Latin original · 37 verses · some words can be tapped for a gloss · long chapter, split into parts; this part covers 1463:39–1463:75 (85 verses in all)
What, then, is the confession of sins, but a certain bursting of wounds? Because the poison of sin, which lay hidden perniciously in the mind, is opened up wholesomely in confession. For the wounds of the skin draw the humor of putrefaction to the surface. And in confessing sins, what else do we do but open up the evil which lay hidden within us? But Lazarus, wounded, desired to be filled with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table, and no one gave to him, because that proud people scorned to admit any Gentile to the knowledge of the Law. Who, since he had the teaching of the Law not for charity, but for exaltation, as though he swelled from the riches he had received. And because the words flowed away from him from knowledge, as it were the crumbs fell from the table.
But, on the contrary, the dogs licked the wounds of the poor man as he lay. Sometimes in the sacred word preachers are understood by dogs. For a dog's tongue, while it licks a wound, heals it, because the holy teachers also, while they instruct us in the confession of our sin, as it were touch the wound of the mind with the tongue; and because by speaking they rescue us from our sins, they as it were, by touching the wounds, lead us back to health. For since by the name of dogs the tongue of preachers is signified, it is said to the Lord by the Psalmist: 'That the tongue of thy dogs may be red with the blood of the enemies, from him' (Ps. 67:24). For out of the unbelieving Jews holy preachers were chosen, who, in maintaining the truth against thieves and robbers who came, gave, so to speak, great barkings for the Lord.
On the other hand, concerning the reprobation of certain persons it is said: 'Dumb dogs, not able to bark' (Isa. 56:10). Since therefore the holy preachers condemn sins, but approve the confession of sinners, saying: 'Confess your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be saved' (James 5:16), the dogs lick the sores of Lazarus. For the holy teachers, while they receive the confessions of the Gentiles, restore the wounds of minds to health. Whence also Lazarus is fittingly interpreted 'one who is helped,' because they themselves help him toward deliverance, because they cure his wounds through the correction of the tongue. It can also be that by the licking of dogs the broad tongue of flatterers is signified.
For to lick our wounds, as flatterers do, is what they are wont to do when with wicked favour they praise even those very evils which we reprove in ourselves. And it came to pass that both died. The rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen, was buried in hell; but Lazarus was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. What does Abraham's bosom signify but the hidden rest of the fathers? Of which the Truth says: 'Many,' he says, 'shall come from the East and the West, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of the kingdom shall be cast into the outer darkness' (Matt. 8:11). For he who is said to be clothed in purple and fine linen is rightly called a child of the kingdom.
He lifts up his eyes from afar to behold Lazarus, because while by the torments of his damnation the unbelievers are in the depths, they see before the day of the last judgment certain of the faithful in rest above them, after whose joys they can in no way contemplate them. What they behold is indeed far off, because they do not reach thither by merit. But he is shown to burn more in the tongue, when he says: 'Send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame' (Luke 16:24). The unbelieving people held the words of the law in the mouth, which they scorned to keep in deed. There therefore he will burn the more, where he shows that he knew what he was unwilling to do.
Wherefore it is well said of the learned but negligent by Solomon: 'All the labour of man is in his mouth, but his soul shall not be filled' (Eccles. 6:7), because whoever labours only for this, that he may know what he ought to speak, fasts with an empty mind from the very refreshment of his own knowledge. He desires to be touched by the tip of the finger, because, given over to eternal torments, he longs to share even in the last measure in the working of the just. To whom it is answered that in this life he received good things, because he counted all his joy as transitory happiness.
For here the just also can have good things, yet not receive these as a recompense, because since they seek better things, that is, eternal things, whatever good things may be present are, in their judgment, when they burn with holy desires, regarded as no goods at all. Whence David the prophet, who was supported by the riches of a kingdom and by many attendances, though he saw that these too were good for necessity, yet burned with longing for one good in a singular way, saying: 'But it is good for me to cleave to God' (Ps. 72:28). Among these things, however, it is to be noted what is said to him: 'Remember, son.'
For behold, he calls him son, yet does not free him from torment, because the preceding believing fathers of this unbelieving people, seeing that many have turned aside from their faith, rescue with no compassion from torments those whom nevertheless they acknowledge as sons according to the flesh. But the rich man, set in torments, professes that he has five brothers, because that proud Jewish people, which is now for the most part damned, knew that it had left its followers upon the earth given over to the five senses of the body. Therefore by the number five he expresses the brothers whom he had left behind, because those whom, set in hell, he grieved not to rise to spiritual understanding, he asks that Lazarus be sent to them. To whom it is said that they have Moses and the prophets.
But he says: 'They will not believe, unless one rise again from the dead.' To him it is straightway answered: 'If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe if one rise again from the dead.' Certainly concerning Moses the Truth says: 'If you did believe Moses, you would perhaps believe me also; for he wrote of me' (John 5:46). Therefore what is said through Abraham's answer is fulfilled. For the Lord rose from the dead, but that Jewish people, because it would not believe Moses, scorned to believe also him who rose from the dead. And since it scorned to understand the words of Moses spiritually, it did not attain to him of whom Moses had spoken. Let it suffice, dearest brethren, that we have run briefly through these things in searching out the mysteries of the allegory.
Now let our mind return to consider more broadly the moral meaning of the event: 'There was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, and feasted sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar, named Lazarus, who lay at the gate of the rich man, full of sores.' Some think that the precepts of the Old Testament are stricter than those of the New; but these are surely deceived by unwary consideration. For in the former not stinginess but robbery is punished (2 Sam. 3:6). There a thing unjustly taken away is punished by a fourfold restitution (Exod. 22:1). But here this rich man is not reproved for having taken away another's goods, but for not having given his own. Nor is it said that he oppressed anyone by force, but that he exalted himself in the goods he received.
From this, therefore, it is above all to be gathered with what punishment he must be requited who plunders another's goods, if he is smitten with the damnation of hell who does not bestow his own. Let no one, then, esteem himself secure, saying: 'Behold, I do not seize another's goods, but lawfully enjoy the things granted me,' because this rich man was not punished for that reason, that he took away another's goods, but because he wickedly abandoned himself in the goods he received. This too is what handed him over to hell, that he was not fearful in his prosperity, that he bent the gifts he received to the use of arrogance, that he was ignorant of the bowels of pity, that he was unwilling to redeem his sins by a ransom even when it abounded to him. And there are some who do not think that the wearing of fine and costly garments is a sin.
But if indeed this were not a fault, the word of God would by no means have so watchfully expressed that the rich man who is tormented in hell had been clothed in fine linen and purple. For no one seeks out choice garments except for vain glory, namely, that he may seem more honourable than the rest. For that a more precious garment is sought for vainglory alone the thing itself testifies, that no one wishes to be clad there in precious garments where he cannot be seen by others. This fault we can better gather even from the opposite, because if the casting away of mean clothing were not a virtue, the evangelist would not watchfully say of John: 'He was clothed in camel's hair' (Matt. 3:4).
But it is greatly to be noted by us, in the mouth of the Truth, how great is the order of the narration concerning the proud rich man and the humble poor man. For behold, it is said: 'There was a certain man rich'; and immediately it is subjoined: 'And there was a certain beggar, named Lazarus.' Surely among the people the names of the rich are wont to be known more than those of the poor. What is it then that the Lord, in speaking a word about the poor man and the rich man, tells the name of the poor man, and does not tell the name of the rich man, save that God knows and approves the humble, and does not know the proud? Whence also to certain who are proud of the power of miracles he will at the last say: 'I know not whence you are; depart from me, all you workers of iniquity' (Matt. 7:23). But on the contrary it is said to Moses: 'I know thee by name' (Exod. 33:12).
He says therefore of the rich man: 'A certain man.' He says of the poor man: 'A needy one, named Lazarus.' As if he plainly said: 'The humble poor man I know, the proud rich man I know not.' The former I hold as known through approval, the latter I know not through the judgment of reprobation. It is also to be weighed by us with how great a consideration our Creator dispenses all things. For behold, one thing is not transacted for one purpose only. For behold, Lazarus the beggar, full of sores, lies before the gate of the rich man. From this one thing the Lord accomplished two judgments. For the rich man would perhaps have had some excuse, if the poor and ulcerous Lazarus had not lain before his gate, if he had been removed, if his want had not been importunate to his eyes. And again, if the rich man had been far from the eyes of the ulcerous poor man,
the poor man would have endured a lesser temptation in his soul. But when he placed the needy and ulcerous man before the gate of the rich man who was abounding in delights, in one and the same thing he both, from the sight of the poor man, brought a heap of damnation upon the rich man who did not show mercy, and again, from the sight of the rich man, proved daily the poor man who was tempted. For how great temptations do you believe this needy man, beset with wounds, endured in his thought, when he himself lacked bread, and had not even health, and before him saw the rich man having health and delights with pleasure; when he saw himself afflicted with grief and cold, and beheld the other rejoicing, clothed in fine linen and purple; himself pressed down with wounds, the other flowing with the goods he received; himself in want, the other unwilling to bestow?
How great a tumult of temptation, my brethren, do we suppose was then in the poor man's heart, for whom surely poverty could have sufficed for punishment, even if he had been in health; and again, sickness would have sufficed, even if help had been at hand? But that the poor man might be tested the more, both poverty and sickness together wasted him. And moreover he saw the rich man going forth surrounded on every side by attending throngs, while he himself, in weakness and want, was visited by no one. For that no one was present to visit him, the dogs bear witness, who freely licked his wounds.
From one thing, therefore, almighty God displayed two judgments, when he permitted Lazarus the poor man to lie before the gate of the rich man, so that the impious rich man might heap up for himself the vengeance of damnation, and the tempted poor man might grow toward reward. The one daily beheld him on whom he would not have mercy; the other was seen by whom he might be proved. Two hearts below, but one Beholder above, who both exercised the one by tempting unto glory, and awaited the other by enduring unto punishment. For it follows: 'And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. And the rich man also died, and was buried in hell.' This rich man, now set in his own punishment, seeks a patron in him on whom he would not have mercy in this life. For behold he is upbraided.
'And lifting up his eyes, when he was in torments, he saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he crying out said: Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, to cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.' O how great is the subtlety of the judgments of God! O how strictly is the retribution of good and evil deeds transacted! Certainly it was said above that in this life Lazarus sought the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table, and no one gave them to him; now concerning the rich man's punishment it is said that he longs for water to be dripped into his mouth from the tip of Lazarus's finger. Hence therefore, hence, brethren, gather how great is the strictness of God's severity.
For this rich man, who would not give even the least from his table to the wounded poor man, being set in hell, came to seek even the least. For he begged a drop of water who had denied crumbs of bread. But it is greatly to be noted why it is that the rich man, set in the fire, begs that his tongue be cooled. For it is the custom of the sacred word sometimes to say one thing, but from that same saying to intimate another. Now above the Lord had said that this proud rich man was not given over to loquacity, but was feasting superfluously. Nor did he narrate that he sinned from loquacity, but that he sinned from gluttony through elation and stinginess. But because loquacity is wont to abound in feasts, he who is said to have feasted wickedly here is declared to burn more grievously in the tongue in hell.
For upon those who feast wickedly there attends first the fault of loquacity, and after loquacity there follows also the levity of jesting. For that jesting follows gluttony, the sacred Scripture testifies, which says: 'The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play' (Exod. 32:6). But before the body is moved to play, the tongue is moved to jests and empty words. What is it, then, that is intimated by the fact that the rich man, set in torments, asks that his tongue be cooled, save that he who by feasting had sinned greatly through loquacity was, by the justice of retribution, burning more atrociously in the tongue? But it is to be weighed with very grave fear what is said to him through Abraham's answer:
'Son, remember that thou didst receive good things in thy life, and Lazarus likewise evil things. But now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.' This sentence, my brethren, needs fear rather than exposition. For if there are any of you who have received something of exterior good in this world, you ought, so to speak, to fear that very exterior gift, lest it be given you as a recompense for certain of your deeds, lest the Judge who here restores exterior goods should repel you from the retribution of the inmost good, lest honour here or riches be not a help to virtue, but the remuneration of labour. For behold, while it is said: 'Thou didst receive good things in thy life,' it is indicated that this rich man too had had something of good, from which in this life he received good things.
And again, while it is said of Lazarus that he received evil things, it is surely shown that Lazarus too had had some evil which was to be purged. But the fire of want purged the evils of Lazarus, and the felicity of passing life recompensed the goods of the rich man. Poverty afflicted and cleansed the one; abundance recompensed and repelled the other. Whoever, therefore, you are who fare well in this world, when you recall that you have done good, fear greatly concerning these very things, lest the prosperity granted to you be the remuneration of those good deeds. And when you behold certain poor people committing some things worthy of reproof, do not despise them, do not despair, because perhaps that which the excess of the slightest depravity defiles, the furnace of poverty purges.
Fear greatly concerning yourselves in every way, because some prosperous life has followed even upon those deeds. But concerning them think carefully, because poverty, a mistress, torments even their life, until it leads it to rectitude. It follows: 'And besides all this, between us and you a great chaos is firmly fixed, so that they who would pass from hence to you cannot, nor from thence come hither.' In this matter it is greatly to be inquired how it is said, 'They who would pass from hence to you cannot.' For that those who are in hell desire to pass to the lot of the blessed there is no doubt. But those who are already received into the lot of blessedness, in what manner is it said that they wish to pass to those who are tormented in hell?
But just as the reprobate desire to pass to the elect, that is, to migrate from the affliction of their torments, so to pass to the afflicted and to those set in torments is, for the just, to go in mind through mercy, and to wish to free them. But those who wish to pass from the seat of the blessed to the afflicted and to those set in torments cannot, because the souls of the just, although in the goodness of their own nature they have mercy, being now joined to the justice of their Author, are bound by so great a rectitude that they are moved by no compassion toward the reprobate.
For they themselves are in concord with the Judge to whom they cleave, and toward those whom they cannot rescue they do not condescend out of mercy, because they will then see them withdrawn from favour to the same degree that they behold them repelled by their Author whom they love. Therefore neither do the unjust pass over to the lot of the blessed, because they are bound by perpetual damnation; nor can the just pass over to the reprobate, because, being now raised up through the justice of judgment, they in no way have mercy on them out of any compassion. But after hope concerning himself is taken away from the burning rich man, his mind recurs to the kinsmen whom he had left behind, because punishment sometimes profitably instructs the mind of the reprobate,
instructing it toward clearness, so that even then they may spiritually love their own, who here, while they loved their sins, did not even love themselves. Hence now it is subjoined: 'I beseech thee therefore, father, that thou wouldst send him to my father's house; for I have five brothers, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torments.' In this matter it is to be noted how the things which are heaped upon the burning rich man are for punishment. For unto his punishment both cognition and memory are preserved for him. For he knows Lazarus whom he despised, and also remembers his brothers whom he left behind. For his vengeance concerning the poor man would not be complete, if he did not recognize him in the retribution. And his punishment in the fire would not be complete, if he did not fear also in his own kin this very thing which he himself suffers.
Therefore, that sinners in their punishment may be the more punished, they both see the glory of those whom they despised, and are tormented also by the punishment of those whom they uselessly loved. But it is to be believed that before the retribution of the last judgment the unjust behold certain of the just in glory, so that, seeing them in joy, they may be tormented not only by their own punishment, but also by the good of those others. But the just in torments always behold the unjust, so that from this their joy may grow, because they behold the evil which they mercifully escaped; and they render so much the greater thanks to their Deliverer, the more they see in others what they themselves, if they had been left behind, could have suffered. Nor does the beheld punishment of the reprobate darken that brightness of so great a blessedness in the mind of the just,
because where there is no longer compassion for misery, it will without doubt not be able to diminish the joy of the blessed. And what wonder is it if, while the just behold the torments of the unjust, this comes to them for the increase of joys, when even in a painting a black colour is laid underneath, so that the white or red may appear brighter? For, as has been said, their joys are so much the more sharpened for the good, the more the evils of the damned, which they have escaped, lie beneath their eyes. And although their joys suffice fully for their full enjoyment, yet without doubt they always look upon the evils of the reprobate, because they who see the brightness of their Creator, nothing is done in the creature which they cannot see.
But to the rich man begging that Lazarus be sent, it is straightway answered by Abraham: 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.' But he who had despised the words of God supposed that his followers could not hear these. Whence the rich man also answered: 'No, my father; but if one go to them from the dead, they will believe.' To whom presently by a truthful sentence it is said: 'If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe if one rise again from the dead,' because surely those who despise the words of the law will so much the more difficultly fulfill the precepts of the Redeemer, who rose from the dead, the more subtle these are. For whatever is said through the law is less than that which is commanded through the Lord.
For the law commands that tithes be given, but our Redeemer bids those who follow perfection to give up all things. The law cuts off the sins of the flesh, but our Redeemer condemns even unlawful thoughts (Luke 14). If, therefore, they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe if one rise again from the dead, because those who neglect to fulfill the lower precepts of the law, when will they grow strong to obey the higher commandments of our Saviour? And it surely stands firm that they who refuse to fulfill his words without doubt refuse to believe him. Let it suffice that we have said these things from the consideration of the event itself.
But you, brethren, knowing both the rest of Lazarus and the punishment of the rich man, act skilfully; seek out intercessors for your faults, and procure for yourselves the poor as advocates in the day of judgment. For you now have many Lazaruses; they lie before your gates, and are in need of those things which daily fall from your table when you are already sated. The words of the sacred lesson ought to instruct us to fulfill the commands of piety. Daily, if we seek, we find a Lazarus; daily, even if we seek not, we behold a Lazarus. Behold, importunately the poor offer themselves; they ask of us, who then will come as intercessors for us. Certainly we ought altogether to ask, and yet we are asked. See whether we ought to deny what we are asked, when those who ask are our patrons.
Do not, therefore, lose the times of mercy; do not neglect the remedies you have received. Before punishment, think about punishment. When you behold any who are cast down in this world, even if some of their doings seem worthy of reproof, do not despise them, because perhaps those whom weakness of morals wounds, the medicine of poverty cures. And if there are among them any such things as ought justly to be reproved, these, if you will, turn to the use of your reward; that from those very vices of theirs increases of piety may be heaped up for you, so that you may give bread and word alike, the bread of refreshment with the word of correction; and that those who sought one nourishment may receive two from you, while they are satisfied both outwardly with food and inwardly with speech.
The poor man, therefore, when he is seen to be reprovable, ought to be admonished, but not to be despised. But if he has nothing worthy of reproof, he ought most greatly to be venerated as an intercessor. But behold, we discern many, of whom we know not what merit each has. All, therefore, are to be venerated; and it is necessary that you humble yourself to all so much the more, the more you are ignorant which of them is Christ. I relate a matter, brethren, which he who is present, my brother and fellow-presbyter Speciosus, well knows. At the same time that I sought the monastery, a certain aged woman, Redempta by name, established in the habit of a nun, was dwelling in this city near the church of blessed Mary ever-virgin (Book IV of the Dialogues, chapter 15).
She had been a disciple of that Herundo who, flourishing in great virtues, was said to have led an eremitical life upon the Praenestine mountains. To her two disciples in the same habit adhered: one by name Romula, and the other, who still even now survives, whom indeed I know by face, but know not by name. These three, therefore, dwelling together in one little dwelling, led a life rich indeed in the riches of morals, but poor in things. But this Romula, whom I have mentioned, surpassed by the great merits of her life the other, her fellow-disciple, whom I have named before. For she was of wonderful patience, of the highest obedience, a guardian of her mouth unto silence, very zealous for the practice of continual prayer.
But because for the most part those whom men already esteem as perfect still have in the eyes of the supreme Artificer something of imperfection—just as we often, unskilled men, behold statues not yet perfectly sculptured, and already praise them as if perfect, which the artificer still considers and files, and hears already praised, yet does not cease to strike them in improving them—this Romula, whom we have named, was smitten with that bodily affliction which physicians call by the Greek word 'paralysis,' and lay for many years upon her little bed. She lay deprived of the office of almost all her members, yet these same scourges had not led her mind to impatience.
For those very losses of her members had become to her increases of virtues, because she had grown up so much the more solicitously to the practice of prayer, the more she was in no way able to do anything else. One night, therefore, she called that same Redempta whom I mentioned before, who nourished both her disciples in the place of daughters, saying: 'Mother, come; mother, come.' She presently arose with the other disciple of hers, and, as the matter was made clear by both of them relating it and by many, so I too at the same time learned of it. And when in the middle of the night they stood by the bed of her who lay there, suddenly a light sent from heaven filled all the space of that little cell;
and a splendour of such great brightness flashed forth that it struck the hearts of those standing by with inestimable dread, and, as they themselves afterward related, their whole body grew stiff, and they remained in sudden stupor. For there began to be heard, as it were, the sound of some great multitude entering, and the door of the cell to be shaken, as if it were pressed by a throng of those entering. And, as they said, they perceived the multitude of those entering, but by the excess of fear and of light could see nothing, because both terror had weighed down their eyes, and that very brightness of so great a light struck them back. This light was straightway followed by a fragrance of wondrous odour, so that, since the light sent forth had terrified their mind, the sweetness of the odour might refresh it.