It is worth while to inquire here, why it was that the rich man beheld Lazarus, not in company with any other of the just, but in the bosom of Abraham? Abraham was hospitable, and that there might be this rebuke of his own inhospitality, therefore it was that the rich man saw Lazarus there. Abraham used to lie in wait for those who passed by, and constrain them to enter his abode; but this rich man neglected even one that lay within his very porch; and while he had such a treasure, such an opportunity of salvation, overlooked it each day, and did not show kindness to the poor man, even with respect to the necessaries of life. But the patriarch was not like this. He was the very opposite. Sitting at the tent-door he captured, as it were, all those that passed by, and as a fisher casting his net into the sea, draws up fishes, and draws up also, it may be, sometimes gold or pearls, so also he, a fisher of men, once entertained even angels; and there was this wonderful circumstance, that he did so without knowing it. The same thing also St Paul with much admiration insists on, in these words: "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unawares," (Heb. xiii. 2.) And well does he say unawares, (e1laqon.) For if they had knowingly received them with such good-will, they would have done no great or wonderful thing: all the praise depends on the fact that not knowing who they were that passed by, and supposing them to be simply wayfaring men, they with such alacrity invited them to enter. If when you receive some noble and honourable man you display such zeal as this, you do nothing wonderful; for the nobility of the guest obliges even the inhospitable often to show all kindness. It is this that is great and admirable,----that when they are chance guests, wanderers, people of limited means, we receive them with great good-will. Thus also Christ, speaking of those who acted thus, said: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto Me," (Matt. xxv. 45.) And again, "It is not the will of your Father that one of these little ones should perish," (Matt. xviii. 14.) And again, "Whoso shall offend one of these little ones, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were cast into the sea," (Matt. xviii. 6.) And at all times Christ said much on behalf of the poor and lowly.
Commentary · Four Discourses, chiefly on the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, Discourse II, section 5 · Original source