Luke 16:19-31 - Jezuiti

Mark Corner and Christopher Rowland, Liberating Exegesis: The Challenge of
Liberation Theology to Biblical Studies, p. 27:
This parable has led to the accusation that Christianity commends ‘pie in the sky when you die’. Lazarus
receives ‘consolation’ after death; Dives receives punishment. Is this the sort of interpretation that we
should arrive at in our own day?
We can understand the parable as falling into three parts. The first presents the contrast between Dives
and Lazarus before their deaths. The text draws attention to the fact that Dives feasted in great style.
There is not only a suggestion of great wealth (‘dressed in purple and the finest linen,” NEB), but also one
of generosity. The peasants of Solentiname see in Dives a man who gives lavish parties for his friends.
Certainly he shows concern for the other members of his family, even when suffering torment. He is not a
man who doesn’t show any consideration for others; but the others for whom he is concerned are only
those who are rich like himself.
Lazarus is described as lying at Dives’ gate, but there is no suggestion of contact between them. Rather
than being despised by the rich, the poor exist in silence under their noses. Such a situation is familiar to
the Latin and Central American poor, their shanty towns a circle around the wealthy suburbs and a
stone’s throw from some of the beaches where the rich tourists flock to soak up the sun along lines of
hotels. There is no need to put the poor in a ghetto; the rich are masters of the discretion that turns away
from evil and remains with ‘their own kind’. Just as there is a ‘great chasm fixed’ between them after
death, so there is a great chasm between them in life, but one that is created by their different social and
economic circumstances. The chasm in life is made all the more shocking by the suggestion of Dives’
generosity. He is not a man unaware of the needs of others, but his situation in life provides the boundary
to that awareness. Poverty is at his door, but it does not disturb him at his parties.
In the second part of the parable, their conditions are reversed after death. but it is noticeable that the
attitude of Dives towards Lazarus is still one of the master toward the servant, of rich towards poor. ‘Send
Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water, to cool my tongue’ (Luke 16:24, NEB). He still cannot perceive
the common humanity which he shares with the poor. They are still beneath him, whether beneath his
vision so that he doesn’t perceive their physical needs, or beneath his respect, so that they must be treated
as servants to satisfy his own.
In the third part of the parable, Dives asks for a warning to be given to his family. He is told that they have
‘Moses and the prophets’ (Luke 16:29). We find here a revealing comment upon exegesis itself. They had
Moses and the prophets, just as Christians today have Moses and the prophets, together with their own
New Testament. But there is no guarantee that the rich will discover in their Bibles a warning to
themselves. Even the story of a man come back from the dead—the resurrection of Jesus, here alluded to
in the reference to Jesus returning to life—will not convince them. Indeed, they may read the Bible from a
perspective that reverses the message which is read there by the peasants of Solentiname. They may read
a parable which consoles the poor, rather than a parable which threatens the rich. If so, even the account
of the resurrection will contain no message in which they will be able to see a challenge to their lifestyle
and lack of commitment to the poor.
May the angels lead you into paradise;
may the martyrs come to welcome you,
and take you to the Holy City,
the new and eternal Jerusalem.
May the choirs of angels welcome you
and lead you to Abraham’s side;
where Lazarus is poor no longer
may you find eternal rest. Amen.
(“In Paradisum,” traditional Catholic prayer for the dead)