This Sunday's Gospel teaches us the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The lives of these two characters could not be more different. The poor character is a degraded man who finds himself in a desperate situation, without the strength to even get up. He is covered in sores and lives lying at the rich man's door, eating the crumbs that fall from his table.

The poor character is not anonymous. He has a name and appears as someone with his own story. His name, Lazarus, makes his situation even more dramatic. The name “Lazarus” means “God helps” which is a name full of promise. To the rich man, Lazarus is practically invisible. To us who hear the story, Lazarus is someone familiar. Pope Francis said of Lazarus, “He becomes a face, and as such, a gift, a priceless treasure, a human being whom God loves and cares for, despite his concrete condition as an outcast.”

The Lord teaches us here that every person has value. It is our responsibility to recognize this value in every person, regardless of their social status. The rich man fails to recognize Lazarus's value as a human being; he fails to open his eyes and heart to Lazarus's need. The rich man fails to see Lazarus as a gift from God. He fails to understand that Lazarus, rather than being a nuisance, is an invitation to conversion and to change.

The rich man's living conditions are contradictory. Unlike Lazarus, the rich man has no name. He is so rich that he only wears purple clothing, which was worth more than gold and was reserved for divinity and royalty. The linen gave him a sacred character. His wealth is excessive. He demonstrates it habitually, dressing as such and feasting every day. Pope Francis said of this rich man: "In him, we clearly see the corruption of sin, which manifests itself in three successive moments: the love of money, vanity, and pride."

The parable teaches us that money can make us selfish and prevent us from loving. Furthermore, the love of money can make us vain, superficial, and concerned only with outward appearances. This moral decline reaches its lowest point in pride, because greed leads us to believe ourselves to be gods, forgetting our condition as creatures. We cannot see beyond ourselves, and other people do not count; they become invisible.

The second part of the parable takes place in the afterlife, after the death of Lazarus and the rich man. In the afterlife, they discover that we take nothing with us from this world. In the place of torment, the rich man dialogues with Abraham, whom he sees from afar in heaven. He calls him "Father." This detail makes the rich man worldly situation even more contradictory. He was a person who belonged to God's people but his relationship with God in this life was not existence. Of course, in his life there was no place for anyone but himself; he was his own god.

In the afterlife, the rich man only recognizes Lazarus because of his own suffering and wants Lazarus to be the one to relieve him with a drop of water. The rich man asks for the very gesture of relief in the afterlife that he himself refused to offer Lazarus in this life.

The parable concludes with a message for us. Like the rich man's brothers, we are still alive and have a chance to change our ways. The rich man asks that Lazarus be sent to warn his brothers about the danger of the love of money. Abraham tells him it's not necessary because the Holy Scriptures already warn us. If we don't pay attention to them, even the resurrection of a dead person will not be able to change us. Pope Francis commented on this detail of the parable: "In this way, the true problem of the rich man is revealed: the root of his evils lies in not listening to the Word of God; this is what led him to no longer love God and therefore to despise his neighbor."

Let us humbly ask the Lord for His grace to listen to his Word and allow it to lead our hearts back to God.