Tuesday in the 30th Week of Ordinary Time, October 27, 2020

We are resting the end of our little tour of St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, which has been featured in parts as the second reading for Mass over the last couple of weeks.

Ephesians 5:21-33

Brothers and sisters: Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the Church, he himself the savior of the Body. As the Church is subordinate to Christ, so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the Church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. So also husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the Church, because we are members of his Body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the Church. In any case, each one of you should love his wife as himself, and the wife should respect her husband.

“Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.”  Above, in 5, 1, Paul admonished the Ephesians to become “followers of God”, and to this end, in 5, 3-7, he gave counsel regarding vices to be avoided, and in 5, 15-20, he gave counsel on what the one who follows God ought to do: walk wisely, render praise to God, give thanks for all blessings.  Now, he describes the Christian's relationships with his fellow man, beginning with this precept. This being “subordinate to one another” is the fundamental attitude of the Christian, imitating Christ, “who emptied himself  and took the form of a servant” (Philippians 2, 7), with himself declaring that he “came to serve, not to be served” (Matthew 20, 28).  In the verses which follow, Paul shows how this subjection is to be undertaken in the concrete circumstances of life.

“Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the Church, he himself the savior of the Body.”  “The husband is the head of the wife”. Alcuin explains this subjection, saying that the woman was formed from the man at the beginning of creation, and so came after him. St. Thomas Aquinas, commenting on this verse, points out that while a lord uses his servants for his own good, the husband manages his wife and children for their common good.  Now, 5, 22 could also be translated, or read, as, "Let women be subject to their husbands as to their lord", and on this, Thomas comments, “Not that [their husbands] truly are their lords, but as if they are.” 

In the verses that follow, note how Paul delivers a counsel that seems to reinforce the traditional ideas regarding authority that formed the basis for pagan society, only to pair it with one that balances relations between the two classes of people involved, with responsibilities on both sides.  His use of this approach is distinctive of his style.  We see him employ it in Romans 2, where he speaks of the wicked behavior of the pagans, but then speaks of the wicked behavior of the Jews.  Likewise, in the letter to Philemon, Paul first praises the recipient for his faith, and calls him his brother, but then refers to Philemon's escaped slave as his brother as well.

“As the Church is subordinate to Christ, so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything.”  That is, each wife should be subject to her one husband.  Elaborating on this, St. Jerome alludes to Matthew 6, 24: “No man can serve two masters . . . You cannot serve God and Mammon.”

“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for her.”  Ambrose comments, “Wives are commanded to be subject to and have reverence for their husbands, but husbands are taught so to love their wives that they lay down their lives for them, and to have zeal, caused by their love, for their condition and conduct, that they may be religious and holy.”  The sense here is, Husbands, deliver yourselves up for the well-being and salvation of your wives, out of your love for them.

“To sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word.”  St. Thomas, commenting on how husbands are counseled to deliver themselves, quotes Galatians 2, 20, that Jesus “loved me and delivered himself up for me”  asks, “But why?”  He answers his own question, saying, “To sanctify her”, that is, the soul.  Sanctification “is the effect of the death of Christ, and the effect of sanctification [is] the cleansing of the soul from the stains of sin.”  Noting that this “cleansing” is baptism, he continues, “The end of this sanctification is the purity of the Church.”  Paul counsels the husband to love his wife as Christ loves the soul and the Church.

“That he might present to himself the Church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”

Alcuin comments that the glorified Christ presents the glorified Church to himself at the end of the world.  Here, Paul may have had in mind how, in Jewish weddings, the groom adorns himself and goes to the house of the bride's father, and then takes her, all adorned, to his house, where they will live together.  See Matthew 25, 31-46, as well as Revelation 21, 3.

“So also husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the Church.”  The husband is to show his love for his wife by nourishing and cherishing her, not only providing food and shelter for her, but giving her the experience of his love for her.  Christ nourishes the Church with the sacraments and his providential care, and cherishes her in the saints whom he raises up.

“Because we are members of his Body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” If a man and woman become "one flesh" in marriage, how much more true is it that we become members of the Body of Christ through baptism.

“This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the Church.”  “Sacrament”, originally a legal term for private money or goods that was transferred to the state for (pagan) religious purposes, and later meaning "a secret", is a translation of the Greek μυστήριον (mysterion). This word is derived from μυςτές (mystes), meaning, "initiate".  The word μυστήριον means "a sacred secret revealed only to initiates of a cult", or simply, "a secret", or, "mystery". Paul uses this word here to talk about the unity of the Church -- a unity which is both visible and invisible, hence the theological term Sacrament, a visible sign of an invisible, spiritual reality.

“In any case, each one of you should love his wife as himself, and the wife should respect her husband.”  “Fear” in the sense of “respect”, which is the foundation for love.  Paul thus teaches the new Christians how they belong to Christ -- an unheard of concept for them in their previous lives -- through the example of marriage. At the same time, Paul teaches them about Christian marriage through his description of how they belong to Christ, and so shows how it is of a higher order than pagan marriage.