I HAD a wonderful time last weekend. My family gathered together to celebrate my nephew’s First Communion at St. Raymond Church in Danville, California. We also celebrated my oldest sister’s birthday.
A strong family relationship has been a primary value for us. We like to enjoy one another’s company. We have a family mission statement that is written in our hearts, which is to build and to nurture our relationships based on genuine love, care and faith in God.
Jesus Christ is our model par excellence in building and nourishing relationships. In the Gospel of John, Jesus’ main preoccupation is his relationship with his Father. John’s theology is a theology of relationship. Everything that Jesus did was to please his Father. He suffered and died on the Cross to glorify his Father.
The First Jewish Christians built and nurtured relationships as they resolved conflict among themselves, as they welcomed Gentiles to their fold, and as they lived having “one heart and one mind.”
How about you? Do you value relationships? Is building relationships your primary concern? If so, you are on the right track because Christian faith is about building and nurturing relationships. It’s about allowing ourselves to flourish like branches in our strong and loving relationship with Jesus Christ, the Vine, and with other “branches”– our family members and friends.
I hope that your life has allowed you to build and to nourish relationships. I hope it has allowed you to strengthen your relationship with God. And I hope it has opened other healthy relationships that have become your source of strength and joy.
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From a Filipino immigrant family, Reverend Rodel G. Balagtas was ordained to the priesthood from St. John’s Seminary in 1991. He served as Associate Pastor at St. Augustine, Culver City (1991-1993); St. Martha, Valinda (1993-1999); and St. Joseph the Worker, Canoga Park (1999-2001). In 2001, he served as Administrator Pro Tem of St. John Neumann in Santa Maria, CA, until his appointment as pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary, Los Angeles, in 2002, which lasted 12 years. His term as Associate Director of Pastoral Field Education at St. John’s Seminary began in July 2014.
