Lent 2, Thursday – Jer 17:5-10; Ps 1:1-4,6; Luke 16:19-31

Its not an abuse of the sacred text if we imagine another version of the encounter of the rich man with God. Seeing his own situation and remembering Lazarus, he begins to cry. He sees that despite the purple robes and fine linens he was like a dry tree in the wilderness. He expresses his regret and remorse before God.

And the Lord God . . . ? searching the loins and looking into the heart . . . Maybe He would find there some crumbs of good dome done during life – some traces of love. Something that means, that though his heart died, it was there before.

We don’t know. But of one thing we can be sure. During life on earth, a person can reach such a hardness of heart that even standing before the Divine Love they will not be able to even muster a grain of regret. This is why it so important to listen to Moses and prophets. To be a tree that draws its sap from the Water of Life. A fig tree dug around by the divine Gardener.

From the teaching of Benedict XVI

Fasting, which can have various motivations, takes on a deeply religious meaning for a Christian: by making our table poorer, we learn to overcome selfishness in order to live in the logic of gift and love; by enduring the deprivation of something – and not only superfluous – we learn to look away from our “I” to discover Someone beside us and to recognize God in the faces of so many of our brothers” (Message for Lent, 2011)