October 20, 2022 – Thursday 29^th Week in Ordinary Time

Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102022.cfm)

Do we long to be confident, to have a strong inner-self and to be stable in our relationships? We know that we all experience different hardships and difficulties that could shake us, terrify us and bring us into desperation. Aside from family problems, internal-personal conflicts, love-life heartbreaks, work-related issues, we could also suffer from societal concerns such poverty, injustice, abuses, corruption, persecution and oppression. As we experience one or more of these issues and concerns, we desire to overcome and outgrow these. Such desire must have come also from our inner desire to live life well and fully with our community.

This was the prayer and the longing for Paul expressed in his letter to the Ephesians. To be confident, to be secured in our relationships and to have a strong inner self, is to be rooted and grounded in love, as Paul has told us. Yes, Paul reminded and called the Christians in Ephesus because of the threat of being carried away by the evils and corruption of the political powers in the city of Ephesus. The Christians seemed to be overwhelmed by this problem in their community. Thus, Paul’s intervention was to bring them closer again to that love of Christ who is their true power and strength as a Christian community. Indeed, it is only in being rooted and grounded in the love of Christ and for one another, that each one’s inner self is to be filled with all the fullness of God.

What does Paul mean then of being rooted? Paul used this image that we find in nature as the roots of a tree makes one to find nourishment, stability, and source of abundance. This is how Paul invites us to be rooted in the love of Christ so that we may take root in that love and find what truly nourishes us, what is truly constant as well as finding abundance of grace.

As roots take time to go deeper into the soil and find the abundance of life, let us also allow ourselves to take our roots in our relationship with Christ by being faithful in our prayers, by seeking the grace in our sacraments, and by being supported by the company of our friends and community.

What does Paul also mean of being grounded? Paul employed the image like that of a building that finds strength and balance by being grounded on a firm foundation. Paul reminds us also to make the love of Christ as the very foundation of our inner self, of our relationships and of everything that we do and we have.

As a good building grounds itself on a good foundation, let us also allow ourselves to be grounded in that constant and unconditional love of Jesus for us. Though we are all underserving, yet, the Lord desires to love us that we may have the fullness of God in our life. Let us be grounded in the love of Christ by being fully embracing that love and not doubting it, by being loving ourselves and not just murmur about it, and by being convinced of this love and not just thinking about it intellectually. Kabay pa.