In today’s Gospel Jesus tells the well-known story of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man is not condemned for having possessions but because he does not hear the cry of the poor. Specifically, he does not see the poor man Lazarus lying at his door. His possessions and his luxuries have blinded him so that he fails to see the beggar at his gate. While he dines “sumptuously each day” the poor man Lazarus longs for the “the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table.”
In today’s first reading the prophet Jeremiah proclaims the word of the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord.” Like the rich man in the Gospel this man puts his trust in himself, in his power and in his possessions. Jeremiah goes on to declare: “Blessed is the man who trust in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord.”
Both Jeremiah and Jesus put before us two different paths: 1.) trust in ourselves, or 2.) trust in God. The choice we should choose of course is obvious: trust in God. Jeremiah tells us when we trust in God we are “like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its root to the stream.” Jesus tells us in the Gospel of John that He is this living water or water of life. When we encounter Jesus, we are receiving this living water that empowers us to hear the cry of the poor and to see those who are heavily burdened. Trust in God is the true source of both life and eternal life. “Blessed are you who trust in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord.”