Even if. . .

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

Today's liturgical passage from the Gospel of St. Luke is perhaps the prime example of irony in all of the Gospel texts. The passage ends with the words "if someone should rise from the dead." We read this passage some 2,000 years after the evangelist recorded this story and shake our heads in wonder. Is there anything else written that can compare? The saying "Truer words were never spoken" certainly comes to mind for people of faith.

The world in which we live is different than the world of Jesus. However, the poor are still lying in our doorways. The print and electronic media of our day have broadened the gates to our homes and the lintels of our doorways to include the many starving and ill of our world. Pictures of their plight fill our television screens and the pages of our newspapers. Yet, like Lazarus, they go unnoticed by so many.

One of the three challenges of Lent is to give alms. Our fasting is to provide us with a sense of solidarity with the poor and to provide us with the means to aid them in their plight. Still present among us are the little cardboard containers that sit on our kitchen tables to collect the coins saved by eating simpler fare. May our Lenten hunger continue to remind us of the many poor people who look to us for aid.