Homily for Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth week in Ordinary Time (Year 2).
Perhaps Saint Paul’s description of the life of the Ephesians before their incorporation into Jesus Christ seems overly blunt. You were far off, Paul says, strangers, excluded, separated from God by a wall of enmity. We are not used to this kind of rhetoric.
But Paul’s blunt words are not written to reproach the Ephesians for their past life. They are already converted, and now they do live in the friendship of Christ. Paul’s words are written so that the Ephesians do not take this conversion for granted. This message is perhaps even more relevant to us, who were baptized as children and grew up as Christians.
The friendship with God that we enjoy in Christ is not the condition into which a person is born. It is a gift obtained by Jesus through the cross and shared with us in baptism. No other religion promises friendship with God or the divine sonship shared with us in the sacraments. Not the pagan religions of antiquity, not Buddhism, not Islam.
Christ is unique. His sacrifice, his love, and his friendship must never be taken for granted.
Readings: Ephesians 2:12-22; Luke 12:35-38
Original: Italian
October 22, 2024
Gregorian University Chapel
Rome
