Post by Eric Gajewski on Apr 4, 2017 16:50:18 GMT
Tradcatknight: Good & Evil Explained
by Archbishop Ryan, 1891
"Son, remember that thou didst receive good things in thy lifetime, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented."--LUKE xvi. 25.
The words of my text, brethren, point to a fact which has at all times been a trial and a perplexity to man. For Jesus, in the parable of the Rich Man, tells us how Abraham, speaking to that lost soul, says: "Son, remember that thou didst receive good things in thy lifetime, and likewise Lazarus evil things."
Now, this is our perplexing trial--the evil livers do, before our eyes, receive the good things of life--the wealth, and comfort, and ease of mind and body; and likewise the good and patient servants of God receive the evil things of life-poverty, sickness, distress. Dives still lives amongst us, selfish and hard-handed as of old, and nevertheless clothed in purple and fine linen, feasting sumptuously every day, and at the end borne in splendor to the grave; while Lazarus is still the outcast, despite his long-suffering and resignation to his lot; still refused the crumbs that fall from the rich man's table; still a beggar in life, and laid, at the end, in a pauper's grave. Or rather, as if to perplex us more, there is no such exact division of evil to the good, and good to the evil--this might be its own explanation; but there is what seems an absolute want of all order or rule in the division of goods and ills; the good livers being here in good and there in evil plight, the evil doers being now rewarded and now punished. It is a confusion that we seek in vain to arrange to our satisfaction. Our temptation is to give up all idea of there being a just Providence at all, and to set down this medley to the haphazard action of fate, or "luck," as we call it. And all the stronger does this temptation grow when in our own lives we see that the same confusion exists-our best and holiest years being often most full of trials, and our unfaithful and ungenerous, and even sinful years being, perhaps, our happiest and most prosperous.
tradcatknight.blogspot.com/2017/04/good-evil-explained-by-archbishop-ryan.html#more
by Archbishop Ryan, 1891
"Son, remember that thou didst receive good things in thy lifetime, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented."--LUKE xvi. 25.
The words of my text, brethren, point to a fact which has at all times been a trial and a perplexity to man. For Jesus, in the parable of the Rich Man, tells us how Abraham, speaking to that lost soul, says: "Son, remember that thou didst receive good things in thy lifetime, and likewise Lazarus evil things."
Now, this is our perplexing trial--the evil livers do, before our eyes, receive the good things of life--the wealth, and comfort, and ease of mind and body; and likewise the good and patient servants of God receive the evil things of life-poverty, sickness, distress. Dives still lives amongst us, selfish and hard-handed as of old, and nevertheless clothed in purple and fine linen, feasting sumptuously every day, and at the end borne in splendor to the grave; while Lazarus is still the outcast, despite his long-suffering and resignation to his lot; still refused the crumbs that fall from the rich man's table; still a beggar in life, and laid, at the end, in a pauper's grave. Or rather, as if to perplex us more, there is no such exact division of evil to the good, and good to the evil--this might be its own explanation; but there is what seems an absolute want of all order or rule in the division of goods and ills; the good livers being here in good and there in evil plight, the evil doers being now rewarded and now punished. It is a confusion that we seek in vain to arrange to our satisfaction. Our temptation is to give up all idea of there being a just Providence at all, and to set down this medley to the haphazard action of fate, or "luck," as we call it. And all the stronger does this temptation grow when in our own lives we see that the same confusion exists-our best and holiest years being often most full of trials, and our unfaithful and ungenerous, and even sinful years being, perhaps, our happiest and most prosperous.
tradcatknight.blogspot.com/2017/04/good-evil-explained-by-archbishop-ryan.html#more