Thursday- Charity

30: And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
31: And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. Luke 16

These lines are at the end of the story where Lazarus & the 'rich man' have opposite fortunes in the after life than they had in the regular one. It's not really clear that the 'rich man' could have avoided his fate but there is an implication that if the rich one had opened his gate to the poor man that they both might have fared well in life and death.

These final lines read, to me, as a little sarcastic. Well, God has sent the prophets and the rich man & his brothers never listened how about sending someone risen from the dead?

We know how well that has worked as well. We still have poor people although I don't believe that their fate is quite as dire these days as they are described in Luke. Even slums in the US are not quite as bad as they used to be. There have been lots of wealthy people paying attention to the poor. Maybe the message is sinking in.

This time of year is good to assess our charitable habits as well as the rest of our habits. 40 days gives time to cover lots of topics. Not many of them comfortable :)