The Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, March 19, 2023

Ephesians 5, 8–14

Brothers and sisters: You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth. Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the fruitless works of darkness; rather expose them, for it is shameful even to mention the things done by them in secret; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, it says: “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

The Solemnity of St. Joseph, normally celebrated on March 19, is moved to tomorrow because this year it falls on a Sunday.

St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians was addressed to Greek converts immersed in a pagan culture.  The massive temple of Artemis, at the time of the Apostles, had a length of 425 feet and a width of 225 feet — far larger than a football field.  It was ringed about by 127 columns, arranged in a double row all the way around.  Because of its great size and beauty it is counted among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.  Naturally, it drew visitors from all over, and so it and the worship of Artemis played a central role in both the religious and economic life of the city.  By comparison, perhaps one or two hundred Christians met for Mass in a synagogue or in a private house at that time.  Soaked in this culture from birth, these Greek Christians struggled to understand the teachings of the Faith, especially those that had to do with the unity of the faithful in the Body of Christ.  St. Paul, who had lived with the believers there for two years and three months, but who was now in prison in Rome, wrote this veritable treatise on the Mystical Body of Christ to them in order to console them through instruction.

“You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.”  To us today, darkness, at worst, is an inconvenience but for the ancient people it was always a time of potential danger, when the beasts of the forest and field prowled about in search of prey.  Bandits and raiders might also threaten.  It was a time thought by the pagan Greeks to be the time of witchcraft and spells.  The shades of the dead came out of caves looking for offerings of blood to keep them from fading away altogether.  Paul reminds his flock that before hearing of Jesus Christ and being baptized in him, they  were darkness — not “like” darkness, but they themselves had been darkness, filled with the sins practiced in their city and approved of by their culture.  But now, baptized and reborn in Christ, they were light, the brightness of day, freed from sin and clothed with glory: sealed for life with Jesus in heaven.  And this ought to be our state as well.  Even with all the misunderstanding and hostility that the Ephesian Christians encountered as a result of their new way of life, one that separated them from many aspects of life in their city, they rejoiced heartily in their faith and persevered when persecuted.  We today must be very careful not to follow the examples of those around us who are not of the Faith but to remember at all times that we are different through grace and belonging to the Lord, and we must act not like the others, but like Christ.

“Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth.”  God himself is The Light and in Christ we are his adopted children.  As such we are the lights of the world, burning candles set in visible places.  If we are devoted to the Lord Jesus, then we will perform acts of great charity.

“Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.”  The Greek text says, literally, “Examining what is pleasing to the Lord”.  We carefully ponder possible courses of actions in order to determine which is most pleasing to God, which is the most Christ-like.  This is opposed to the idea that we should act only for our pleasure or our own perceived good: our goal is to please God, not man, and involves service of some kind.  “Take no part in the fruitless works of darkness; rather expose them, for it is shameful even to mention the things done by them in secret.”  We “expose” them when we question them and their purpose.  Works of evil shrivel under the light of scrutiny and no longer seem fun or harmless but rather pathetic and useless.  “

“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”  Paul is quoting from some text known by the Ephesian Christians which has not come down to us.  It is thought to be an Easter hymn, perhaps based on Isaiah 9, 2: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light: to them who dwelt in the region of the shadow of death, light is risen.”  

It is wonderful to think that within twenty or thirty years after the Resurrection that the Gentiles are composing their own Christian hymns.  Many of these have survived and are found in the Roman Breviary is use today.

Like the blind man in today’s Gospel Reading (John 9, 1-41), we have lived in darkness, the darkness of sin, at some time in our lives.  Unlike the blind man, who was born that way through no fault of his own, (nor even that of his parents), we entered the darkness through our choice.  But the Lord just as assuredly desires us to see, so that we might see him.  Let us Behold him and behold nothing but him all the days remaining to us on earth so that we shall look on him through eyes recreated for the glory of heaven.