WATCHWORD:
19 Jesus said, There was a certain rich man who was splendidly clothed in purple and fine linen and who lived each day in luxury. 20 At his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus who was covered with sores. 21 As Lazarus lay there longing for scraps from the rich man’s table, the dogs would come and lick his open sores. 22 Finally, the poor man died and was carried by the angels to sit beside Abraham at the heavenly banquet. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and he went to the place of the dead. There, in torment, he saw Abraham in the far distance with Lazarus at his side. 24 “The rich man shouted, ‘Father Abraham, have some pity! Send Lazarus over here to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. I am in anguish in these flames.’ 25
“But Abraham said to him, ‘Son, remember that during your lifetime you had everything you wanted, and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is here being comforted, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides, there is a great chasm separating us. No one can cross over to you from here, and no one can cross over to us from there.’27 “Then the rich man said, ‘Please, Father Abraham, at least send him to my father’s home. 28 For I have five brothers, and I want him to warn them so they don’t end up in this place of torment.’ 29 “But Abraham said, ‘Moses and the prophets have warned them. Your brothers can read what they wrote.’ 30 “The rich man replied, ‘No, Father Abraham! But if someone is sent to them from the dead, then they will repent of their sins and turn to God.’ 31 “But Abraham said, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’” Luke 16:19-31
Meditation:
Hell?
Hell? Strange topic for a meditation. In my research for A Life for Barabbas I found some interesting and, for me, unknown bits of fact, related to the idea of hell. Despite the deep meditations on evil and the afterlife in Jewish tradition, the concept of hell is not clearly developed.
For example, Chaim Pearl and Reuben S. Brookes, in A Guide to Jewish Knowledge argue: “In regard to life after death, ‘Judaism adopted a stand of its own. … Having provided the belief in the deathlessness of the soul, the authoritative teaching of Judaism warns us against useless speculation about the details of the afterlife. The Jewish faith teaches us to concentrate all our efforts and energy in conducting ourselves as children of God in this world, here and now.”
No eternal life? That seems not only sad, but, in our belief, appears to question the power of God and the existence of Jesus, the Christ, Son of God. However, I found a kind of ‘hell’ in my study of Jewish life prior to, and including, the First Century. In Jewish lore, there is a popular name for hell: Gehenna. It derives from a place where children in antiquity were said to have been sacrificed to Moloch, the pagan god.
The small Valley of Gehenna is on the south side of Jerusalem, just outside the Dung Gate. You guessed it, that is where the city dumped all the dung. But, as I have written in another Watchword, it was also the place where the unwanted babies were left to die of exposure. Clearly a very sad and disgraceful place.
However, something interesting occurred in 1979, an archaeology dig began to excavate the Gehenna Valley area, and what they found it is considered to be the oldest bits of scripture that exists in the world, more than 400 years older than the Dead Sea Scrolls. (Probably 600-700 years before the birth of Christ.) As the area was excavated, they uncovered two rolled up Silver amulets, or silver decorative pieces, that are now on display in the Israel Museum. When painstakingly unfurled, and translated, the text was almost verbatim to the familiar blessing found in Numbers 6:24-26!
May God bless you and keep you.
May God’s face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
May God turn His face toward you and give you peace.
A blessing found in a place of hell on earth. Think of that. A blessing written an estimated 700 years before Christ, the one who said, “Suffer the little ones to come unto me and forbid them not.” To what man does so horribly wrong, God can bring a blessing. Amen.Bulletin Board:
Murphy showed up at Mass one Sunday, and Father O’Malley nearly fell down when he saw the man. Murphy’d never been to church in his life. After Mass, the priest caught up with him and said, “Murphy, I am so glad ya finally decided to come to Mass. What made ya come?”
Murphy said, “I got to be honest with yee Father. Awhile back, I misplaced me hat, and I really, really love that hat. I knew that McGlynn had a hat just like mine and I knew he came to church
every Sunday. I also knew that he had to take off his hat during Mass and figured he would leave it in the back of church. So I was going to leave after Communion and steal McGlynn’s hat.”
Father O said, “Well, Murphy, I notice that ya didn’t steal McGlynn’s hat. What changed your mind?”
Murphy replied, “Well, after I heard your sermon on the 10 Commandments, I decided that I didn’t need to steal McGlynn’s hat after all.”
With a tear in his eye the priest gave Murphy a big smile and said; “After I talked about ‘Thou Shalt Not Steal’ ya decided you would rather do without your hat than burn in Hell?”
Murphy slowly shook his head from side to side: “No, Father. It was after ya talked about ‘Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery’, than I remembered where I left me hat.”
Closing Prayer:
Father, I have sinned against you and am not worthy to be called yours. Be merciful to me, a sinner. Father, I am like the prodigal son, I return to you and say: “I have sinned against you and am no longer worthy to be called your son.”
Christ Jesus, savior of the world, I pray with the repentant thief to whom you promised paradise: “Lord, remember me in your kingdom.” Holy Spirit, fountain of love, I call on you with trust: “Purify my heart,
and help me to walk as a child of the light.” Amen.
