Saturday 22 October 2022
St John Paul II
Ephesians 4:7-16. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord – Psalm 121(122):1-5. Luke 13:1-9.
To speak the truth in love
Today is the annual commemoration of St Pope John Paul II. He was inaugurated Pope on this day back in 1978, and when he died in 2005 he had enjoyed the second longest papacy in modern history. He was canonised by Pope Francis in 2014, nine years after his death. St Paul reminds the Ephesians in today’s first reading that, ‘speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ’. Perhaps that is the task of every Pope, to speak the truth in love. And often it involves speaking truth to power. The leaders of any Christian community of faith must shudder when reading the parable of the barren fig tree (today’s Gospel). Every year is to be a year for producing fruit. Four years and no fruit. Cut it down.
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