Last week's parable was confusing. This week's story is stark and startling. A rich man dies and goes to Hades. A poor man dies and Abraham provides him everlasting comfort.  A great "chasm" (gulf) exists between them. The gulf is so great that seemingly even God cannot make it less drastic in nature. Passing from heaven to hell is eternally established, at least according to this parable. That's a complicated notion given that only one in three American adults believe that hell is "an actual place of torment and suffering where people's souls go after death." Heaven seems to be the place everyone, not surprisingly, desires to be, today and forever.  How convenient. ...

I'm uncomfortable with the parable's soteriology. (Means of eternal salvation) My discomfort is somewhat due to the fact that I'm more like the rich man in purple than I am like Lazarus. Most of us are, truth be told. I sinfully ignore or avoid wounded and poor people. I consequently take great comfort in the fact that I'm baptized and regularly seek forgiveness for my human failings. I'm certainly open and in need of receiving God's free and available Grace and forgiveness. However, evil still exists in the context of my relationships with Jesus the Christ and the people around me. Jesus throughout his life interacted with outcasts. I often don't. Such reflection reminds me that the salvation of my mortal and eternal souls is thankfully not dependent solely upon my ability to perform good deeds. Second Century Theologian and Bishop Irenaeus of Lyons wrote: " because of his measureless love" Christ "became what we are in order to enable us to become what he is."

Pamela Casey - Vatican Window - The black shrouded bare foot woman held a small sign asking for help . . . she kept her eyes cast down . . . hoping to survive another day. . . existing upon the kindness of strangers passing by.

It may be that we need to experience desperation, impoverished hopelessness, in order to empathize with people in The Way that Christ does. Does confronting hunger of one sort or another order better prepare us to understand both the realities of paradise and utter separation from God? We  constantly make choices. Our decisions require us to acknowledge our need for repentance and compassion. Grace provokes us thankfully and wholeheartedly be willing to share what God bestows upon us to those we view with little or anything to otherwise hold on to until they die. These are some of the steps we faithfully take with Jesus the Christ as he teaches, guides, and redeems us.

Blessings Along The Way, Jim+

I threw away about a third of a gallon of milk a couple of days ago. I did so because the milk was "expired." I had consumed some of that milk the day before and it tasted fine. Silly me but I'm not alone. Studies show that Americans trash billions of pounds of food every year, because of misleading food expiration labels. Much of this food is more than edible.  Almost all food, including my gallon of milk, lasts for some amount of time past their expiration dates. Proper storage and use outside of the refrigerator help prolong food quality and usefulness.

Entrepreneur Doug Rauch has come up with a clever idea to reduce food waste while feeding economically poor people healthy meals.  He's opening up a food market in Massachusetts that re-purposes perfectly edible produce that is slightly past its sell-by date. His purpose is to get food into the hands of hungry people that would otherwise go to waste. A couple of potential outcomes is that customers will eat healthier food and much less edible food will wind up in the dumpster. In biblical terms, the poor man at the gate receives more than just crumbs from the rich man's table. Hear more about such nourishment and creative ideas in this NPR Weekend Edition story. What would it be like to us to become more involved in feeding our neighbors healthy food, spiritually and physically?