Thursday of the Second Week of Lent 2023
Thus says the LORD:
Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings,
who seeks his strength in flesh,
whose heart turns away from the LORD.
He is like a barren bush in the desert
that enjoys no change of season,
But stands in a lava waste,
a salt and empty earth.
-Jeremiah 17:5-6
In 2017, Pope Francis dedicated his Message for Lent to exploring Jesus’ Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man. Although not the best-known of the parables found in the gospels, it is, nevertheless, one of the most striking and important for the Season of Lent. In the Message, Pope Francis highlights the potential this parable holds for helping us to discern how we can best make the faith we profess real in our service of others.
The liturgy for this Thursday of the Second Week of Lent goes a step further and pairs the parable with challenging passages from the Prophet Jeremiah and Psalm 1, reframing the parable and inviting us to hear the text as an expression of the Wisdom Tradition of the Old Testament (as well as the New Testament Letter of James). Although a deep dive into the Wisdom Tradition is beyond the scope of a simple blog post, one important aspect of this tradition is the recognition that each of us has a choice in life: we can choose the way of God or the way of the world.
This is a choice we make day to day, moment to moment.
The wise person (as we hear in today’s Responsorial Psalm), will choose to walk the way of God, eschewing the ways of the world, including preference for self and reliance on human knowledge and ingenuity (see the First Reading). When understood in this way, we can see how the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man is Jesus’ own expression of the reality of these two ways. The Rich Man becomes the embodiment of the person who has chosen to trust in himself and his wealth.
On March 9, the Church also invites us to remember Saint Frances of Rome, a wife, mother, mystic, and religious foundress whose life expresses this commitment to wisdom.
“The rich man recognizes Lazarus only amid the torments of the afterlife. He wants the poor man to alleviate his suffering with a drop of water. What he asks of Lazarus is similar to what he could have done but never did… The rich man’s real problem thus comes to the fore. At the root of all his ills was the failure to heed God’s word. As a result, he no longer loved God and grew to despise his neighbor. The word of God is alive and powerful, capable of converting hearts and leading them back to God. When we close our heart to the gift of God’s word, we end up closing our heart to the gift of our brothers and sisters.”—Pope Francis
Image: An illumination of the parable of Lazrus and the Rich Man from the Codex Aureus Epternacensis (1030-1050), housed at the Abbey of Echternach
Francesca Busssa de’ Leoni was born to an aristocratic family in Rome in 1384. She was married at the age of 12 to Lorenzo de’ Ponziani and the couple had three children during their 40 years of marriage. Despite the abuse and infidelity of her husband, Frances chose to focus her energies on caring for others. With her sister-in-law, Frances visited the poor and sick and inspired other wealthy women to join in their work. During a period of famine, she turned the family home into a hospital, distributing food and clothing to the poor.
In 1425, Frances established the Olivetan Oblates of Mary, a confraternity of pious women associated with the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of Santa Maria Nova in Rome. The women were, however, not cloistered and made no formal vows, so that they might actively serve the needs of those around them. Later, Frances established a monastery at Tor de’ Specchi in 1433 and the community was later approved as a religious congregation with private vows. Following her husband’s death in 1436, Frances entered the monastery and served as superior. Known for her special devotion to her guardian angel and beloved for her care for the sick and poor, Frances of Rome died in 1440 and was canonized in 1608. Today, Saint Frances of Rome is honored as the patron saint of Benedictine oblates.
A scene from the life of Saint Frances of Rome from the Tor de' Specchi Monastery, Rome, Italy, by Antoniazzo Romano (1468)
During her life, Frances and the women who worked with her and followed the way of life that she established, chose, again and again, to follow a way that was counter-cultural, but which was also proven to be the way of God. Her openness to what God was asking of her—despite the challenges she faced in her marriage and from those who opposed her work—proved to be a blessing for countless others, whom she fed, clothed, nursed back to health, prayed with, and inspired to faith through her fidelity and boundless charity. A contemporary account of life that is recounted in the Office of Readings for March 9 relates:
God had not chosen her to be holy merely for her own advantage. Rather, the gifts he conferred upon her were to be for the spiritual and physical advantage of her neighbor. For this reason he made her so lovable that anyone with whom she spoke would immediately feel captivated by love for her and ready to help her in everything she wanted. Divine power was present and working in her words, so that in a few sentences she could bring consolation to the afflicted and the anxious, calm the restless, pacify the angry, reconcile enemies and extinguish long-standing hatreds and animosities… For this reason people flocked to Frances from all directions, as to a safe refuge. No one left her without being consoled, although she openly rebuked them for their sins and fearlessly reproved them for what was evil and displeasing to God.
As we continue our Lenten journey and continue to reflect on the quality of our disciple-commitment, spend some time reflecting on the many choices that you make each day.
However insignificant our choices might seem, are you choosing what might be expedient and self-promoting, or, like Saint Frances of Rome, are you allowing yourself to be led down a different path, enlightened by the Gospel, living as a light and consolation for others?
O God, who have given us in Saint Frances of Rome
a singular model of both married and monastic life,
grant us perseverance in your service,
that in every circumstance of life we may see and follow you.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
-Collect for the Commemoration of Saint Frances of Rome
