Homily: Thursday - 28th Week in OT 2016 - Chosen by God

For the rest of the month, we’ll be making our way through the St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Ephesians is the most eloquent of the letters attributed to St. Paul and contains rich theological passages. In a way, Ephesians is to the epistles what John is to the Gospels: the most mystical, profound, and universal of them all.

Paul probably wrote Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon from prison in Rome around 60 or 62 AD. Ephesians seems to be addressed, not simply to the Christians in the city of Ephesus, but to all the Christians in that region. It’s a sort of encyclical, a letter meant to be circulated to the churches in the region of Asia minor.

Paul spent about three years in Ephesus, longer than anywhere else after beginning his missionary work. The investment of time in Ephesus was strategic: it was the fourth largest city in the Roman Empire, numbering about two hundred thousand people, it was a center of commerce, the capital of Asia minor, and was famous for its large and beautiful temple to the Goddess Artemis, which was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Besides worshiping Artemis, the Ephesians had temples to Caesar and an assortment to other deities.

In this letter, Paul is going to argue that Christ is bigger than all these false gods. Christ is the main focus of the letter: who Christ is, what he has done for humanity, how he calls his followers to unity, how Christ’s followers become beloved children of God, and therefore must live holy and righteous lives, how the members of the Church form the body of Christ, the Church, of which Christ is the head.

Again, Ephesians is a beautiful, rich letter, that you would do well to read in one setting sometime in the next few days, in order to get a sense of the whole letter, and what Paul was trying to accomplish in writing it.

We heard today the opening of the letter, Paul greets the Ephesians in a greeting which we continue to use 2000 years later in our celebration of mass: grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul then offers fervent praise to God for his generosity toward those redeemed by the blood of Christ.

He reminds the church, you have been chosen by God. You and I brothers and sisters have been chosen, destined, by God himself, to live a holy life. A people who do not give in to the profane ways of acting and thinking from the surrounding culture. The way we act, the way we speak, the way we treat other people is to be different. Although, each of us have our own shortcomings, we have been chosen to make Christ known by the way we live: in our joyous singing, in our lifting up our hands in praise of God, by our charity towards others, through our sharing with others the good news of God’s kindness and love, in our quiet meditation, and humble prayer on bended-knee.

Reflect deeply on what it means to be chosen by God, and cooperate with God’s grace to become worthy of that great destiny, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.