The meaning of repentance is to turn to God from our sin.

Only Jesus Christ and His shed blood atone for our sins. Our trust must be in Him.

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊ 

Ephesians 4:7-16

But to each of us

Divine grace is given ac­cording to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it is said: When he ascended to the heights, he brought captives and gave his gifts to people.

He ascended, what does it mean but that he had also descended to the lower parts of the world?  He himself who went down, then ascended far above all the heavens to fill all things.  

As for his gifts, to some he gave to be apostles, to others prophets, or even evangelists, or pastors and teachers.   So he prepared those who belong to him for the ministry, in order to build up the Body of Christ,   until we are all united in the same faith and knowledge of the Son of God.

Thus we shall become the perfect Man, upon reaching maturity and sharing the fullness of Christ.  Then no longer shall we be like children tossed about by any wave or wind of doctrine, and deceived by the cunning of people who drag them along into error.

  Rather, speaking the truth in love, we shall grow in every way towards him who is the head, Christ.   From him comes the growth of the whole body to which a network of joints gives order and cohesion, taking into account and making use of the function of each one. So the body builds itself in love.

 

Ps 122:1-2, 3-4ab, 4cd-5

Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

  Luke 13:1-9

 One day some persons told Jesus what had occurred in the Temple: Pilate had Galileans killed and their blood mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.  Jesus replied, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Gali­leans because they suffered this?  I tell you: no. But unless you change your ways, you will all perish as they did.

And those eighteen persons in Siloah who were crushed when the tower fell, do you think they were more guilty than all the others in Jeru­salem?   I tell you: no. But unless you change your ways, you will all perish as they did.”

And Jesus continued with this story, “A man had a fig tree growing in his vine­yard and he came looking for fruit on it, but found none.  Then he said to the gar­de­n­er: ‘Look here, for three years now I have been looking for figs on this tree and I have found none.

Cut it down, why should it use up the ground?’   The gardener replied: ‘Leave it one more year, so that I may dig around it and add some ferti­lizer; and perhaps it will bear fruit from now on. But if it doesn’t, you can cut it down.”

 

Gospel Reflection：

Splitting

Jesus cautions his listeners about the dangers of splitting people into mutually exclusive categories of good and bad. Neither the Galileans killed by Pilate nor the eighteen crushed under the tower in Siloah were worse or more sinful than anybody else.

None of us is totally bad or totally good; we are all shades of grey, with varying degrees of goodness and badness in us. Unfortunately, we still practice this primitive splitting in our interactions with people.

It is easier to navigate a world where we can clearly label people, be they our neighbors or political leaders. However, Jesus invites us to don the gospel glasses and look at the positive potential in people.

Who may currently be either non-productive or counterproductive-like the gardener in the parable who positively sees the potential of the currently unproductive fig tree and is willing to risk giving it yet another opportunity and to work towards helping the tree realize the potential.