Today we have had two readings, set forth by two evangelists, recited in such a way that your understanding might keep pace with our sermon and that hidden things might be laid open. From what follows you shall hear why the occasion of the rising of Lazarus has compelled us to make mention of another Lazarus: for now we are eager to bring forward into the midst and to set before you the astonishing turns of the inhuman rich man and the poor man Lazarus, their dreadful reversals, their conditions much to be lamented. For the rich man, who scorned to hear the poor man who shared his lot while we are present here, did not deserve in the evils to come to find a poor man who would have pity on him; nor did he, burning, receive the refreshment of water, who denied to the poor man, feverish with hunger, the refreshment of bread.
'When he was in torments,' it says, 'he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom' (Luke 16). Now, without cost, he looks up at Lazarus, who before disdained to look down upon Lazarus below. Of such men the prophet said: 'They have set their eyes to cast them down to the earth' (Ps. 16). 'When he was in torments.' The punishment pierces him whom no repentance had pricked, and the torments vex him whom the wounds of Lazarus did not move; nor without cause does he feel the stings of the punishments, who wallowed ungratefully in purple. 'He saw Abraham afar off.' Abraham was far from him, to whom the poor man had not been near.
He saw Abraham, a sharer of riches yet without any share of inhumanity; and Abraham was rich, yet richer in humanity than in wealth, whereas you, in your inhumanity, proved greater than your own riches. Abraham, a stranger to himself, was a fellow-citizen of guests; you, possessing palaces, gave no roof to the poor man. Abraham, while he received servants, so received the Lord, and, setting out bread for all men, welcomed the very Lord to his table; you, while you deny crumbs to a single poor man, have lost a drop of refreshment. 'And crying out, he said.' So he cries there who here scorned to hear those who cried; there the voice is empty, here the outcry is vain. Hear the prophet saying: 'But in hell, who shall confess to thee?' (Ps. 6). In hell, what place is there for mercy?
In the torments, what hedge of pardon is there? And in the hour of sentence, who looks for a time of indulgence? 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me.' Cruel son, what mercy do you ask, which you yourself denied to the poor man by refusing it to you? 'And send Lazarus.' Wretched son, if Lazarus had come to your table, you would not have come to this reclining-place. 'That he may dip the tip of his finger in water.' He who closes his hand to the poor man thus begs the alms of a finger's tip, and he thirsts for a drop of water who shut up whole lakes of wine lest he give a drop. 'That he may dip the tip of his finger.' He who did not give his riches by having mercy on the poor man thus diminishes mercy for himself. 'And cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.'
As though the rest of his body were free from the burning: but the tongue burns more, which neglected to command that mercy be shown; the tongue feels the greater fire, which cursed the poor man and gainsaid mercy; the tongue is foremost in the torments, which, by disparaging the poor man, blasphemed the poor man's Author. But let us now hear what Abraham answered. 'Son,' he says, 'remember that thou didst receive good things in thy lifetime, and Lazarus likewise evil.' Let no one, hearing this, suppose that the rich man received good things in return for good; for here he is all the more guilty, in that, when he had received good things from God in return for evil, he scorned to render good things to God for our sake. For out of such great riches he gave neither food to the poor man, nor paid to God a sacrifice by even the smallest offering.
But the poor man, rich in wounds, naked in wealth, stripped of body, clothed in punishments, offered continually to God as a sacrifice his soul, which alone the wounds did not hold captive. Hence it is that he receives rest in place of sorrows, glory for reproach, honour for insults, favour for contempt, immortality for punishments, rewards for wounds, a fountain of refreshment for thirst, the everlasting delights of the heavenly table for hunger; and him whom the rich man's corner did not receive, the bosom of divine consolation encloses.
You, rich man, who once shone in purple, now be covered in filth; instead of scarlet be clothed in flames; instead of a soft couch endure the hardships of torments; instead of dainty dishes feast on punishments; make up for your abundance by want; digest your drunkenness with thirst; instead of perfumes be sprinkled with stench: and you to whom the attendants of pleasure once stood by, let the ministries of punishments now stand by you, since it was thus that, by despising the poor man, you changed your lot. And Abraham added, saying: 'In all these things, between us and you a great chasm is fixed, so that they who wish to pass from here to you cannot, nor to cross from there to us' (Luke 16). By saying so, he declares that both the just and the unjust, before the coming of the Lord, were among the powers below, and he reveals that they were separated only by places, not divided by regions.
But after the Lord, rising from the dead, opened hell, laid open the heavens, unbarred the gates of paradise, He granted to the saints to enter the rest of paradise and to attain to the glory of heaven. Whoever thus believes this understands what Christ, in coming, bestowed upon mortals. Foolishly, therefore, does the rich man suppose that places are changed among the powers below, since here, by acting well or ill, a man appoints for himself there the term either of punishment or of rest. Foolish in life, the rich man is found more foolish in punishment; and he who knew not the season of his goods, wretched man, does not recognize the season of his evils either. 'I beseech thee, father.' Now you beseech; now is your time for suffering, not for beseeching. 'I beseech thee, father.' What? 'That thou wouldst send Lazarus into my father's house.'
Before, Lazarus lay well at that gate, where by his hunger he fixed the marks of your inhumanity, where he wreathed your doorposts with his own ulcers, where with his own discharge he painted your crumbs. Endure, then, that the turns should stand; now lay aside your deceits; it is plain that you cannot bear to see Lazarus thus: it is known, it is known, that the felicity of Lazarus torments you more than the burning of Gehenna. Abraham answered: 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.' That is to say: if Moses, who ground the kingdoms of Egypt with the elements warring on his side (Exod. 7), who dried up the sea (Exod. 14), who hardened the waves, who turned the stones into streams (Exod. 17), who covered the sun with a cloud, who lit up the night with light (Exod. 13), who made heaven rain down flesh and bedew bread (Num.
11), they not only did not hear, but even sought to kill him, will they deign to hear Lazarus, whom as many wounds hedge about as the mighty deeds that girded Moses? Suffer me too to feel for what I begot, and do you suffer the things you did. 'No, father Abraham.' Truly, not father, for he was not Abraham's son, but Gehenna's. 'No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead go to them, they will do penance.' This the rich man says out of the heart of all; this he asks out of the desires of all; this he speaks out of the vows of all worldly men; for we are all accustomed to murmur: 'Oh, if only someone would come from the dead and report here what is done there, all would believe him.' Certainly, so that the doubters might say: Who has come from there, whence no one comes? That there is anyone after death, who shall prove it?
We speak of things heard; we perceive things suggested by sayings: for what truth faith may hold is sunk in the deep. But that we speak thus out of faithlessness, not out of ignorance, since we so believe, today's reading which followed from the blessed evangelist John has shown. For just as the rich man asks, so God, in place of Lazarus, sent Lazarus. But what the one who was sent, the one longed for, the one rising again accomplished, hear with patience. 'The chief priests took counsel,' it says, 'that they might kill Lazarus, because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus' (John 12). As though for this the longed-for one had come, that he might endure the perils of a repeated death. They will not, they will not report the things seen, who wish the things heard not to be believed.
We know, we know, that life is prepared for the good and torments are made ready for the wicked: but while, caught by vices, we do not wish the time of virtues to come, we feign not to know what we know; and after death, what there may be, we do not wish anyone to come from the powers below to tell us, though Christ, coming from heaven and Himself returning from the powers below, has both taught by word and confirmed by example what remains for the good in heaven and what awaits the wicked in hell. But perhaps for this reason we neither believe these things nor wish Christ to come, because we do not wish to pass out of the world; nay, not because we do not wish to pass out of the world, but because we grieve to have our vices pass away. Christ came not to put life to flight, but death; to put death to flight, not life; to recall the world, not to take it away; to destroy vices, not to destroy His own creature.