When I was still working as a call center agent, I would often get excited whenever a national holiday was approaching. It was not because I would have an additional rest day from work, but because I would get paid twice if I would come to work. Earning money became my priority back then and sometimes I would come to work even on Sundays, which supposedly was my rest day. I chose not to attend the mass at times when the company needed additional workforce and it meant I could earn extra money. There were times I skipped observing Holy Thursdays and Good Fridays, days sacred for us Catholics, because I wanted to earn more. I was too focused on material things and how to secure my future. I had so many plans to establish a better life for myself and possess many riches.

Like the man in today’s Gospel parable, I also busied myself with worldly things. I thought that after I had achieved all these things, I could just relax, eat, drink, and be merry. I was too attached to my earthly goals so much so that I was even willing to sacrifice my relationship with God. I forgot that all these things are nothing if I am not attached to the Lord.

The Gospel today reminds me not to fall into the temptation of acquiring too many possessions. I am reminded to see clearly that the most important treasure that I need to possess in life is Jesus, only Jesus! At the end of this life, it is not what I possess that will matter, but how I lived my life like that of Jesus.

By: Sem. Ericson Y. Austria

Today’s Gospel

Luke 12: 13-21

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus,
“Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”
He replied to him,
“Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”
Then he said to the crowd,
“Take care to guard against all greed,
for though one may be rich,
one’s life does not consist of possessions.”

Then he told them a parable.
“There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest.
He asked himself, ‘What shall I do,
for I do not have space to store my harvest?’
And he said, ‘This is what I shall do:
I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones.
There I shall store all my grain and other goods
and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you,
you have so many good things stored up for many years,
rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’
But God said to him,
‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you;
and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’
Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves
but are not rich in what matters to God.”