November 09, 2015

Episode 206 - The Rich Man and Lazarus

20 minutes

I keep getting requests for a sort of "early morning Bible study" -- giving the 'treatment', you might say, to a New Testament text that stings, and also helps. So that's what I'll do for a few episodes, beginning with this one.

Christ's Parable of the Rich Man (aka 'Dives') and Lazarus is given in St. Luke, Chapter 16. It's a scorcher, as rough and sand-paper-like as anything he ever said. It's got that devastating line, that between there (hell) and here (heaven) there is a great gulf fixed, an impassable, untraversable barrier.

I believe this. (My own experience confirmed it, tho' I wish it hadn't!)

That being the case, that "when you die, the time for doing is over" (Fr. Richard Ragni), what does it mean for a person in practice? Well, it mandates a careful review of your true situation: who do you think you are, and where are you? (Listen, I'm with you: would rather not deal! No, no, no. Just give me a new DVD daily, like Return of the Fly or Billion Dollar Brain -- there are always new blessings like Billion Dollar Brain waiting for you (you'll never run out even if you live forever) -- and I'm set.

Unfortunately, I'm not set. For no one knoweth the hour.

Don't delay. Billion Dollar Brain (1967) you can put off.

Your stroke, your heart attack you can't.

Have a Panic Attack instead. Based on this podcast.

...more