Our Lady of Lourdes Church and School

Last week we began to explore some of the ideas around what it meant to be a people who “embrace” others. Some of the questions we suggested focused on our capacity for being a hospitable people, a welcoming people. On this First Sunday of Lent, we continue to reflect on our aspirations as a community, taking fully to heart the reminder in our first reading that we may not always “get it right”, and that we will always be able to improve. We resist the temptation, as Jesus does in today's gospel, to simply do what we’ve always done. We resist the invitation to take the easy path. Instead, we commit to continue to grow and to deepen our relationship with Jesus, the one who saves and who invites us always into an ever deeper awareness of the fulness of God’s loving promise for our lives.

In St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, we read in Chapter 4:11-16, of his conviction that Jesus appointed and gave to the believing community, the church, certain leadership roles. We read of the gift of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers and so on. These roles of leadership are given to the community of believers with a definite purpose in the mind of Christ, according to St. Paul. They are given “to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ”. Paul then goes on to point out that the Church must be built up in order that all its members may mature into full stature, or adulthood, as believers. There is a very strong and definite understanding that faith and our relationship with Jesus is something that needs to grow and develop over time. St. Paul is pretty clear that this growth is essential to the mature disciple lest they remain as infants and find themselves lured away or swept up by passing fads and ideas. Instead, Paul desires that we come to live the truth in love, as he puts it so beautifully, that “we should grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ.” St. Paul is so clear in his expressed faith that Jesus Christ is our sure foundation, “whom the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, with the proper functioning of each part, brings about the body’s growth and builds itself up in love.” His desire for us is crystal clear, that we become all that we are called to become, in for and through Jesus Christ.

In the remaining verses of chapter 4 of Ephesians, Paul goes on to outline for that community living in Ephesus what growing in relationship with Christ might look like. For us, in our time, we must do likewise. We must reflect on and consider what growing in faith looks like for us in our own time and place? Even if it bears some similarities to the growth of the believers in First century Ephesus, it is surely going to look and feel different in Northridge in the second millennium. What are the necessary supports that we need to grow in faith? How do we serve one another by providing those supports? Or not? How do we support one another in our journey of faith? What support do we look for from one another? Are there ways in which I might deepen my relationship with Jesus? What do I think they might be or look like? In what ways do I support those around me? In what ways do I count on their support? Are there things we can do as a parish community to better facilitate the growth and deepening of our relationship with Jesus? How can we concretely begin to enable one another to grow, so that we might all - individually and collectively - have the opportunity to be built up in love?