Midweek Devotion 12 March 2025

Reading

Luke 16:22,23

And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

Devotion

The Bad Rich Man in Hell (Le mauvais riche dans l'Enfer) · Brooklyn Museum

Featuring another painting by James Tissot (1836-1902) this week.  Alas, this watercolor is not currently on display, though it lives in the European Collection of the Brooklyn Museum.  The painting appears to show the bad rich man descending into the depths of a shadowy, smoky netherworld.  He reaches up in longing, or in desperation.  The beggar of the story (see Luke 16:19-31 for the full story) perches upon the shoulder of the Patriarch.  I'm really struck by the perspective as we the beholder seem caught at an odd angle between the falling bad rich man and Abraham who is peering down at him and perhaps us?  It is an unsettling perspective.

One of the lessons I take from Jesus' story and the painting is the intense sense of longing.  Many of the massively multi-player online games I have played appeal to our sense of longing by creating a "Fear of Missing Out" or FOMO by making limited time only offers of objects or cosmetics within the game.  It reminds me of my time as a child when there were commercials that claimed "If you act before midnight tonight, you will get a special deal!"  These methods take our normal human longing and distort it, dragging it down and redirecting it.

Are we ever reflective about missing out on God's love?  I wonder about our sense of longing for God, about all the things that grab for my attention, about the shadowy clinging of past mistakes and misunderstandings that weigh down a soul.  Sometimes life can feel as if one is drowning and looking up toward and ever dwindling light.   The difference from a Christian perspective is that the Love of God enters into the depths of the water with us and lifts us toward the light.  Repentance is not the thing that is done only when one has done something wrong, but what people who desire to live out the Transcendent experience of Love do every single day!  It is an ongoing practice of orienting and re-orienting on a God who so loves the world that the world is entered into, even if shadowy and smoky, and made anew!  Focus on that, today, dear reader, may God lead you on a grand adventure even if it is a bit unsettling!

Prayer

It is truly good and right,

with all the powers of our heart and mind,

to praise you Father

and your Only-begotten Son,

our Lord Jesus Christ.

Dear Father, by your wondrous condescension

of loving-kindness toward us your servants,

you gave up your Son.

Dear Jesus you paid the debt of Adam for us

to the eternal Father

by your blood poured fourth

in loving-kindness.

You cleared away the darkness of sin

by your magnificent and radiant resurrection.

You broke the bonds of death

and rose from the grave as a Conqueror.

You reconciled heaven and earth.

Our life had no hope of eternal happiness

before you redeemed us.

Your resurrection has washed away our sins,

restored our innocence and brought us joy.

How inestimable is the tenderness of your love! Amen (Gregory the Great)