Word to the Wise
Thursday, October 16, 2008 - Thursday in the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
[Ephesians 1:1-10 and Luke 11:47-54]Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens,as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him. In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved.
Back in the days when color TV was a future thing (at least the mid-1950's in my small hometown), there was a program that featured a young Walter Cronkite (whose memory is already ancient history to much of the present generation) as narrator and whose title was: YOU ARE THERE! The design of the program was to place the viewer in great historical moments in which the principal "players" would be interviewed by a reporter and given the opportunity to reflect on the event and its importance at the time! An example would be the signing of the Declaration of Independence! One can only imagine how the original players would view our present celebrations of the anniversary of that event. It might be instructive, however, to study the way this event was understood and celebrated at various stages in our nation's history. For instance, how was it celebrated and understood forty years after as contrasted with the current celebration? The majesty and meaning of the Letter to the Ephesians may be viewed in the same way. Ephesians represents a grand and cosmic view of God's plan in Christ "before the foundation of the world." Because of its emphasis on the "Body of Christ" it shows an advanced understanding of the Christian community as well. Yet, one of the motivating things is the "freshness" of the experience. It is one thing to find oneself as a participant in a grand project at its earliest stages and another to be celebrating it 200 years later! There is a sense of wonder in the letter that is difficult for us to feel. Perhaps if Walter Cronkite had taken us back and interviewed the writer........? (It might be something we could do in our imagination! Scripture scholars place it in the 70's or 80's AD and attribute it to a follower of St. Paul but not to St. Paul himself.) Over the next few days, the Letter to the Ephesians will present some wonderful revelation to us. Given our individualistic American ways and a tendency to emphasize the individual relationship to God over that of the community, Ephesians will be a challenge to see ourselves in a much broader vision. The Mediterranean world of the writer of Ephesians widens, in our perspective, to a global or even "universal" vision! The significance of the "church" as the Body of Christ is placed before us to help us understand that the Church is not one person but many! Stay tuned! AMEN
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