Word to the Wise
Wednesday, October 22, 2008 - Wednesday in the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
[Ephesians 3:2-12 and Luke 12:39-48]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.
In St. Paul's time, the thought that Gentiles and Jews might have something in common would have been truly "news" to those who heard it, whether Jew or Gentile! No wonder that it is called in this letter a "mystery hidden from ages past in God." This may explain why St. Paul's preaching was so ill received by many! The Jews would have been scandalized by it simply because of their conviction about being the chosen people of God. Not even the Samaritans (especially them, even though they shared virtually the same faith) were considered "coheirs" to the promise. The Gentiles were scandalized by the thought that they might have anything in common with the small religious group in Palestine with their strange laws and customs. Why would the actions of Jesus Christ be subject to such a group! St. Paul's preaching in the areopagus in Athens (Acts 17:22-34) shows how he approached such an audience. There's little mention of the Jews! Thus we are challenged to confront our prejudices. There is an old English expression, "How odd of God to choose the Jews!" In many ways, God might seem odd in having created humanity at all, given its tendency to violence against each other and their destruction of the planet. The challenge of ethnic diversity and the discrepancy in ownership of material resources for sheer survival mean that Christ's message will always seem a bit of a mystery because it is not self-enforcing. Despite efforts by a number of the world's religious groups, there has never been a successful conversion of the planet to one way of looking at God. St. Paul announced a universal plan of salvation that is taking place no matter how we feel about it. The mystery is the human failure to accept it; not God's unilateral requirement that we believe in it. AMEN
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