Thursday, week 2 of Lent

Thus says the Lord:
Cursed is the man
who trusts in a mortal,
who relies on flesh,
while his heart turns away from the Lord.
He will be like a shrub in a barren land,
he will not see prosperity when it comes.
He will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
a salty, uninhabitable land.

Blessed is the man
who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is the Lord.
He will be like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots toward the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes:
its leaves remain green.
In a year of drought, it has no anxiety:
it does not fail to bear fruit.

Nothing is more deceitful than the human heart,
it is incurable.
Who can understand it?
I, the Lord, who probe the hearts
and examine the innermost being,
so as to give to each according to his conduct,
according to the fruit of his deeds.

– The word of the Lord.

Happy is the man
    who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
who does not follow the way of sinners,
nor sit with those who scoff,
but delights in the law of the Lord
and meditates on his law day and night!

He is like a tree
    planted by a stream,
that yields its fruit in due season,
whose leaves never wither;
all that he does prospers.
Not so for the wicked.

But they are like chaff
    blown away by the wind.
The Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

At that time,
Jesus said to the Pharisees:
“There was a rich man,
dressed in purple and fine linen,
who feasted sumptuously every day.
Lying at his gate was a poor man named Lazarus,
who was covered in sores.
He longed to be satisfied
with what fell from the rich man's table;
but instead, dogs came and licked his sores.
Now, the poor man died,
and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s side.
The rich man also died,
and was buried.
In Hades, being in torment,
his eyes looked up,
and he saw Abraham far away and Lazarus at his side.
Then he cried out:
‘Father Abraham,
have mercy on me
and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water
to cool my tongue,
for I am in agony in these flames.’
– ‘My child,’ Abraham replied,
‘remember:
that during your lifetime you received good things,
and Lazarus, in like manner, evil things.
But now he is comforted here,
and you are in agony.
And besides all this, a great chasm
has been set between us and you,
so that those who might want to pass from here to you
cannot do so,
nor can anyone cross from there to us.’
The rich man said:
‘Then, father, I beg you to send Lazarus
to my father’s house.
For I have five brothers:
let him warn them, so that they will not also come
to this place of torment!’
Abraham said:
‘They have Moses and the Prophets:
let them listen to them!’
– ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said,
‘but if someone from the dead goes to them,
they will repent.’
Abraham replied:
‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets,
even if someone rises from the dead,
they will not be convinced.’”

– Let us acclaim the Word of God.