Ephesians 4:7-16 / Luke 13:1-9
The Church has begun the Year of Faith on the 11th October. That date also marks the 50th anniversary of the opening the the 2nd Vatican Council as well as the 20th anniversary of the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
These two great events of the Church are recalled and revisited during the Year of Faith to see how much the Church has progressed since then.
The emphasis is on faith and at the basis of it all is that faith is a gift from God.
From the 1st reading, we can see that it is from this gift of faith that God has called some to be apostolic successors, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers.
And those who are called are entrusted with the duty to form and equip the Body of Christ so that the whole Church will be united in the work of evangelization.
And the work of evangelization begins with the message of repentance and conversion, which is a difficult message to proclaim and also to accept.
Yet as Jesus said in the gospel, "Unless you repent, you will all perish as they did."
That is a serious and tough message for the world and even more serious for us the Church.
Because we are called to faith and given the gift of faith, then we must be a sign of repentance and conversion to the world.
Let us pray for each other, the clergy as well as the laity, that we will deepen our faith in God and be convicted and credible witnesses in the mission of evangelization.