Parable of the Rich Man and Poor Lazarus

From Wiki Maria Valtorta
The Poor Lazarus at the Rich Man's Door, James Tissot (1836-1902), Brooklyn Museum

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) stands out from other parables of Jesus by its dramatic realism. Unlike others, it features a character named Lazarus rather than an anonymous figure. It strikingly describes the afterlife, evoking the fate of the righteous and the wicked after death. Finally, it is not limited to a general moral exhortation: it directly highlights the tension between selfish wealth and the demands of the Law and the prophets, while already announcing the refusal to Believe "even if someone rises from the dead." Some authors[1] believe it is not an allegory, but a description of a reality, notably of the afterlife.

This opinion is also found in Maria Valtorta where Jesus concludes: "This parable has such a clear meaning that it does not need explanation.[2]" It does not follow the usual three-part structure (announcement of the theme, illustration, teachings), but just one: the parable. However, it is fully justified by the motivating context: the miserable death of one of His Disciples, Jonas, mistreated by a particularly cruel master, Doras.

Paradoxes raised by exegesis[edit | edit source]

The uniqueness of this parable has led exegesis to question several points:

1. The genre of the text

The description of the afterlife and the dialogue with Abraham is so precise that exegesis has questioned whether this parable is allegorical or not. The realism of the scene is reinforced by concrete details about wealth, begging, post-mortem sufferings. The personalization (Lazarus), mentioned five times, adds to this feeling and raises questions about this choice of name. Is it a realistic detail or a deliberate theological choice?

2. The "bosom of Abraham"

What does this expression[3], absent from the Old Testament, represent? Some rabbinic texts (Midrash on the Song of Songs) mention a resting place for the righteous near Abraham, but without describing such a precise geography of the afterlife. In Luke's account, the bosom of Abraham is contrasted with Hades (the abode of the dead), the first being a place of happiness, the other of suffering. An impassable chasm separates them. What reality does this correspond to? The Gospel of John speaks of the "bosom of the Father"[4]: what is the relationship?

3. The nature of the judgment

The rich man suffers immediately after death (verse 23: "In Hades he was in torment"). There is no mention of a final tribunal. Does the parable describe an intermediate state (before the resurrection of the dead) or the final judgment? Unlike Daniel 12:2 or John 5:28-29, no bodily renewal is mentioned. Some see it as the counterpart to the immediate beatitude of the good thief: "Today you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43), others see a contradiction with Paul (1 Corinthians 15:52).

4. Wealth

The text does not mention any sin of the rich man other than his insensitivity: "he feasted sumptuously every day" while Lazarus longed "to be satisfied with the crumbs" (Luke 16:19 and 21). Abraham was "exceedingly rich" (Genesis 13:2) and Job is rewarded with wealth (Job 42:12-13). For what reason then is the rich man condemned?

5. The dialogue with Abraham (vv. 24-31):

The rich man asks that Lazarus relieve his torment (verse 24). Is this a sign of repentance? He also asks that Lazarus warn his brothers (verse 28). Is he concerned about their salvation? He calls Abraham "father" and Abraham calls him "child" while noting the impossibility of helping him and the uselessness of a miracle. Does Abraham's answer deny any conversion after death?

Comparative approach of Luke and Maria Valtorta[edit | edit source]

Neither in Luke nor in Maria Valtorta's parallel vision is the parable developed in its three parts. It is limited to its illustration, sufficiently explicit to speak for itself[2]. This characteristic, as well as the particularly concrete narration, find their explanation in the context.

The context of the parable[edit | edit source]

The episode takes place during the second Passover journey, in the plain of Esdraelon Plain. Jesus brings moral and material comfort to peasants belonging to two Sanhedrins, relatives and neighbors. Harsh masters refuse their servants to participate in the Passover feasts. Doras, a large landowner, exploited Jonas, a former shepherd of the Nativity, to death after cunningly reducing him to slavery. He is the "Lazarus" of the parable[5]. Doras, his master, even deceived Jesus, who wanted to redeem his disciple, motivated by gain. The cruel master subsequently died. His son, Doras son of Doras, as well as his neighbor the scribe GioCana (Yokhanan) ben Zacchai, continue to treat their servants harshly.

This situation forms the backdrop of the parable, which speaks for itself to the exploited listening. Through them, it gives its full dimension on the terrible destiny of those who hoard wealth and human life for their own profit.

Luke places this parable last of three parables about wealth[6], but in Maria Valtorta it is placed at the very beginning. Known to the Disciples, anchored in a lived and violent reality, it will be a reference point for future teachings on wealth and its dangers[7].

The sins of the rich man[edit | edit source]

Maria Valtorta emphasizes the systemic dimension of the rich man's sin, which is not limited to indifference but embodies an active perversion of the gifts received. The rich man[8] establishes a system where wealth serves to deny the humanity of others (Lazarus is treated worse than his dogs).

His love of money (Mammon) has become idolatry of wealth. He is overcome by Pride: He "strutted in his purple clothes", courtiers "flattered his Pride", he was "the most powerful man in the country"[9]. The rich man comes to despise God and others.

His wealth has become Greed: he refuses to share even leftovers and chases Lazarus away so as "not to spoil" the image of his feasts. "The sight of Lazarus's misery and goodness was a continual reproach to him[9]."

His "famed banquets of abundance," his "pompous banquets served in the richest halls," are wasteful while Lazarus dies of hunger. "He had him driven away," probably with Violence[9].

His wealth has led him, through spiritual laziness, to the reason for his damnation: "He never understood love," even familial love[10].

The holiness of poor Lazarus[edit | edit source]

In his socially miserable life, Lazarus develops the strength of his holiness.

"Beneath the crust of human misery of the beggar Lazarus was Hidden a treasure greater still than the misery of Lazarus and the wealth of the wicked rich man. And it was the true holiness of Lazarus. He had never transgressed the Law, even out of need, and above all he had obeyed the commandment of love of God and Neighbor[9].       

He illustrates this paradoxical power that Paul will later manifest in his hymn to love: Lazarus "bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things[11]."

"He, like the poor always do, stood at the door of the rich to ask for alms and not to die of hunger. And each evening he went to the door of the wicked rich man hoping to get at least leftovers from the pompous banquets served in the richest halls. He lay down on the road near the door and waited patiently[9]."

He draws his human joy only in the company of the dogs who bring him affection and food that the rich man refuses him.

Blessedness and damnation[edit | edit source]

The two protagonists of the parable die successively: first Lazarus, then the rich man. Luke 16:22 highlights the blessed death of Lazarus: "The poor man died, and the Angels carried him to Abraham. The rich man also died, and was buried." This indeed corresponds, in Maria Valtorta's work, to the death of Jonas in the arms of Jesus[12]. But in this vision, the contrast is accentuated between human funerals and the eternal destiny. The blessedness in the bosom of Abraham for Lazarus, after a life of misery and an anonymous death: "No one noticed on earth, no one mourned him[13]." Hell for the rich man after a life of feasting and grandiose funerals: "Oh! what lavish funerals! The whole city, already informed of his agony and crowding the square where his house stood to be seen as a friend of the character[13]."

But the judgment falls: "Can human eulogy change what is written in the book of Life? No, it cannot. What is judged is judged, and what is written is written. And despite his solemn funerals, the wicked rich man's spirit was buried in hell[13]."

Immediate retribution[edit | edit source]

In Luke 16:24 the rich man "suffers terribly in that furnace." It becomes a "place of torture" in Luke 16:28. Maria Valtorta goes further in detail: this place is eternal Hell with the sufferings endured there. The rich man is plunged "into this horrible prison, drinking and eating Fire and Darkness, finding hatred and torture on all sides and at every moment of this eternity." He suffers horribly in this flame that penetrates him relentlessly and burns him[14].

Immersed in Hatred, he understands what love is. Not as a desire for conversion, now impossible, but as consciousness of the loss of the "Heaven he had seen in a dazzling flash, for a moment, and whose unspeakable bliss that remained was a torment among the dreadful torments[13]."

He does not see Paradise but The Limbo of the Righteous, because at the time of the parable "the hells" had not been opened by the Resurrection[15]. It is the "bosom of Abraham" that will become the "bosom of the Father"[16] by Redemption.

Jesus specifies that it is the "soul" of Lazarus who joined the "bosom of Abraham." It is also the "soul" of the wicked rich man who is tortured. Maria Valtorta thus introduces a distinction between the Particular Judgment and the Last Judgment. At death, each receives their retribution for eternity in their immortal Soul. It will be reunited with the body at their resurrection: glorious for the righteous, deformed for the damned[17].

Love and hatred[edit | edit source]

In Maria Valtorta's vision, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus retains all its evangelical scope while rooting it in a concrete and dramatic context that warns about the consequences of social injustice and spiritual hardening. Material Goods serve love: "he who does not love God and his Neighbor goes to hell," understood the wicked rich man plunged into his hell[18]. Also, when these Material Goods become instruments of Pride, Greed or indifference, they close the Heart to Grace and lead to perdition (cf. James 5:1-5).

This parable, like that of the dishonest steward, illustrates Jesus's injunction: "You cannot serve God and money" (Luke 16:13). But it adds a warning very present in Maria Valtorta's vision: the time of mercy is now, there is no "second chance" after death — hence the urgency to act here and now.

The narrative suffices as it addresses victims who know what oppression is — and, through them, all those who live in (or cause) those situations. But while the teaching usually following parables goes without saying, the spiritual directive, implicit in Luke, becomes explicit in Maria Valtorta.

"I would like to help you all, even materially, but I cannot, and I suffer for it. I can only show you Heaven. I can only teach you the great wisdom of resignation by promising you the future Kingdom. Never harbor hatred, for any reason. Hatred is powerful in the world, but Hatred always has a limit. Love has no limit in its power nor in time. Therefore love, so that Love defends and comforts you on earth and rewards you in Heaven. It is better to be Lazarus than the wicked rich man, believe it. Come to Believe this and you will be blessed[5]."

And commenting on the curse He had pronounced Against the fields of Doras, guilty of deceiving Jesus which led to the death by exhaustion of Jonas the servant[19], He comments:

"Do not see in the punishment suffered by these fields a word of hatred, even if the facts could justify hatred. Do not misinterpret the miracle. I am Love and I would not have struck. But since Love could not bend the cruel rich man, I abandoned him to Justice and she exercised the vengeance of the martyr Jonas and his brothers. As for you, learn from this miracle: Justice is always awake, even if it seems absent and God, being the Master of all creation, can use, to execute it, the smallest creatures like caterpillars and ants to bite the Heart of the one who was cruel and greedy and make him die vomiting the poison that strangles him[5]."

This is indeed how Doras died, foreshadowing his eternal death[20].

Notes and references[edit | edit source]

Note: Quotations from the work of Maria Valtorta on this page currently use machine-translated text and will gradually be replaced by the official English translation. Until then, the official translation may be consulted through the reference link provided with each quotation.

  1. ↑ Saint Augustine | Tertullian
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 EMV 191.7.
  3. ↑ Luke 16:22-23. Sometimes translated by similar expressions.
  4. ↑ John 1:18.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 EMV 191.8.
  6. ↑ The Foolish Rich Man (Luke 12:16-21 - EMV 276.6) the dishonest steward, and the parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus who follows it (Luke 16:19-31)
  7. ↑ Cf. Matthew 19:24: "I tell you again, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven."
  8. ↑ In His dictation of Believe August 2, 1943, Jesus calls this wicked rich man Epulon, the name of priests responsible for organizing banquets in ancient Rome. The Italian uses this word (Epulone) as a synonym for wicked rich man.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 EMV 191.5.
  10. ↑ EMV 191.7.
  11. ↑ 1 Corinthians 13:7.
  12. ↑ EMV 109.15.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 EMV 191.6.
  14. ↑ Maria Valtorta did not have the vision of Hell. It is Jesus who described it to her, on January 15, 1944, in a chilling tableau.
  15. ↑ Cf. The Creed (Apostles' symbol).
  16. ↑ John 1:18.
  17. ↑ The vision of the final resurrection for the Last Judgment was given to Maria Valtorta on January 29, 1944. This vision followed soon after that of Purgatory and Hell (1January 5, 1944).
  18. ↑ EMV 191.7. With reference to Matthew 7:21-23 | Matthew 13:49-50 | Matthew 25:41-46 | Luke 10:25-28 | Romans 13:8-10 | 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 | James 2:14-17 | 1 John 3:14-15 | 1 John 4:20-21 | etc.
  19. ↑ EMV 109.10.
  20. ↑ EMV 126.10.

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