Alfonso Jacildo Sr-C
Gospel Reflection
I’ve learned a lot about the rich and the poor throughout my life. When I was young, my dad took me with him to meet with a family that lived in poverty. I wasn’t really aware of what was going on in the society back then, so I didn’t really know what to expect. When we got to the area where my dad was going to meet the family, I was surprised (in a way). I saw people living in really small houses that were crammed in a small space. The whole place was really messy and crowded. It was a long walk through that area before we actually got to that family we were going to meet, and during that walk, my eyes were opened to the reality we are living in. This was the first time I saw what poverty really meant.
The gospel is trying to make us aware of this problem. The gospel tells us the story of a “rich man” and a poor man named Lazarus. While Lazarus was struggling to stay alive, the rich man lived comfortably in his house without a thought of concern for the poor. When the rich man died, he was condemned to a place of torment while Lazarus was carried up by angels to a more peaceful place. The gospel is basically asking us to do our part in helping the poor. The wealthy people in our society were not blessed with what they have so they can spend it on themselves alone; they were given these things to also help those who are in need. The poor do not have the means to pull themselves out of poverty, and that’s why they need the support of the wealthy. But the poor will have to do their part as well. They need to find a way to get out of poverty using what the wealthy has given them. If both the rich and the poor will do their part, maybe, in the long run, poverty will be lessened and the society may flourish. But everything has to start with us. We, the ones who are blessed, must reach out to the poor. If we ignore the poor, we are no better than the rich man in the gospel, and we could end up in torment for the rest of eternity.
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