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88 Patristics and Catholic Social Thought entrance, according to Jerome, which suggests he connected the reference to Paradise with the decision to close off access to Eden (cf. Gen 3). After the resurrection, Christ shall reopen it and the saints may go in. Thus, according to Jerome, the events of the story took place in Hades, where Abraham, Moses, and the prophets still then resided. Lazarus had found a place of rest in the bosom of Abraham while in Hades. The rich man had found no one to comfort him there, and so was tormented. Yet, now, suffice it to say, Jerome had gotten himself into an interpretation of the biblical passage that is unduly constraining. He is obliged to explain how the rich man and Lazarus can be experiencing different realities in Hades even while being able to see and talk with one another. Also, if Jerome is right, ought we not to expect that the rich man’s torments will only increase after the final judgment day when he moves from Hades to Hell? The rich man seems to be suffering so much right now, but Jerome’s interpretation required the audience to conclude the rich man will suffer even more once he has been formally judged and condemned. This play with the time elements invites Jerome to offer a parable of his own making to explain the truth of the rich man’s preand postjudgment day torments. He told the story of a thief awaiting trial in prison. Jerome explained prisoners like such a thief already suffer the torments of life in prison—“the darkness, filth, hunger, creaking of chains, groaning of the fettered, weeping of those who are with him.”87 Jerome then added that, although the torments of prison are bad enough, they only served to prepare the thief for the worse punishments to come following his trial and condemnation by a judge. The thief dreads the future torments for he knows that they will be worse than what he is experiencing now. This, according to Jerome, was the state of the rich man in Hades. He was tormented by the fear of the punishments that surely awaited him following the day of judgment. The pains of this torment were so bad, in fact, that the rich man already in Hades asked for relief from the hand of Lazarus . Having completed now what he started at the beginning of the homily, Jerome was satisfied that he had said enough and concluded the homily. An “Authorial Intent” Model 89 Social Thought of the Homily In the course of the homily, Jerome made at least three socioethical arguments. First and foremost, he promoted the right use of superfluous wealth. Like Asterius, Jerome believed that it was okay to have wealth so long as a person willingly distributed to the needy that which is superfluous, although his definition of superfluous was more narrowly defined than what was discussed in the previous chapter.88 Whereas other authors, Asterius included, had argued that superfluous wealth is that which is beyond what you need, Jerome here suggested superfluous wealth is that which you would otherwise waste. Jerome told his audience, “Why do you save what is superfluous to your pleasures? Give in alms to your own member what you waste. I am not telling you to throw away your wealth. What you throw out, the crumbs from your table, offer as alms.”89 To Jerome , the heart of the rich man’s problem was pride. To a prideful man, there is no such thing as superfluous wealth; all wealth is merited . Pride in one’s wealth and social standing manifests itself in disdain for the lives and fortunes of others. Pride looks down on those who do not achieve similar or proportional levels of success. It disdains those who try to meet their needs in ways (e.g., by begging) other than the ways in which the rich person met his or her needs. Moreover, this disdain takes no account of the abilities or disabilities of those who are the objects of scorn. The rich man paid heed neither to Lazarus’s hunger nor to his incapacitating illness, both of which surely prevented his ability to work. Besides all this, the social ideas at the time all but doomed beggars like Lazarus to an early death, and this fact alone probably comforted the rich man in knowing that he would not have to bear Lazarus’s appeals for help for too...

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