The rich man was so preoccupied with himself that he probably didn’t even notice Lazarus was right there in front of him. It seems that he pretty much spent all his time on fancy clothes, rich food and nothing else. He eventually went to hell— not for being rich but for not doing anything, for not helping Lazarus. God always places people and circumstances before us to get our attention and to move us to do the good. We can choose to correspond or not. The rich man chose not to correspond and missed out on what his goal in life was. He was supposed to assist lesser with the means he had. In turn he would be helped by Lazarus. May we always be aware of the ‘Lazari’ in our lives. It seems to me that is what Lent is supposed to train us to do with the practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
It is not a sin to be rich, rather all sin is a refusal to love. Mother Teresa would say that the rich are to assist the poor and the poor are to enrich those who are rich. The idea of communism is different: it is a kind of retaliation against the rich man because he was rich. So it falls into an opposite extreme. The Catholic Church has spoken about economic systems and the dangers of extremes… it would really help society if more people (including myself) were aware of these teachings.
This is worth checking out: