TWENTY SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

In a scene from the final “Godfather” movie, Michael Corleone goes to confession to a bishop in Rome, who begins their encounter by taking a stone from the fountain and cracking it open to show that, despite its surface wetness, the interior has remained bone dry. It is an image of how hard it is for God’s grace to penetrate the interior of a heart irreversibly committed to a sinful way of life.

The rich man in the Gospel parable lived his life in stony indifference to the needs of Lazarus, suffering at his very doorstep. True conversion might have come if, during his life, his heart had been broken open with compassion. But even God’s grace did not penetrate his soul.