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

Ephesians 3:2-12

Brothers and sisters: You have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for your benefit, namely, that the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly earlier. When you read this you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to human beings in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy Apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same Body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel. Of this I became a minister by the gift of God’s grace that was granted me in accord with the exercise of his power. To me, the very least of all the holy ones, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the inscrutable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for all what is the plan of the mystery hidden from ages past in God who created all things, so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the Church to the principalities and authorities in the heavens. This was according to the eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness of speech and confidence of access through faith in him.

I find the Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians so pertinent to our own times, with so many of us even within the Church feeling disconnected from it and from one another due to legal restrictions, and also in that so many of us were not much educated in the Faith when we were young, and so we are still trying to learn its basics.

St. Paul says, “You have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for your benefit, namely, that the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly earlier.”  Paul speaks of the "God’s grace” by which he was converted though he persecuted the Church which had, as he says, as its purpose, the conversion of the Ephesians.  In this way he continues to teach this new church in pagan Ephesus how the members belong to the larger Church, and all that God has arranged and disposed so that they, though Gentiles, might know him.  

“When you read this you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to human beings in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy Apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same Body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.”  He calls them “coheirs” of eternity, “0f the same body”, that is, the Body of Christ, and “copartners in his promise”, that is, coworkers in the Church for the salvation of all.

“Of this I became a minister by the gift of God’s grace that was granted me in accord with the exercise of his power.”  Paul describes himself as a διάκονος (diakonos), here translated as "minister", by which he may mean a "deacon", in the formal sense, chosen by the Apostles, as they also chose and ordained the first seven deacons as related in Acts 6, 1-6.  He may also have meant this instead in the common sense, as one whose role it is to serve food and drink.  Note how in the translation he says that he “became” a minister: the Greek says that he “was made” one.  In fact, he does not make himself a minister.  It is all a free gift of God that he be made one who serves them the food and drink of the Gospel.

“To me, the very least of all the holy ones, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the inscrutable riches of Christ”: “The least of all the holy ones”.  This may mean, “the last of the Apostles”, or he may consider himself "the most unworthy" because he had persecuted the Church of Christ. See 1 Corinthians 15, 9, on this.  Paul may say this of himself so as to say, in effect, "See all that I have done, though I am the least of the Apostles.  Imagine, if you can, all that they have done!"  This by way of teaching the greatness of the Church of Jesus Christ, to which they now belong, by grace.  The “inscrutable riches” of Christ, the vast and amazing wisdom of Christ shown forth in his parables, but also the providence of God in creating man and working through humans and their history for the appearance of his Son in the world, and the manner in which he expiated our sins.  

“And to bring to light for all what is the plan of the mystery hidden from ages past in God who created all things.”  Not that God “hid” the dispensation, but that the eyes of men, dazzled by the things of this world and darkened by sin, did not see it.  

“So that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the Church to the principalities and authorities in the heavens.”  God did not seek counsel from the Angels in devising his plan, nor did he share his plan with them.  See 1 Peter 1, 10-12.  St. Thomas Aquinas looks at the question of the “principalities and authorities” -- the Angels -- learning “through the Church”, and he distinguishes between the notion of the Angels learning from the Church and through the Church, for certainly there was little they could learn from the Church that they had not previously learned from God himself.  But the Angels are not omniscient, and so can learn of the effects of God's grace and providence through the their working in the Church.  Walafrid of Strabo, on the other hand, comments, “It is given to me to evangelize and to enlighten.  See how great this is, that the Angels grow in knowledge, through me, from the many things that had been hidden from them!”

“This was according to the eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness of speech and confidence of access through faith in him.”  Fate and luck have no place in a world created by the God of the Christians, who counts the hairs on the heads of his servants.  Bishop Haymo comments that “in” Christ Jesus should be understood as “through” him: “Just as God the Father formed his plan before all the ages, so he fulfilled it and showed forth his manifold wisdom through Christ.”  According to Jerome, seeing the Father’s manifold wisdom “through Christ” means, for instance, seeing the little one crying in the manger as the one whom the angels praise, the one whom Herod persecutes as the one whom the Magi adore, the one whom the Pharisees do not recognize but whom a star points out, and so on.