The Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, Monday, October 28, 2024

Ephesians 2:19-22

You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

From the First Reading for today’s Mass: “You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God.”  Roman citizenship was much prized in the ancient world.  A person could have it through birth, through purchase, or through service.  Paul himself could boast of his citizenship, which allowed him to appeal his legal case to Caesar.  Citizenship conferred a number of privileges on the holder, making him very different before the law from non-citizens.  To be a fellow citizen “with the holy ones” meant to have the same access to the Father as the holy prophets, apostles, and martyrs.

“Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ himself as the capstone.  Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord.”  The Benedictine Walafrid (d. 849) comments in his Gloss: “There is no one so perfect that he is not able to grow”, meaning that our growth into the temple of God ought to be continuous.

“In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”  Paul seems to contrast this temple with the great temple to Artemis in the city's center. Magnificent, rich, and renowned though it was, it remained a dead building. The Church, on the other hand, was constructed of living stones, the cornerstone of which was the Christ who had redeemed mankind and pleaded for it before the Father.  The very foundations consisted of the prophets and apostles, more solid and dependable than any cement or stone.  This reminds of the saying of Jesus that: “He who hears my words and does them is like a wise man who builds his house upon a rock” (Matthew 7, 24).  Nor is it an empty structure, with these foundations and walls, for God himself dwells in it.

So much of the work of the Apostles and their disciples is hidden from history, and yet we can gaze upon the solidity of the Church that has withstood the worst storms which fallen human nature and the scheming of the demons could devise, and marvel at how powerful their work must have been.  From a careful examination of a lofty tower  we can imagine the greatness of its foundations.