Thursday in the 29th Week of Ordinary Time, October 22, 2020

According to news reports, Pope Francis has made statements in support of civil unions for homosexuals.  In doing so, he is giving his private opinion.  He is not speaking as a theologian, much less as a pope.  Of course, the major media outlets and certain theologians will jubilantly proclaim that the Church is changing its doctrine, but this is not so.  It is simply a very flawed opinion and is in contradiction to rulings only a few years ago by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Let’s continue with our reflections on St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians.

Ephesians 3:14-21

Brothers and sisters: I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.  Now to him who is able to accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine, by the power at work within us, to him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

“I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.”  The Greek word inexplicably translated here as “family” should really be “paternity” or “fatherhood”.  God is the true Father, and all fatherhood is patterned after him. It is granted human men to share or participate in this fatherhood not only in the generation of children but in the intimacy that pertains particularly to a father and his children.  For this, see Matthew 11, 25-27, and John 17, 10-11.  It should be noted that while God is the Creator of all things, he is the natural Father of his only begotten Son, and the adoptive Father of those reborn in baptism.

“That he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith”: May you so be strengthened in your hearts in your belief in Christ that he may find his home there and take up his rest there just as he rested in the boat with his Apostles (cf. Matthew 8, 23-24).

“That you, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”  “To comprehend . . . and to know” that the “breadth and length and height and depth” of the charity of Christ “surpasses knowledge”.  It is good both to know and to comprehend the extent of his charity: to know the facts of his Passion, Death, and Resurrection, and to understand his charity spiritually.  Jerome says that “breadth and length and height and depth” can be understood as the Cross of Christ since it points to the heights of heaven and to the depths, from which The Lord led captivity captive (cf. Psalm 67, 19), and also to the east and the west, where the Gospel has spread.

“Now to him who is able to accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine, by the power at work within us.”  The understanding of the working of his will is so far above us that we may be utterly unaware of it working in us, and yet our lack of awareness shows its greatness.  Paul here encourages the Ephesians in their trust of the God who has already done so much for them.

“To him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”  The consideration of God’s providence in the world, in the spread of the Faith, and in the lives of believers, results in the ecstatic praise of God and desire to show his glory by our faith and works.  By spreading the Faith as we are called to do, we glorify him and prepare to join the eternal generations in heaven, crying out to him in the heights.