Doors, keys and landlords

If the rich man had welcomed Lazarus, dressed him, fed him, treated his wounds, if he alone had opened the door of the house and let him in…

«The Word was written for the beloved who reads it», he whispers new words, arouses creative thoughts and gives voice to the heart that welcomes it. In front of the parable of the rich man, the thing that strikes me most is the clear division, the barrier, the distance that has arisen between the two protagonists. And to think that it all started with a closed door. Well, we are in front of a closed door and, as we all know, "every door has its key"; Heaven too is often depicted with a large gate in front of it and with St. Peter holding the keys to open it. In this case the gate, the door, is unique for everyone, but the keys are many and different for each of us: in Paradise everyone will have their own key to enter.

This also happens in other parables, in which Jesus "suggests" us how to open the doors. The prodigal son used the key of the Father's mercy to return home, while the older brother did not want to use that same key and remained outside; the crooked steward used the cunning key to get back into the master's house.

Even today we are once again in front of a closed door, in this story instead Jesus does not tell us two very important things (very clear?) but, as we know, the parables are made on purpose to make us think a little, to make an effort to read well what it is written between one word and another, asking us what Jesus really wants to communicate to us.

The first thing we are not told is that the rich man was blind:

• does not see Lazarus in front of his door, does not see all his sufferings, poverty, wounds, does not see his outstretched hand and above all does not see his hunger;

• when he dies, he does not see the abyss that separates Hell from Heaven, the impossibility of crossing it, the distance that separates them;

• does not see the real possibilities that his brothers still alive have to understand how to change their lives and save themselves;

• even from Hell - which is even sadder - he does not see Lazarus as a person, but as a servant to be used to quench his thirst.

The second thing that we are not told in this parable is the real function of Lazarus: Lazarus is the real key that can open the door, the very door that he has been in front of throughout his life. If the rich man had welcomed Lazarus, clothed, fed, cured his wounds, if only he too had opened the door of the house and let him in, now he would have the keys to paradise and he himself would enter. Can we say that the poor are the keys to heaven? No. Our good deeds? Going to mass? Follow the catechism? Will they be the key? No. The reasoning is simple, if not downright banal. Who has the house keys? The host. And who is the "landlord" of Paradise? God. So who can enter this house? God! And whoever in life was like Him, acted like God, was God for someone, the God Jesus speaks of, the God – Love who loves, clothes, feeds, covers, cares, consoles, welcomes, forgives … all for free.

Each of us has his own personal Lazarus, his own key, which only we can use, which only we can turn in the keyhole and open the door, like true owners of the house.

At the Arsenale della Speranza you are immersed in a huge set of human keys, each with its own label, waiting to be "used", but each of our welcomes is above all a door, often double or triple locked and then it is you who you have to make yourself a key, small and ductile, like a passepartout. Ask permission and slowly see the life that opens.

Alberto Brigato
NP Novembre 2022