From: Ephesians 2:12-22
Reconciliation of Jews and Gentiles in Christ
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Commentary:
11-22. What is the significance of the calling of the Gentiles to the Church?
Their previous situation, separated from Christ (vv. 11-12), has undergone radical
change as a result of the Redemption Christ achieved on the Cross: that action
has, on the one hand, brought the two peoples together (made peace between
them: vv. 13-15) and, on the other, it has reconciled them with God, whose ene-
my each was (w. 16-18). The Redemption has given rise to the Church, which
St Paul here describes as a holy temple built on the foundation of the apostles
and prophets (vv. 19-22).
11-12. Prior to the coming of the Messiah, the Gentiles bore the mark of paga-
nism even on their bodies: they were uncircumcised; and on this account they
were despised by the Jews. St Paul, however, goes much further: he says that
the essential distinction between Jews and Gentiles was not circumcision but
the grace of election, which previously was extended only to the Jewish people.
To them “belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law,
the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs” (Rom 9:4-5).
The Gentiles had been given no such grace; it had been reserved to the people
to whom God had promised the Messiah. Despite their myriad gods, the Gen-
tiles did not know the true God.
Thus, one of the great results of the Redemption wrought by Christ and by God’s
mercy is that the Gentiles have been admitted to the covenants God made with
the patriarchs, covenants which contained the promise that a Messiah would
bring salvation (cf. note on Rom 9:4-6). This fulfilled the promise made to Abra-
ham that through him all the families of the earth should account themselves
blessed (cf. Gen 12:3). The prophets proclaimed this many times (cf. Is 2:1-3;
56:6-8; 60:11-14; etc.), and Jesus Christ saw it as imminent when he said that
many would come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob (cf. Mt 8:11).
14-15. “He is our peace”: through his death on the cross Christ has abolished
the division of mankind into Jews and Gentiles. The Gentiles, who had been far
away from God, from his covenant and from his promises (cf. v. 12), are now on
a par with the Jews: they share in the New Covenant that has been sealed with
the blood of Christ. That is why he is “our peace”. In him all men find that soli-
darity they yearned for, because, through his obedient self-sacrifice unto death,
Christ has made up for the disobedience of Adam, which had been the cause of
human strife and division (cf. Gen 3-4). “Christ, the Word made flesh, the prince
of peace, reconciled all men to God by the cross, and, restoring the unity of all
in one people and one body, he abolished hatred in his own flesh (cf. Eph 2:16;
Col 1:20-22) and, having been lifted up through his resurrection, he poured forth
the Spirit of love into the hearts of men” (Vatican II, “Gaudium Et Spes”, 78).
God’s plan to attract mankind to himself and to reestablish peace included the
election of the Jewish people, from whom the Messiah would be born; and in
that Messiah all the nations of the world would be blessed (cf. Gen 11:3). He
is in fact called “prince of peace” (Is 9:6; cf. Mic 5:4). However, many Jews had
come to regard their election in such a narrow-minded way that they saw it as
creating a permanent barrier between themselves and the Gentiles. Some rabbis
of our Lord’s time despised and even hated the Gentiles. The separation between
the two peoples was reflected in the temple wall which divided the court of the
Gentiles from the rest of the sacred precincts (cf. Acts 21:28). The real roots of
the separation lay in Jewish pride at being the only ones to have the Law of God
and keep it by scrupulous attention to countless legal niceties.
By his death on the cross Jesus Christ has broken down the barriers dividing
Jews from Gentiles and also those which kept man and God apart. St Paul says
this metaphorically when he says that Christ “has broken down the dividing wall”,
referring to the wall in the temple. But he is not resorting to metaphor when he
says that Christ abolished “in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinan-
ces”. Christ, through his obedience to the Father unto death (cf. Phil 2:8), has
brought the Law to fulfillment (cf. Mt 5:17 and note on Mt 5:17-19); he has be-
come, for all mankind, the way to the Father. The Law of the Old Testament,
although it was something good and holy, also created an unbridgeable gap be-
tween God and man, because man, on his own, was incapable of keeping the
Law (cf. notes on Gal 3:19-20; 3:21-25; and Acts 15:7-11). Christ, through grace,
has created a new man who can keep the very essence of the Law — obedience
and love.
The “new man” of whom St Paul speaks here is Jesus Christ himself, who stands
for both Jews and Gentiles, because he is the new Adam, the head of a new man-
kind: the “new man”, St Thomas Aquinas explains, “refers to Christ himself, who
is called ‘new man’ because of the new form his conception took, ...the newness
of the grace which he extends ..., and the new commandment which he brings”
(”Commentary on Eph, ad loc.”).
By taking human nature and bringing about our redemption, the Son of God has
become the cause of salvation for all, without any distinction between Jew and
Greek, slave and free, male and female (cf. Gal 3:28): only through Christ’s grace
can peace be achieved and all differences overcome. Bl. John XXIII explains this
in his encyclical “Pacem In Terris”: peace is “such a noble and elevated task
that human resources, even though inspired by the most praiseworthy goodwill,
cannot bring it to realization alone. In order that human society may reflect as
faithfully as possible the Kingdom of God, help from on high is necessary. For
this reason, during these sacred days our supplication is raised with greater fer-
vor towards him who by his painful passion and death overcame sin — the root of
discord and the source of sorrows and inequalities — and by his blood reconciled
mankind to the Eternal Father: ‘For he is our peace, who has made us both one’.”
16. Through his death on the cross, Jesus Christ reestablishes man’s friendship
with God, which sin had destroyed. Bl. John Paul II suggests that “With our eyes
fixed on the mystery of Golgotha we should be reminded always of that ‘vertical’
dimension of division and reconciliation concerning the relationship between man
and God, a dimension which in the eyes of faith always prevails over the ‘horizon-
tal’ dimension, that is to say, over the reality of division between people and the
need for reconciliation between them. For we know that reconciliation between
people is and can only be the fruit of the redemptive act of Christ, who died and
rose again to conquer the kingdom of sin, to reestablish the covenant with God
and thus break down the dividing wall which sin had raised up between people”
(”Reconciliatio Et Paenitentia”, 7). Redemption therefore brings about our recon-
ciliation with God (cf. Rom 5:10-2 Cor 5:18) and it affects everyone, Gentiles as
well as Jews, and all creation (cf. Col 1:20). This reconciliation is achieved in the
physical body of Christ sacrificed on the cross (cf. Col 1:22) and also in his mys-
tical body, in which Christ convokes and assembles all whom he has reconciled
with God by his redemptive sacrifice (cf. 1 Cor 12:13ff). The words “in one body”
can be taken in two senses — as referring to Christ’s physical body on the cross
and to his mystical body, the Church.
The sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ, “the memorial of the death and re-
surrection of the Lord, in which the Sacrifice of the cross is forever perpetuated,
is the summit and the source of all worship and Christian life. By means of it the
unity of the body of Christ is signified and brought about, and the building up of
the body of Christ is perfected” (Code of Canon Law, can. 897).
18. Prior to Christ’s coming, man was excluded from the Father’s house, living
like a slave rather than a son (cf. Gal 4:1-5). But in the fullness of time God sent
his Son to give us the spirit of sonship that enables us to call God our Father (cf.
note on Rom 8:15-17).
“The way that leads to the throne of grace would be closed to sinners had Christ
not opened the gate. That is what he does: he opens the gate, leads us to the
Father, and by the merits of his passion obtains from the Father forgiveness of
our sins and all those graces God bestows on us” (St Alphonsus, “Thoughts on
the Passion”, 10, 4).
Here we see the part played by the Holy Spirit in the work of salvation decreed
by the Father and carried out by the Son. The words “in one Spirit”, as well as
identifying the access route to the Father, also imply two basic facts: on the
one hand, that the mysterious union which binds Christians together is caused
by the action of the Holy Spirit who acts in them; on the other, that this same
Holy Spirit, inseparable from the Son (and from the Father) because they con-
stitute the same divine nature, is always present and continually active in the
Church, the mystical body of Christ. “When the work which the Father gave the
Son to do on earth (cf. Jn 17:4) was accomplished, the Holy Spirit was sent on
the day of Pentecost in order that he might continually sanctify the Church,
and that, consequently, those who believe might have access through Christ in
one Spirit to the Father (cf. Eph 2:18). [...] Hence the universal Church is seen
to be ‘a people brought into unity from the unity of the Father, the Son and the
Holy Spirit’ (cf. St Cyprian, “De Oratione Dominica”, 23)” (Vatican II, “Lumen
Gentium”, 4).
Christ has brought about salvation, and, to enable all to appropriate that salvation,
he calls them to form part of his body, which is the Church. The Holy Spirit is, as
it were, the soul of this mystical body; it is he who gives it life and unites all its
members. “If Christ is the head of the Church, the Holy Spirit is its soul: ‘As the
soul is in our body, so the Holy Spirit is in the body of Christ, that is, the Church’
(St Augustine, “Sermon 187”)” (Leo XIII, “Divinum Illud Munus”, 8). The Holy Spirit
is inseparably united to the Church, for St Irenaeus says, “where the Church is,
there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church and
the fullness of grace” (”Against Heresies”, III, 24).
19. After describing the Redemption wrought by Christ and applied in the Church
by the Holy Spirit, St Paul arrives at this conclusion: the Gentiles are no longer
strangers; they belong to Christ’s Church.
In the new Israel (the Church) privileges based on race, culture or nationality
cease to apply. No baptized person, be he Jew or Greek, slave or free man, can
be regarded as an outsider or stranger in the new people of God. All have proper
citizenship papers. The Apostle explains this by using two images: The Church
is the city of saints, and God’s family or household (cf. 1 Tim 3:15). The two im-
ages are complementary: everyone has a family, and everyone is a citizen. In
the family context, the members are united by paternal, filial and fraternal links,
and love presides; family life has a special privacy. But as a citizen one is acting
in a public capacity; public affairs and business must be conducted in a manner
that is in keeping with laws designed to ensure that justice is respected. The
Church has some of the characteristics of a family, and some of those of a polity
(cf. St Thomas Aquinas, “Commentary on Eph, ad loc.”).
The head of the Church is Christ himself, and in his Church are assembled the
children of God, who are to live as brothers and sisters, united by love. Grace,
faith, hope, charity and the action of the Holy Spirit are invisible realities which
forge the links bringing together all the members of the Church, which is moreo-
ver something very visible, ruled by the successor of Peter and by the other bi-
shops (cf. Vatican II, “Lumen Gentium”, 8), and governed by laws — divine and
ecclesiastical — which are to be obeyed.
20-22. To better explain the Church, the Apostle links the image of “the house-
hold of God” to that of God’s temple and “building” (cf. 1 Cor. 3:9). Up to this he
has spoken of the Church mainly as the body of Christ (v. 16). This image and
that of a building are connected: our Lord said, “Destroy this temple and in three
days I will raise it up” (Jn 2:19), and St John goes on to explain that he was spea-
king “of the temple of his body” (Jn 2:21). If the physical body of Christ is the true
temple of God because Christ is the Son of God, the Church can also be seen
as God’s true temple, because it is the mystical body of Christ.
The Church is the temple of God. “Jesus Christ is, then, the foundation stone of
the new temple of God. Rejected, discarded, left to one side, and done to death
— then as now — the Father made him and continues to make him the firm immo-
vable basis of the new work of building. This he does through his glorious resur-
rection [...].
“The new temple, Christ’s body, which is spiritual and invisible, is constructed by
each and every baptized person on the living cornerstone, Christ, to the degree
that they adhere to him and ‘grow’ in him towards ‘the fullness of Christ’. In this
temple and by means of it, the ‘dwelling place of God in the Spirit’, he is glorified,
by virtue of the ‘holy priesthood’ which offers spiritual sacrifices (1 Pet 2:5), and
his kingdom is established in the world.
“The apex of the new temple reaches into heaven, while, on earth, Christ, the
cornerstone, sustains it by means of the foundation he himself has chosen and
laid down — ‘the apostles and prophets’ (Eph 2: 20) and their successors, that is,
in the first place, the college of bishops and the ‘rock’, Peter (Mt 16: 18)” (Bl.
John Paul II, “Homily at Orcasitas, Madrid”, 3 November 1981).
Christ Jesus is the stone: this indicates his strength; and he is the cornerstone
because in him the two peoples, Jews and Gentiles, are joined together (cf. St
Thomas Aquinas, “Commentary on Eph, ad loc”.). The Church is founded on this
strong, stable bedrock; this cornerstone is what gives it its solidity. St Augustine
expresses his faith in the perennial endurance of the Church in these words: “The
Church will shake if its foundation shakes, but can Christ shake? As long as
Christ does not shake, so shall the Church never weaken until the end of time”
(”Enarrationes in Psalmos”, 103).
Every faithful Christian, every living stone of this temple of God, must stay fixed
on the solid cornerstone of Christ by cooperating in his or her own sanctification.
The Church grows “when Christ is, after a manner, built into the souls of men
and grows in them, and when souls also are built into Christ and grow in him;
so that on this earth of our exile a great temple is daily in course of building, in
which the divine majesty receives due and acceptable worship” (Pius XII, ‘Media-
tor Dei”, 6).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: Luke 12:35-38
The Need for Vigilance and the Parable of the Steward
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Commentary:
35-39. In the preaching of Christ and of the Apostles we are frequently exhorted
to be watchful (cf. Matthew 24:42; 25:13; Mark 14:34) — for one thing, because
the enemy is always on the prowl (cf. 1 Peter 5:8), and also because a person in
love is always awake (cf. Song of Songs 5:2). This watchfulness expresses itself
in a spirit of prayer (cf. Luke 21:36; 1 Peter 4:7) and fortitude in faith (cf. 1 Corin-
thians 16:13). See the note on Matthew 25:1-13.
[The note on Matthew 25:1-13 states:
1-13. The main lesson of this parable has to do with the need to be on the alert:
in practice, this means having the light of faith, which is kept alive with the oil of
charity. Jewish weddings were held in the house of the bride’s father. The virgins
are young unmarried girls, bridesmaids who are in the bride’s house waiting for
the bridegroom to arrive. The parable centers on the attitude one should adopt
up to the time when the bridegroom comes. In other words, it is not enough to
know that one is “inside” the Kingdom, the Church: one has to be on the watch
and be preparing for Christ’s coming by doing good works.
This vigilance should be continuous and unflagging, because the devil is forever
after us, prowling around “like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pe-
ter 5:8). “Watch with the heart, watch with faith, watch with love, watch with cha-
rity, watch with good works [...]; make ready the lamps, make sure they do not
go out [...], renew them with the inner oil of an upright conscience; then shall the
Bridegroom enfold you in the embrace of His love and bring you into His banquet
room, where your lamp can never be extinguished” (St. Augustine, “Sermon”,
93).]
35. To enable them to do certain kinds of work the Jews used to hitch up the flo-
wing garments they normally wore. “Girding your loins” immediately suggests a
person getting ready for work, for effort, for a journey etc. (cf. Jeremiah 1:17;
Ephesians 6:14; 1 Peter 1:13). Similarly, “having your lamps burning” indicates
the sort of attitude a person should have who is on the watch or is waiting for
someone’s arrival.
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.