Lazarus and Dives (The Rich Man and Lazarus), Miniature from the Codex Aureus of Echternach
(c. 1035–1040), Ink and pigments on parchment, Germanisches Nationalmuseum (Nuremberg)

Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings begins almost as a whisper, a single line stretching toward the unbearable. The parable of Lazarus is written in the same tone: slow, haunting, impossible to ignore once you truly listen. The Gospel places two lives side by side. One draped in purple and linen, satisfied with daily feasts. The other abandoned at the gate, covered in sores, longing for crumbs. The scandal is not excess on one side or hunger on the other, but the silence that flows between them. A silence made of doors never opened, words never spoken, compassion never risked. This is where Scripture cuts deeper than statistics. Poverty is not an abstract number but a Lazarus waiting at the threshold of our own homes and routines. To ignore him is to choose deafness—to let music play in the banquet hall while the silence outside swells like Barber’s lament. Literature, too, warns us of this blindness. In The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky puts into Father Zosima’s mouth the unsettling reminder: “Each of us is responsible for all—for everyone and everything.” The parable echoes the same truth: responsibility does not stop at my gate. When the reversal comes—Lazarus cradled in Abraham’s bosom, the rich man tormented—it is not so much a punishment as a revelation. The gulf fixed in eternity is the same gulf the rich man dug in time. What he refused to bridge with mercy has become unbridgeable. Perhaps the invitation of this parable is to hear again what we have silenced: the cry of Lazarus, the sobbing of Barber’s strings, the unfinished chord that will not resolve until we dare to cross the threshold • AE

---

St. Joseph Catholic Church (Dilley, TX) • Weekend Schedule

Fr. Agustin E. (Parish Administrator)

Saturday, September 27, 2025.

10.00 a.m. Sacrament of Baptism

5.00 p.m. Sacramento de la Confesión

6.00 p.m. Santa Misa.

Sunday, September 28, 2025

8.00 a.m. Sacrament of Reconciliation

8.30 a.m. Holy Mass.

10.30 p.m. Sacrament of Reconciliation.

11.00 a.m. Holy Mass.

---

XXVI Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario (Ciclo C)

Jesús cuenta una historia muy incómoda, y muy actual: un hombre rico que celebraba banquetes todos los días y, tirado en su puerta, un mendigo con nombre —Lázaro— que apenas soñaba con las migajas. La escena es tan cotidiana que parece sacada de cualquier calle de hoy. O de nuestros hogares. Lo sorprendente no es la riqueza ni la pobreza. Es la indiferencia. El rico no le hizo mal alguno a Lázaro; simplemente no lo miró. Y esa ausencia de mirada acabó siendo un abismo más profundo que la muerte. Dickens retrató esa misma ceguera social en esos personajes que viven en mansiones mientras Londres se hunde en la miseria. Y en la música, el último movimiento de la Novena Sinfonía de Beethoven rompe el silencio con un canto inesperado: “todos los hombres serán hermanos”. Son dos recordatorios, desde mundos distintos, de que la fraternidad no es un adorno, sino el corazón mismo de la vida humana. La parábola nos obliga a preguntarnos: ¿a quién estoy dejando en la penumbra de mi puerta? Tal vez no se trate de un mendigo literal, sino de alguien cercano, esperando un gesto, una palabra, una mano, una sonrisa. Abrir la puerta: ahi está siempre el comienzo del Evangelio • AE

---

¿Y qUÉ lEeS eSToS díAS?

---