October 22, 2022 – Saturday 29^th Week in Ordinary Time

Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102222.cfm)

Do I feel inadequate? Do I feel insecure in one or many aspects of my life? Do I feel lacking in confidence and self-trust? Do I feel lacking in faith? The feelings of insecurities and insufficiencies from ourself could have come from our tendency to compare oneself from what others have and dwelling so much to the things we do not have. We could also have this belief when we too are constantly told that we are hopeless and that nothing is good about us. This can be very true to people especially with those who were subjected to humiliation and abuse that happened at home, at school, at work or even in our communities.

This affects so much a person to the point that he/she can no longer see and recognize anything good in himself/herself or even outside the self. Certainly, when we fall into this trap, there is a need for us to be helped and to be reminded of who we are really. This is an invitation to discover and re-claim our person and the graces that we all have according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

This is the good news for us today. St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians, addressed and reminded the Christian in the city of Ephesus of the graces they have received from the Lord. Christ who is the source of gifts, graces us individually. St. Paul described it further, “he (Christ) gave gifts to all… that he might fill all things.”

What Paul tells us is God’s desire that we may all be filled through his gifts. This is something we can discover and ought to recognize and claim. We have been graced indeed, particularly of God’s presence, of the gift of faith and of the gift of friends and community.

Hence, Paul reminds us also to grow in our knowledge of the Son of God, in Jesus. In knowing Jesus and recognizing how the Lord works in us, then, the more we shall also discover his gifts, his invitations for growth and come to know more ourselves. Knowing Jesus then, is also an invitation to our self-maturity, to our own growth in mind, in heart and in spirit. This is the significance of Paul’s hope, that we may not remain infants who are easily carried away by human trickery, deceit and abuse.

The hope to fully grow and therefore, become fruitful is the invitation that we also have in today’s Gospel parable of the fig tree. The owner who expressed hopelessness in the fruitless tree wanted it to be cut down. Yet, in the person of the gardener, he intervened and promised to cultivate the tree. The gardener saw hope in the fig tree. Indeed, there was still hope for the fruitless tree. Perhaps, the tree was not taken care of in the past many years. It was left uncultivated and unfertilized. The promise of the gardener is an act of giving more attention to the tree, of taking care of it and of not giving up on it.

This is also an invitation for us. We may come to give more attention to the gifts the Christ has given us, to cultivate, nourish and develop our gifts, whatever they are. We may also consciously know Christ more and encounter the Lord in our life and in the life of others so that we may grow in our knowledge of him and in our knowledge of ourselves so that we may have our fill and the fullness and fruitfulness of life. Kabay pa.