Monday in the 29th Week of Ordinary Time, October 17, 2022

Ephesians 2, 1-10

Brothers and sisters: You were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you once lived following the age of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the desires of our flesh, following the wishes of the flesh and the impulses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ (by grace you have been saved), raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast. For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.

The Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians consists of a short treatise that describes the preeminence of Jesus Christ in the the Father’s plan for the salvation of the world and the establishment of the Church as the Body of Christ through which grace comes into the world and in which a believer is saved.  The present section, which is used for the First Reading for today’s Mass, marvelously explains our need for redemption and what this redemption means for us who receive it.

“Brothers and sisters: You were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you once lived following the age of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the disobedient.”  “Dead in your transgressions and sins.”  This refers to the behavior of the Ephesian Christians before their conversion.  Though they had not known Christ previously, they disobeyed the natural law written in their hearts and so committed offenses and sins.  “Dead” describes the spiritual state of a person before the rebirth of baptism.  These Gentiles had followed “the age of this world”, rather, “the course of this world”, which heads towards its destruction.  The “ruler of the power of the air”: the heavens were  believed to consist of a series of spheres around the earth, each ruled by a planet or other heavenly body.  The devil was said to “rule” the sphere in which the earth was set through his tempting.  He “worked” on unbelievers to make them more steadfast in the wicked behavior which had been abandoned by their Christian neighbors.  

“All of us once lived among them in the desires of our flesh, following the wishes of the flesh and the impulses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest.”  The “wishes of the flesh” and children of wrath “by nature” refers to the fallen state of man as a result of Original Sin.  Human nature was damaged — though not destroyed — by Original Sin, and as a result human beings are more prone to wicked behavior, even if not compelled to engage in it.  Children of “wrath” may refer to the “wrath” of God in response to the Original Sin.  That is, the consequences of this sin seemed to come as a result of divine anger.  Alternatively, “children of wrath” refers to those who choose to follow the devil.

“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ (by grace you have been saved), raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus.”  God acts mercifully simply because he is “rich in mercy”.  He has no other motivation than that he is merciful.  This is true mercy, as opposed to the help humans render one another, often for gain of some sort, even when real sympathy is involved.  This passage is significant in showing the lofty otherness of God.  He has “brought us to life” us in Christ, a reminder both of the Sacrifice made even by the very One who desired to offer the mercy (would anyone make a sacrifice to receive it?) and also of our belonging to God through the God-man, thus giving us confidence in the gift of his mercy.  “Through his “grace”: through the free gift of his power.  He has “raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens” in that he has raised up our human nature, which he assumed in his Incarnation, before the throne of God, so that, in a sense, we are already present there.  St. Albert the Great says that this is signified at Holy Mass by the words of the priest: Ite, missa est (“Go, it has been sent”): the Body of the Lord, to which we belong, has been “sent”, in union with its Hesd, Jesus Christ to the throne of the Father to plead for us, and so, this being done, the faithful may depart from Mass. 

“That in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”  God's purpose in acting outwardly is to manifest his glory, which brings joy to the faithful.  In the manifestation of  his “immeasurable riches” towards us “in Christ Jesus”, whose members we are, he enlightens us, deepens our faith, and causes us to love him, which further manifests his glory.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast.”  “You are saved through faith . . . not from works”. In the Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul speaks of faith saving us apart from the works of the Law, since he was speaking to Christian converts who had heard that they needed to follow the Jewish dietary and purity laws in order to be saved.  Paul emphasizes that salvation is not bought or earned, but is freely given by the God of mercy who looks favorably on those baptized in the Blood of his Son.

“For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.”  Paul describes us as created by God the Artisan according to the model of his only-begotten Son, the best possible model.  We are "modeled" in this way so that we might follow the example  and do the work of the Son.  As such, we must act according to Christ's mind and actions, assisted by his grace, or we damage, distort, or defile our likeness to him, and thwart our role in God's plan of salvation.

The Gentile Christians very much needed to hear the mystery of the Church explained to them because they had nothing like it in their culture.  They needed to know, for the bolstering of their faith, that they had heard the Gospel through the Church, and they had been baptized into the Church, becoming members of Christ’s Body, by which they would be saved.

A note about the Gospel Reading, Luke 12, 13-21: A man walks up to the Lord Jesus and asks him to intercede for him in a matter of inheritance.  The translation in the Lectionary has Jesus address the man as “friend” (Luke 22, 14).  But the Greek has “man”, as in, “Man, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”  The point here is the manner of addressing another person in public.  “Man” was the normal way of addressing a male adult, while “woman” was the proper way of addressing a female adult.  So much ink has been spilt by scholars and others at how Jesus speaks to his Mother in John 2, 4 and John 19, 26, calling her “woman”.  But this is a matter of us expecting people in other cultures to speak and act as we think we would.