Lazarus and the rich man

This article is a homily by Father Boris Bobrinskoy, Dean of the Saint-Sergius Institute, delivered at the Congress of the Orthodox Brotherhood in November 1996 and incorporated into the Eucharistic celebration. It focuses on the parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus (Lk 16:19-31). The approach adopted is that of an intertextual reading: the author illuminates the parable through other Gospel texts, notably the Johannine account of the resurrection of Lazarus, thereby revealing a narrative and theological continuity between the two figures. The main idea is that the parable, far from being closed upon an imagery of hell, opens onto the Resurrection of Christ as the fulfillment of his promise. The theological contribution lies in the articulation between divine mercy, Christ's identification with the excluded, and the eschatological transcendence of traditional representations of eternal punishment.