Word to the Wise
Wednesday, October 25, 2006 - 29th Wednesday in Ordinary Time
[Ephesians 3:2-12 and Luke 12:39-48]You have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for your benefit.....
St. Paul identifies this stewardship as "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...." These words, along with most of the Letter to the Ephesians, set forth an almost cosmological vision of the mission of Christ. It is a grand and rich vision, intended to give encouragement to a community that did not have the Jewish heritage to fall back on or serve as a foundation for its newly acquired faith. Yet, it is a vision that does not seem to have found its way too deeply into the consciousness of many Catholics who now have 2000 years of Christian heritage. We do have a tendency to look more to the history of the church than we do to the history of the faith. The vision of Ephesians of the church as the spouse of Christ is a profound image which is carried over into the theology of matrimony. Yet, this heritage seems vague, if it appears at all, in the consciousness of those who seek to marry in the church (I've had some startling exceptions to this in the last couple of years, I admit.). My awareness of the difficulties of preaching the "inscrutable riches" of Christ makes me realize how serious is the stewardship that I have been given is a sobering thought. But, it's not all up to me. We all share in this stewardship. Reading the Letter to the Ephesians might give us something to think about in that regard! AMEN
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