Ephesians 4:7-16 / Luke 13:1-9
As we look at our world, we may notice a certain disparity.
There are the first world countries, i.e. the developed countries, and then there are the developing countries, and then there are the third world countries.
Some people have come up with this weird idea that God had blessed the first world countries and left out the underdeveloped countries.
Maybe that idea is implicitly connected to the age-old thinking that misfortune has a certain connection with sin.
It is because of this sin that a person or a nation forfeits God's blessings.
In today's gospel passage, Jesus outrightly rejects this sort of thinking.
Yet Jesus went on to say that if His listeners do not repent, then they too will perish.
In other words, a person or a nation that rebels against God is on the road to disaster.
Even for our nation, we may have come this far because of a strong pragmatic direction and determination.
Yet we also cannot deny that God has blessed our nation with progress and stability.
Hence, we have to always look back at the spiritual values of faith and morality.
For us Catholics, the urgency is even greater.
As the 1st reading puts it, each one of us has been given his own share of grace, given as Christ allotted it.
We should not be tossed one way or another and carried along by every wind of false teaching or deceit.
Rather we should live by the truth and in love so that we shall grow in all ways into Christ.
May Christ be our only way and our only goal.