Saturday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
In today’s first reading, Paul teaches the Ephesians about Christian community. Each of the faithful is a member of the Body of Christ and has a unique role in it.
Paul uses the analogy of the body to describe our relationship with God and each other. Christ is the head and we are the rest of his body. Every part of the body does its job for the life and growth of the person in which the head is the command center that unites the rest of the body. Likewise, we are united through Christ. Paul helps us realize that to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, we need each other.
Paul’s letter also implies that we are part of Christ or Christ is a part of us. Thus, we represent Christ. Whomever we encounter will also meet him. How do we do that? This reminds me of the part of Immaculate Conception Church’s mission statement which says “Think like Jesus, Talk like Jesus and Act like Jesus” and the Marianists’ System of Virtues in which one strives to imitate the virtues of Jesus and Mary. Doing these things brings Jesus into the world and to all those we meet.
However, unity and being like Jesus is difficult. Division and polarization not only cause disunity but also the anger, frustration, and fear that might cause us not to treat other people as Jesus would. Nonetheless, there is hope. In the parable in today’s Gospel, the gardener offers to cultivate the soil around the fig tree so that it bears fruit and the owner does not cut it down. In this story, Jesus is the gardener and we are the fig tree. He gives us another chance to do better by providing us the foundation in how we are to live. That foundation is love. The Christian community is fully itself when its members are compassionate and merciful. In light of this, I would like to add that, besides thinking, talking, and acting like Jesus, we are to love like Jesus.
May God bless you and may the love of Christ shine through you.
—Sr. Emily Sandoval, FMI