After rereading today's Gospel many times, the rich man's decision to ignore poor Lazarus kept capturing my heart. At first I thought, "I would never do that if I was in his shoes" or "How could he ignore someone who was in such obvious need of help." However, thinking more about it I started to realize that I may not have a poor man laying outside my apartment door covered in sores but I do have people in my everyday life who are spiritually poor. It could be my coworker who seems to be frustrated with the way our supervisor treats her, it could be the cashier at the grocery store who is having a bad day or it could be my brother who has fallen away from the Church with no interest in returning.
When Mother Teresa received the Noble Peace Prize, she was asked "What can we do to spread world peace?" Her answer was "Go home and love your family." The Lord isn't calling all of us to rush to Calcutta to minister to the poorest of the poor, he is calling us simply to love those right in front of us every day. He has given us each various amounts of time, talents and treasures that we are to share with our neighbors in need.
Let our prayer today be for the Lord to open our eyes the "Larazus'" in our lives. St. Teresa of Calcutta please intercede for us asking for the grace to love our neighbors until it hurts.
Stephanie DeLaBruere is a member of La Salette's Young Adult Group YD:21 and was a founding team member of "Pilgrims of Hope." "Pilgrims of Hope" is our mission experience to Mexico to build homes for the poor. She is active in several young adult groups in the area. She is a Nutrition Educator in Brockton, MA. She is originally from Newport, VT
