Ephesians 4:7-16.
Luke 13:1-9.
God risks, wastes, and lavishes time, work, and his overflowing, grace-filled, life-giving Spirit on us who are barren.
He does it NOT because he needs anything from us,
but with the goal of enabling and helping us to uphold new life for ourselves.
If we are still fruitlessly unrepentant after his over-the-top
generosity, he leaves that to us.
To be unrepentant is to be a fruitless tree that has no place in
the orchard of the living.
In the original language of the Gospel, the word for repentance
means literally change of mind.
Repentance is a change of mind about our own selves and about God.
The Word of the Lord in today’s first reading also upholds God’s
over-the-top gifts, and calls us to a change of mind.
GRACE WAS GIVEN TO EACH OF US according to the measure of Christ’s gift— Christ who ascended far above all the heavens, that he might FILL all things.
... to EQUIP the holy ones for the work...
for building up the BODY of Christ,
until we all attain to the unity of FAITH
and KNOWLEDGE of the Son of God,
to mature manhood
to the extent of the
full stature of Christ....
... LIVING THE TRUTH IN
LOVE,
we should GROW in every
way into him who is the head, Christ,
from whom the whole
BODY...
with the proper
functioning of each part,
brings about the BODY’S
growth
and builds itself up in
love.
Going over-the-top, God the Father, in the Body and Blood of his Son, works the ground at the roots of our humanity, watering and fertilizing it with his Spirit.
For THIS we have come to his altar once again, as we
have done daily and year after year.
Let us answer by choosing to change our minds, to grow, and to
bear fruit.
