GROWING TO FULLNESS OF PERFECTION IN JESUS CHRIST

SATURDAY, TWENTY NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Eph 4:7-16; Ps 122:1-5; Lk 13:1-9

Coming to Full Maturity of Jesus Christ

St. Paul continues his treatment of the unity of Christians. The ground of the unity God called us to build is Jesus Christ, his life, death, and resurrection. By assuming our human nature, he gave our nature a new lease of life. By his death, he rescued us from the dominion of powers of darkness and sin and restored us to our original vocation to be children of God. By his resurrection, he gave us the Spirit of adoption so that we may become what God intended us to be at creation. St. Paul explains that Christ’s going down to the lowest region was to defeat the powers of evil and darkness, and his ascending to the highest heaven was to reinstate us to our original position in accord with the Father’s will. “When it says, ‘he ascended’, what can it mean if not that he descended right down to the lower regions of the earth? The one who rose higher than all the heavens to fill all things is none other than the one who descended.” He rose and filled everything so that we who believe in him will live free and be fruitful in all things. The Spirit of Jesus Christ fills all things and places. Thus, we are called to freedom through faith in Jesus Christ, into whom we are transformed daily by our communion through the Holy Spirit.

Since his purpose for dying is that we who live through faith in him should no longer live for ourselves but for him who died our death. We can live his life and accomplish his purposes by the gift of the Holy Spirit, by whom the Son abides in each of us. In addition to the Holy Spirit, he gave us various gifts for the work of God we are to accomplish. “And to some, his gift was that they should be apostles; to some, prophets; to some, evangelists; to some, pastors and teachers; so that the saints together make a unity in the work of service, building up the body of Christ.” To accomplish our respective tasks and bring about the fullness of the body of Christ in our community, we must grow in the knowledge of the mystery of Jesus Christ. This knowledge is necessary for us to exercise the gifts of the Holy Spirit properly. Hence, we see that the first desire of the Holy Spirit is to have us make progress in the knowledge of the mystery of Jesus Christ, which also furnishes us with the will of the Father. “In this way, we are all to come to unity in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God, until we become the perfect Man, fully mature with the fullness of Christ himself.”

Subsequently, we must live a Christ-centred life. We read the scriptures to have a fuller knowledge of Jesus Christ. We need to meditate and contemplate his word daily to relate all our daily experiences to him. Our joy must consist in living for him, as the Psalmist says: “I rejoiced when I heard them say: ‘Let us go to God’s house.’ We must desire to accomplish the will of the Father as Jesus did. This hunger was the fire burning in his heart that he desired to ignite on earth. He speaks of the conversion in the Gospel, which would prevent us from perishing as those who died without faith and hope in God. “At this, he said to them, ‘Do you suppose these Galileans who suffered like that were greater sinners than any other Galileans? They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did.” All the gifts the Father has given us in Jesus Christ is that we may bear fruits of repentance and holiness of life in Christ Jesus. Everything we have comes to us from the Father: life, family, children, relations, wealth, health, faith, hope, charity, etc, and above all, the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ our Lord. We are expected to bear the fruit of holiness and mature into the fullness of Christ. God made us for this purpose, that we may become like his Son Jesus Christ in holiness and love of the Father. God will cut us down as unfruitful trees if we fail to repent from our sins and bear the fruits in holiness. This lesson is what the Lord taught them with the parable in the Gospel.

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, the grace and the Spirit of prayer, that we may continually desire the knowledge of Jesus Christ and come to the fullness of your revelation in Christ your Son, so that planted in your love, we may grow to the fullness of the perfection in Jesus Christ and love and accomplish your will in all things.