Dives who failed as a neighbor to the poor and suffering Lazarus. The justice of God upholds the poor while showing the unmerciful their rightful place. 

2. While constructing his story, Jesus shows that Lazarus was ‘at the door’ of the rich man who did not even raise his eyes to see Lazarus and recognize his pain and misery. But when he finds himself in the place of torment, the rich man could spot Lazarus even when the latter was ‘far off.’ We should note that this is the first time that Jesus says the rich man raised his eyes to see Lazarus. By this, Jesus shows that the failure of the rich man to recognize Lazarus’ misery was not accidental but intentional. 

3. Jesus shows the rich man more exploitative when he tries to take advantage of the situation of Lazarus. The rich man wants Lazurus to run errands for him twice: once to cool his tongue and next to warn his five brothers. Jesus shows that even from the place of torment, the rich man could only think of ordering Lazarus around without showing any sign of repentance. Though he was dead, the rich man’s arrogance never died. 

4. Jesus weaves the story in such a way that we understand how wealth, which is a blessing of God, can turn into a curse if we do not put it to right use. The rich man had five brothers. From the way he persuades Abraham to send Lazarus to his household to ‘warn’ all his five brothers, we can understand that, in all likelihood, the brothers of the rich man must have been uncharitable like him. That is why he wants Lazarus who is ‘someone from the dead’ to be sent to warn them. By this, Jesus shows that wealth can corrupt us to the extent of forgetting our obligations toward the poor. 

5. Finally, Jesus helps us understand how the reversal of fortune itself becomes divine justice. Or divine justice is about the reversal of fortune. While the fate of the rich man is made a lesson for all who are like him, the blessing of Lazarus comes as a consolation to confirm the fact that God clearly sides with the afflicted and marginalized and always acts on their behalf. We understand that in Lazarus God was a fellow sufferer and victim the rejection of Lazarus was the rejection of Godself. God takes the suffering of the poor very personal and never fails to deliver justice. 

In sum, the parable of Dives and Lazurus is the best example of divine justice at work. 

Let us pray that we may grow more and more charitable with the blessings we have received from God. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar