At a time when empathy for others is in short supply, my thoughts turn to Christ's Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus and the great reversal at the end of the story where the selfish big-spender finds himself tormented after death in Hades, while the poor man of the street is comforted in the Bosom of Abraham, the subject of three images I have to offer this month from the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection on view in the Bible Stories and Parables section. London-born Irish Painter Brian Whelan offers us a garishly-colored summation of the parable (left) where the rich man (resembling a certain politician we know) stuffs himself with petit fours, while the prone Lazarus beneath him is comforted by frolicking corgis. The former's fate is worthy of a medieval moralty play! In his usual whimsical way, Mississippi Folk Artist Carl Dixon depicts the moment when Death comes knocking at the door of the rich man, enjoying a gluttonous feast with friends. He has just tossed out a drum stick to the poor man, gone to the dogs, whom an angel is about to escort into Paradise. Ohio Collage Artist Cody Miller offers a darkly poignant image of the pair, dominated by a skull, where the poor man finds loving communion with a canine pack, while his wealthy counterpart is bound up in chains of dollars. (John Kohan)