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The work which
Jesus Christ accomplished was pre-eminently a work of peace,
reconciliation and unification. The Lord reconciled man with God. Man
having made his peace with God is now able to reconcile and make peace
with all men because we have been united to them by an unbreakable bond
and community through the saving work of the Lord. Truly therefore, as
children of the great family of God and members of the one body of the
Church, there is peace among us, the peace of Christ, which brings unity:
the unity of all people in the one body of the Church whose head is
Christ. Paul writing to the Church of Ephesus desires to reassure them
that in the person and work of Jesus Christ there was attained a
marvellous unity of the Gentiles with the Jews: whatever distinguished and
separated them was now laid aside. Between them was founded a new
relationship which was the peace and unity of Christ. All Jews and
Gentiles who became partakers of salvation in Christ comprise of the
members of one Church and constitute the holy temple in Christ. This is
the basic message of this Sunday’s Apostle reading which is from St.
Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians. Let’s hear the reading.
Ephesians 2:14-22
“Brethren,
Christ is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the
middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the
enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make
in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might
reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity
thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to
them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit
unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners,
but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are
built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ
himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly
framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also
are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”
14) “Brethren, Christ is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath
broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in
his flesh the enmity”
Christ is not
only the peacemaker who with his sacrifice on the Cross reconciled men
with God and also among themselves. He is our peace as he is also our
life. Here Paul’s thought seems to be inspired by the teaching of the
Prophet Isaiah, who envisions the Messiah as the “the Prince of Peace”
(Isaiah 9:6) who with his coming brings peace to the world and reconciles
mankind.
“Who has
made both one”
refers to the Jews and the Gentiles who
through Christ have become one “one new man” as he says in the next verse
and one body as Paul says a little further down. With his saving work,
Christ brought peace and reconciled the whole of humanity. This is what
Paul means when he refers to the Jews and the Gentiles, in other words,
all the other nations. Thus in Christ we now have a new people, a new
nation which worships the same God, which has the same saviour, which
depends its life and its salvation on the same saving sacrifice, which is
driven by the same desire, which foresees the same heavenly inheritance,
which constitutes the same family of the saved.
Christ made
the two into one, having first broken down the middle wall of partition.
This phrase has been interpreted in various ways. According to the ancient
interpreters it means the sin which created a wall of enmity between man
and God. In Christian terms, by “middle wall of
partition” we usually mean the invisible wall that was set up by
Adam’s fall which separated man from God and which kept him out of
Paradise. But this interpretation doesn’t seem to give meaning to the rest
of the verse or to the next, which refers to the union of the Jews and
Gentiles. Modern interpreters support that the phrase means the wall which
in Solomon’s Temple separated the court of the Gentiles from the court of
the Jews and to which there was an inscription forbidding the Gentiles of
crossing over with punishment of death to the trespassers. But again this
interpretation doesn’t hold much weight because how could the readers of
this Epistle, who were in the majority from the ranks of the Gentiles,
know or understand Paul’s reference to it.
But according to
another interpretation, “the middle wall of
partition” is the Old Law to which is referred to in the next
verse, and which by its ordinances was like a wall or fence which
separated the Jews from the Gentiles. Christ then brought down this wall
of partition in his flesh “Having abolished in his
flesh the enmity”. The phrase means Christ’s death on the Cross
which abolished and put to death the enmity that existed before and which
brought about the reconciliation of both Jew and Gentile with God.
15) “Even the law of commandments contained in
ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace”
This present
verse is connected directly to the previous. The phrase “the law of
commandments contained in ordinances;” is a clarification of what the
enmity and the wall of partition is referring to. Thus this phrase means
the various and many ordinances that had to be observed by the Mosaic Law
which Christ abolished by his death on the Cross.
By destroying
the middle wall of partition and abolishing the commandments of the old
law, Christ proceeds to the making of a new creation
“for to make in himself of two one new man.” The two again are the
Jews and the Gentiles. Christ is the new man and the true image of God,
the prototype and the first-fruit of the new mankind. In his person Christ
creates a new man, the new humanity which without any discrimination
consists of both Jews and Gentiles. He didn’t make the Greek into a Jew
but a superior state which is the new man. Thus with this new creation
Christ brought peace to mankind, first with God and secondly among
themselves. In place of the enmity that before existed between the Jews
and the Gentiles is now peace and reconciliation.
16) “And that he might reconcile both unto God in
one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby”
Here Paul is
repeating what he has already said but in plainer words. Christ reconciled
both the Jew and the Gentile to God in one body. The one body is of course
the body of Christ that was sacrificed on the Cross and it also has the
wider meaning as the body of the Church. The new man becomes a reality
only within the Church. The Church which is the body of Christ and the
dwelling place of the Holy Spirit is the mystical workshop where the
reconciliation of man with God is perfected. A precondition of this
reconciliation is the death of the enmity that separated man from God. But
notice that here Paul doesn’t say “destroy the enmity” but uses a stronger
word “slain” or put to death, meaning that
once put to death it should not again be resurrected.
17) “And came and preached peace to you which were
afar off, and to them that were nigh.”
Christ came
into the world to preach the Gospel of peace. This cheerful message of
Christ’s peace is addressed to all of mankind, to those that are afar off
and to those that are near. Those that were afar off refers to the
Gentiles who were strangers to the covenant. Those near were the Jews, the
chosen people of God and who had received the law and the covenant.
18) “For through him we both have access by one
Spirit unto the Father.”
The
peace and reconciliation which Christ has granted permits us to approach
God the Father. “We both” again means the Jew
and Gentile, in other words, independent of their previous state, they now
have access to the Father and this access, this approach and possibility
of communion with God is made possible in one Spirit. The image of
approaching God is inspired by the usual attempts of man to approach
someone holding a very high and important position by asking someone else
who is already near to him to at as a go-between. Here the person who acts
as the go-between is Christ who reconciles man to God. Our access or
approach to God is made in one Spirit. St. John Chrysostom says: “The work
of our approach to God the Father is brought about equally by Christ and
by the Holy Spirit.”
The Holy
Spirit forms the Church in one body, the body of Christ, in which
continues the work of reconciliation of men and achieves their approach to
God the Father. The Trinitarian character of the verse is apparent. The
work of reconciliation in Christ and the creation of man as one body in
the Church is a work that involves the participation of all three divine
Persons of the Holy Trinity.
19) “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and
foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of
God”
What Paul now
says as also in the following two verses consists of the consequence or
outcome of everything he has said so far. The Christians who came from the
ranks of the Gentiles, from the moment of their reconciliation and
incorporation into the one body of the Church, they are no longer
strangers and foreigners. Strangers and foreigners are similar in meaning
but the use of both words by Paul is to show a difference. A stranger is
an alien, someone who doesn’t have citizenship of a country and therefore
hasn’t the legal rights of a citizen. A foreigner on the other hand, is
the person who is accepted as a permanent inhabitant of a certain place,
but doesn’t enjoy the full rights of a citizen. The Apostle Peter in his
first Epistle (1 Peter 2:11) uses the words strangers and pilgrims to
stress the temporary residence of Christians in this present world. The
Gentiles who were previously without Christ and aliens to the state of
Israel and the covenant of God’s promise, were without hope and as atheist
in the world, but now they are fellow citizens with the saints and belong
to God’s family. The saints Paul is referring to are not the Old Testament
saints, but every baptized Christian who comprise the new people of God.
The phrase “fellowcitizens with the saints”
thus means that the Gentiles who were once distant from Christ are now
members of his body and they too are saints and belong to the new family
of God.
20) “And are built upon the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone”
To
emphasize the accession of the Gentiles to the body of the Church, Paul
uses an image of a building construction to show a similarity with the
Church, an image that Christ and other New Testament writers have also
used. The Gentiles who have been incorporated into the new faith were
built like living bricks to the spiritual construction of the Church. The
foundation of this building are the Apostles and the Prophets. The
Apostles comprise the foundation of the Church because they were the first
to believe and so were built into the structure of the Church before
everyone else, and also because their preaching is like the groundwork and
base of the Church. By Prophets we should understand the Prophets of the
first Church and not the Prophets of the Old Testament, which is why they
are mentioned second to the Apostles. The cornerstone is Jesus Christ
himself. The cornerstone is the stone that is placed at the lowest point
of a building were two walls meet which joins and hold them together and
so supports the whole building. By using the image of a cornerstone, Paul
wants to stress that Christ as the cornerstone joins and holds together
Gentiles and Jews in the building of the Church.
In this verse,
Paul places the Apostles and the Prophets as the foundation of the Church,
but in Corinthians he says that Christ is the foundation. The one example
does not actually contradict the other if we take into account that the
Apostles and Prophets are the foundation with the interpretation that with
their preaching, they place Christ as the foundation of their preaching
and then build upon this.
21) “In whom all the building fitly framed together
groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord”
The
building of the Church is founded and supported by Christ. The term “all
the building” can mean the whole community of a local Church or the Church
universal comprising of all Christians in everyplace of the world. The
word groweth expresses the dynamic journey of the church in the world with
regards to achieving her destination which is to become a holy temple in
the Lord. The holiness of the Church is not static but continues to grow.
The Church journeys continually towards fullness which is meant by the
verb to grow. A Church without growth towards holiness isn’t a living
Church of Christ just as a body without growth is dead.
22) “In whom ye also are builded together for an
habitation of God through the Spirit.”
This last
verse is very similar to the previous verse. In the building of the Church
which Christ is the cornerstone, we are all built together, both the
receivers of the Epistle who were the Christians of Ephesus and all of us,
so that we might become a habitation of God. In other words like the
previous verse, we might become a holy temple where God resides. Elsewhere
Paul says that the faithful are the temple of the Holy Spirit. The
faithful become the habitation of God through the Holy Spirit. In the
construction of the Church as a holy temple and habitation of the Lord,
the Holy Spirit is present and actively working towards its completion.
Luke 12:16-21
“The
Lord said this parable: The ground of a certain rich man brought forth
plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do,
because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I
do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow
all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast
much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be
merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be
required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast
provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich
toward God. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears
to hear, let him hear.”
The Parable is
known as the Parable of the Foolish rich man. Christ said this Parable to
correct the way of life of all of us. For just as the rich man of the
Parable fell to the temptation of greed and the love for wealth and became
greedy and miserly, a true idol worshipper who worshipped the material
wealth instead of the one true God, the same can happen to each and every
one of us. The temptation of greed, in other words, the possession of
material goods, more than what we actually need and our dependence on
them, creates a danger for our salvation
Although the
rich man had gained material wealth he had in fact failed in life. In the
evening he made plans that would keep him living comfortably for many
years, but by the morning death put an end to his life. But before the
death of his body, he had already given up his soul to death, because he
lived the hell of being separated from God and from his fellow men. Christ
calls him a fool and his failure in life is all due to his foolishness.
Lets take a deeper look at the mistakes the rich man made with the hope
that we do not make the same.
Life without
God was the basic sin of the rich man. He denied the divine will of God,
that is, the holy commandments, which if someone follows can live in
eternity. He lived autonomously, by his own rule of life, which served the
desires and needs of his carnal nature and became his passion. But life
without relationship, love and communion with God, without participation
in the Trinitarian way of life is a choice of death. The image of the
three divine persons of the Holy Trinity shows us that life is fulfilled
when it is a communion of love. When our life is love for God and for all
men, we confess our faith in the Holy Trinity and we become true images of
God on earth. If God and mankind do not live in our hearts and we in them,
then we deliver ourselves to death, which is the result of being separated
from God. We are deprived of the breath of life, the grace of the Holy
Spirit, who gives life to everything. The rich man lived this death of
God’s absence everyday, and was his great unhappiness.
But because
man cannot live without God, something has to take his place and in the
rich man’s case his wealth became his god. The thirst for God in his soul
was replaced by thirst for wealth. By this god, his whole life depended
on, his happiness and his long life, which he desired so that he could
satisfy his passions. Thus he became an idol worshipper, because he loved
wealth. The Apostle Paul himself calls and greed idolatry (Col. 3:5).
Greed is the uncontrollable attachment of the human heart to material
goods of this world. The man who becomes subject and prisoner to the
desire of obtaining and possessing more and more material goods, distances
himself from God and devotes himself completely to his possessions, which
take the place of God. Therefore Greed is like idolatry because the person
becomes so attached to his belongings that he cannot bear to part from
them. They are his gods that he worships.
The rich man
living in his loveless hell is deprived of even the slightest trace of the
divine knowledge, of divine enlightenment, which guides man so that he
doesn’t trip up in the darkness of the passions. In the darkness of his
mind from the absence of God and the desires of the flesh, he makes plans
for his life and for his future. Everything he plans foresees the
satisfaction of his passions, to which he is a prisoner. The reason for
his need to make plans is the bountiful crops his land produced. Christ
says that: “The ground of a certain rich man brought
forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do,
because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?” The bountiful
and rich produce of his land does not become an opportunity to thank God
who is the giver and provider of all things, spiritual and material. For
the rich man the bountiful crop did not become a means leading to
salvation, but the means to increase his self vanity and pleasure, his
self centeredness and self love. If he was in the little bit interested in
his salvation, the bountiful crops from his land would have connected him
with God and he would have invited his poverty stricken brothers to become
sharers of his good fortune. It would have been an act of love and would
have shown that he was still spiritually alive and capable of allowing
others to live in him and him in them. True life is life that communes
with others, that offers and shares as a result of love. But none of these
things does the rich man do because he is greedy.
Wealth is
indeed a great temptation for man. Of the three temptations, gluttony,
vainglory and love for wealth, the fathers say that the love for wealth is
the most powerful. That is why when the devil used all three to tempt
Christ; he left the most powerful of these till last.
With the
thought of “the more I have the more happier I will be”, the rich man
decides to pull down his barns and to build bigger ones to store all his
fruits and his goods. And when he has fulfilled his plan, he will say to
his soul “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for
many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” In his mind
the foolish man plans ahead his future with a never ending banquet for his
soul with carnal foods. This “be merry” in
other words joy and happiness in life is his intention. But how is it
possible for wealth to bring happiness when it has no stability and is
similar to a liquid that flows from one place to the next? In reality he
is living an illusion and all his goals to take it easy and enjoy life to
the full for many years are full of vanity and failure.
If man desires
material goods more and above the things he has need of, then he is
suffering from the illness of greed, or love for pleasure or vanity. For
the man faithful to God, the thing greater than all the kingdoms of the
earth is that he is called by the name of Christ, in other words, a
Christian. He has received the adoption according to grace and has become
a son of God. (John 1:12) This is the wealth of God’s Grace, which gives
fulness to man. To the faithful man God’s grace is like having all the
money in the world, to the unbeliever it is not worth a farthing (Prov.
17:6 Septuagint). The world of money cannot be compared to the wealth of
grace. Christ said that whosoever: seeks first the kingdom of God, he will
not be deprived of worldly materials and everything we have need of will
be given to us. “Take therefore no thought for the
morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.”
(Matthew 6:33-34)
The acquiring
of wealth and the way of life of the rich man was death, but if the rich
man put to death the spirit of this world which ruled within him and acted
with his mind in Christ, he would have been transported from death to
resurrection. With love for God and for man he would have made his goods
common for all instead of holding on to them only for himself. He would
have risen above the requirements of his carnal nature and would have
followed a new way of life as a member of the community of the Church,
which had all things common. (Acts 4:32)
Joy is genuine
when it is the joy of everyone. Let my joy become our joy. Then the rich
man’s words which he would have said to his soul: “take thine ease, eat,
drink, and be merry” would have become reality for many, because
everything would have come about through grace which truly gives rest and
happiness, not only for many years but for life eternal. Joy is not the
“eat, drink, and be merry” but
“That ye may eat and drink at my table in my
kingdom” (Luke 22:30). He would have taken delight in the heavenly
bread of love which would have united him with God, but he preferred the
wealth that decays and not the wealth of love.
This rich man
who thought he had everything God called a stupid fool. And he was a fool
because of the way he lived and thought. For God he was spiritually dead
because he denied to love and have communion with him and with his fellow
men. Death and hell were within him from the moment he replaced God with
the barns, his crops and the “eat, drink, and be
merry”. In short, they give a temporary welfare to the body, but do
not accompany man to eternity.
Many of
Christ’s parables have a similar meaning – their purpose is to teach us
that we must have love for God and love for man. This was the meaning of
last weeks Gospel reading of the Parable of the Good Samaritan: the answer
to the teacher who asked Jesus what he should do to inherit eternal life
was “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy
mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.” On these two commandments hang
all the law and the prophets. Love is above all things. This is the
teaching we have received from Christ and the Apostles and this is the
message we receive from all the Saints. Remember what Paul told us a short
while ago: “And though I have the gift of prophecy,
and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all
faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.”
Or he could just as easily have said “I am a fool; I am spiritually
dead.”
The saints are
saints because they understood this message of love and lived and showed
it in practical terms. St. Serapion the Sindonite, whose feast day is on
14th May, spent his life helping others. He was called the Sindonite from
the Greek word sindoni meaning a linen sheet because he gave everything
that he had to charity, even his own clothes and wore a sheet as a
covering for his nakedness. One day as he was sitting on the side of a
road he saw a beggar trembling from the cold and so he gave him the sheet
and he himself remained completely naked. But because he was dead to the
material world he felt no shame because he was covered by God’s grace. The
only thing he had left was a Gospel Book which he always had with him. A
passer by asked him: “Who made you naked” and he, showing the Gospel Book
that he had, said “this.” Then he saw a man being dragged to prison
because of debts. The saint sold the Gospel Book and gave the money to the
man to pay what he owed. And when he was asked “Where is your Gospel Book”
he replied: “It kept telling me to sell what I have and give to the poor
so I obeyed.” Many times he sold himself as a slave and gave the money to
the poor. Like St. Serapion’s example there are many more saints of the
Church who have done similar things, not thinking of their own welfare or
embarrassment and all for the sake of love for God and love for mankind.
He that hath ears to
hear, let him hear.
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