Dialogue Saint Catherine of Siena.
As God the Father speaks to Saint Catherine: This was taught you, for example, in the rich man who when he was damned begged that Lazarus might go to tell his brothers still on earth how he was suffering. His motive was not love or compassion for his brothers (for he had lost charity and was incapable of desiring what was good). Nor was it My honor or their salvation (for I have already told you that the damned can do no good for others and curse Me because they ended their lives hating both Me and virtue). What then was his motive? He was the eldest, and he had encouraged the same wretchedness in them that he himself had lived. So he had led them toward damnation. And he saw the suffering that would fall on him if they should come like him to this excruciating torment, gnawing away at themselves forever with hate because they had ended their lives in hate.
Who would not have judged that poor Lazarus was supremely miserable and the rich man quite happy and content? Yet such was not the case, for that rich man with all his wealth suffered more than poor Lazarus tormented by his leprosy. For the rich man's [selfish] will was alive, and this is the source of all suffering. But in Lazarus this will was dead and his will was so alive in Me that he found refreshment and consolation in his pain. He had been thrown out by others, especially by the rich man, and was neither cleansed nor cared for by them, but I provided that the senseless animals should lick his sores. And you see how at the end of their lives Lazarus has eternal life and the rich man is in hell.
Poor Lazarus with sores and the rich man.
Lk 16:19 “There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day.
16:20 And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,
16:21 who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores.
16:22 When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried,
16:23 and from the netherworld (Hades), where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.
16:24 And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames.’
16:25 Abraham replied, ‘My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented.
16:26 Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.’
16:27 He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him to my father’s house,
28 for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment.’
16:29 But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’
16:30 He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
16:31 Then Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.’”
Ps 38:5 Foul and festering are my sores
because of my folly.
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