After graduation, the relentless search for work consumed me. I scrolled through job sites daily. When my criteria remained unmet, anxiety crept in. How would I survive this world? When will I be financially secure? 

In life’s hustle, we often put our trust in fleeting things like work and money. But trusting in these only leaves us dry and empty. Today’s reading is a reminder to redirect our trust to God alone. It’s because that’s when we become like trees planted near water. We stand tall and rooted, consistently bearing fruit. 

As I shifted my trust in God during that uncertain season, blessings started making their way to me. The right work opportunities came, helping me to flourish. They allowed me to do what I love and love others through it. Truly, trusting in God gives life to us and the people around us. As we set our hearts to trust in Him, may we find life and enjoy it to the fullest. 

Tisha Alyssa Caro (caro.tisha@gmail.com)

reflect

Where in your life do you feel dry and empty? What do you need to entrust to God?

Heavenly Father, in moments of uncertainty and anxiety, I come to You knowing that nothing else in this world can bear my trust but You alone. Help me redirect my trust in You, so that I may be like a tree planted by the Living Water. Make my life flourish and bear good fruit. Amen.

St. Maria Josefa Sancho de Guerra, pray for us.

Let us be careful of our own heart—it can be like an enemy within one’s own camp. I am sure we have experienced being deceived by our desires and led into sin. However, our hearts are also the source of our passion, the greatest strength we have apart from the Holy Spirit, in our fight against sin. Let us pray to the Holy Spirit to guide our passion and help us win the battle against sin.

⁵ Thus says the Lord: Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord. ⁶ He is like a barren bush in the desert that enjoys no change of season, but stands in a lava waste, a salt and empty earth. ⁷ Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord. ⁸ He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: it fears not the heat when it comes, its leaves stay green. In the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit. ⁹ More tortuous than all else is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand it? ¹⁰ I, the Lord, alone probe the mind and test the heart, to reward everyone according to his ways, according to the merit of his deeds. 

Responsorial Psalm | Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4, 6

R: Blessed are they who hope in the Lord. 

¹ Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, ² but delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on his law day and night. (R) ³ He is like a tree planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers. (R) ⁴ Not so the wicked, not so; they are like  chaff which the wind drives away. ⁶ For the Lord watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes. (R)

Gospel | Luke 16:19-31

We are given opportunities to help make right the wrongs of the injustices done. But the question is, do we recognize these injustices and are we willing to correct them? The sinful structures that govern the social inequalities of our society must be dismantled for everyone to experience true justice. This is a difficult challenge even if Christians commit themselves to it. Let us pray for unity in achieving this goal.

Gospel Acclamation

Blessed are they who have kept the word with a generous heart and yield a harvest through perseverance.

¹⁹ Jesus said to the Pharisees: “There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. ²⁰ And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, ²¹ who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores. ²² When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, ²³ and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. ²⁴ And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames.’ ²⁵ Abraham replied, ‘My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented. ²⁶ Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.’ ²⁷ He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him to my father’s house, ²⁸ for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment.’ ²⁹ But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’ ³⁰ He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ ³¹ Then Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.’”

Reflect:

How do you uphold social justice as you fulfill the mission God has called you to do?

Read the Bible in one year! Read GENESIS 28 - 30 today.

One of the religious songs I learned and familiarized in the seminary was “Pananagutan” composed by the Jesuit Father Eduardo P. Hontiveros. “Pananagutan,” which translates to “obligation” or “responsibility,” captures the ultimate mission of every Christian: to love God wholeheartedly and to love our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:30-31). “For whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love Godwhom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20).

The song goes: “Walang sinuman ang nabubuhay / Para sa sarili lamang / Walang sinuman ang namamatay / Para sa sarili lamang. / Tayong lahat ay may pananagutan sa isa’t-isa.” (No one lives or dies for oneself. Everyone has a responsibility for one another.)

The so-called “Father of Filipino Liturgical Music” must have found inspiration from Saint Paul the Apostle: “None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord; so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:78). The rich man in the parable is condemned not because he is wealthy. Lazarus is rewarded not because he is poor. The parable does not imply that wealth is evil, nor does it glorify material poverty. 

It’s true, that the rich man does not maltreat Lazarus or revile him, but his insensitivity, inaction, and hardness of heart amount to even more. Jesus reminds us that whatever we do for one of our least brothers (or sisters), we do to God. (cf. Matthew 25:40). 

Fr. Paolo Asprer, SSP

reflection question

How can you love concretely the Lazaruses in your life? 

Mold my heart, Lord, to have the compassion for the least among the people around me. Amen.

Today, I pray for: ___________________________________________