Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)
From: Ephesians 3:2-12
St Paul's Mission
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[1] For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles—[2] assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, [3] how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. [4] When you read this you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, [5] which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; [6] that is, how the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
[7] 0f this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace which was given me by the working of his power. [8] To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, [9] and to make all men see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. [11] This was according to the eternal purpose which he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, [12] in whom we have boldness and confidence of access through our faith in him.
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Commentary:
1-21. Christ's saving work on behalf of the Gentiles, calling them to be with the Jews, living stones in the edifice of the Church, leads the Apostle once again to overflow in prayer (vv. 14-21). But first he considers his own position and what Christ has done in him by making him a minister or servant of the Mystery of Christ (vv. 2-13). He witnesses to the revelation he himself has received, which made this Mystery known to him (vv. 2-5); and he goes on to give a summary of the Mystery, emphasizing the call of the Gentiles to the Church through the preaching of the Gospel (v. 6); he then explains that his mission is precisely to preach the Mystery of Christ to the Gentiles (vv. 7-13).
1-4. What led to St Paul's imprisonment was Jewish charges that he had preached against the Law and had brought Gentiles into the temple (they thought Trophimus, a citizen of Ephesus, was a Gentile: cf. Acts 21:28f). He did not mind so much the chains or the imprisonment or the Romans being his judges and jailers: what he wanted to make clear was that he was imprisoned for preaching to the Gentiles the salvation won by Jesus Christ.
He is very conscious of being an instrument specially chosen by God: he has been given the grace to reveal the "Mystery" (cf. Rom 1:15; 2 Cor12:2f). He is clearly referring to the vision he had on the road to Damascus (cf. Acts 9:2) and possibly to later revelations as well. His encounter with the risen Christ, who identifies himself with his Church (cf. Acts 9:5), is the origin and basis of his grasp of God's eternal plan, the "Mystery", which is one of the central teachings in this letter. The fact that Christ revealed himself to Paul and chose him to be the preacher of the Gospel to the Gentiles is something which Paul sees as part of the systematic implementation--the "oikonomia"—of God's plan.
5. In the Old Testament the promise made to Abraham revealed that in his offspring all the nations of the earth would be blessed (cf. Gen12:3; Sir 44:21); but how this would happen was not revealed. The Jews always thought that it would come about through their exaltation over other nations. Through the revelation Jesus made to him, St Paul has discovered that God has chosen another way--that of bringing the Gentiles into the Church, the body of Christ, on equal terms with the Jews. This is the "Mystery", the plan of God as revealed by the mission Christ gave his apostles or envoys (cf. Mt 28:19), of whom St Paul is one (cf. 3:8). Once again, as in 2:20, prophets are mentioned together with apostles; this may mean either the Old Testament prophets who announced the coming Messiah, or the New Testament prophets, that is, the Apostles themselves and other Christians who had insight, through revelation, into God's saving plans for the Gentiles and who proclaimed them under the inspiration of the Spirit. The context and other passages in Ephesians and elsewhere in the New Testament (cf. Eph 4:11; 1 Cor 12:28f; Acts 11:27; etc.) would suggest that he is referring to New Testament prophets. The Holy Spirit has revealed the Mystery to them "that they might preach the Gospel, stir up faith in Jesus the Messiah and Lord, and bring together the Church" (Vatican II, "Dei Verbum", 17). St Paul does not see himself as the only person to whom it has been given to know the Mystery revealed in Jesus Christ. All that he is saying is that, by the grace of God, it has been made known to him and that its preaching has been entrusted to him in a special way, just as it was given to St Peter to preach it to the Jews (cf. Gal 2:7).
St Paul attributes to the Holy Spirit the revelation of the Mystery, recalling, no doubt, how he himself came to know it after his meeting with Jesus on the road to Damascus (cf. Acts 9:17). It is the Spirit also who acts in the apostles and prophets (cf. Acts 2:17), and it is he who on an on-going basis vivifies the Church, enabling it to proclaim the Gospel. "The Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church. It is he who explains to the faithful the deep meaning of the teaching of Jesus and of his mystery. It is the Holy Spirit who, today just as at the beginning of the Church, acts in every evangelizer who allows himself to be possessed and led by him. The Holy Spirit places on his lips the words which he could not find himself, and at the same time the Holy Spirit predisposes the soul of the hearer to be open and receptive to the Good News and to the Kingdom being proclaimed" (Paul VI, "Evangelii Nuntiandi", 75).
7. The preacher of the Gospel carries out a ministry, a service to the people of God and to the Gospel itself. St Paul stresses that he has been made a "minister" of the Gospel; he seems to be saying, "I am not carrying out this task as if it were an initiative of my own; I am performing it as a service which comes from God" (St Thomas Aquinas, "Commentary on Eph, ad loc."). Those who teach Christian doctrine are not passing on their personal opinions, but a divine message. "That is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God" (1 Cor 4:1).
In all generations, God, in his mercy and by his power, calls people to the ministry of the Word, to ensure that the Gospel is forever proclaimed and made known to all mankind. This ministry belongs, in the first place, to bishops. As successors to the Apostles, "the bishops are heralds of the faith, who draw new disciples to Christ; they are authentic teachers, that is, teachers endowed with the authority of Christ, who preach the faith to the people assigned to them, the faith which is destined to inform their thinking and direct their conduct; and under the light of the Holy Spirit they make that faith shine forth, drawing from the storehouse of revelation new things and old (cf. Mt 13:52)" ("Lumen Gentium", 25). Alongside the bishops and acting as their helpers, priests and deacons also carry out the ministry of the Word: "it is the first task of priests as co-workers of the bishops to preach the Gospel of God to all men. In this way they carry out the Lord's command 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation' (Mk 16:15) and thus set up and increase the people of God" (Vatican II, "Presbyterorum Ordinis", 4).
The Christian faithful have the basic right, recognized by the Church, to have the word of God preached to them. "The people of God are first united through the word of the living God, and are fully entitled to seek this word from their priests. For this reason sacred ministers are to consider the office of preaching as of great importance, since proclaiming the Gospel of God to all is among their principal duties" ("Code of Canon Law", can. 762).
"When carrying out the ministry of the word", Benedict XV comments, "preachers should have this purpose in mind, as clearly indicated by St Paul: 'we are ambassadors for Christ' (2 Cor 5:20). Every preacher should make these words his own. But if they are ambassadors for Christ, when exercising their mission they have a duty to keep strictly to Christ's purpose when he gave them this charge; they must not have any other aims than those which Christ himself had when he lived on this earth [...]. Therefore, preachers must have these two goals—to spread the truth taught by God; and to awaken and nurture supernatural life in those who are listening to them. To sum up: they must seek the salvation of souls, promote the glory of God" ("Humani Generis Redemptionem").
8. Humble abandonment to the action of God in his soul leads St Paul to regard himself as the very lowest of Christians (cf. 1 Cor 15:9); his only credit is the grace God has given him. This grace includes the revelation of "the Mystery" and also the mission to proclaim it (cf. note on Phil 1:7).
He sees the gifts which Christ extends to all, the Gentiles included, as an inexhaustible source of riches (cf. 1:18; 2:7; 3:16). In this present life no one can fully grasp the marvels God has done (cf. Job 5:9) or plumb the depths of God's mercy as manifested in Jesus Christ (cf. note on Col 2:2-3).
Every generation can and should discover in the mystery of Christ "full awareness of (man's) dignity, of the heights to which he is raised, of the surpassing worth of his own humanity, and of the meaning of his existence" (John Paul II, "Redemptor Hominis", 11). The Church's mission is precisely this: "the revealing of Christ to the world, helping each person to find himself in Christ, and helping the contemporary generations of our brothers and sisters the peoples, nations, states, mankind, developing countries and countries of opulence--in short, helping everyone to get to know 'the unsearchable riches of Christ', since these riches are for every individual and are everybody's property" ("ibid.").
9. The Apostle establishes a close parallel between God's plan of Redemption and the very act of creation (cf. 1 Cor 2:7; Eph 1:4). This saving design, hidden until now, is what has been revealed by Christ; it enables us to grasp God's infinite love for men, for it shows that creation itself is part of God's plan of salvation. For if "all things were created" (Col 1:16) in and for and with Christ, the "Mystery" of which he is speaking was already latent in the very creation of the world. Hence God's eternal plan, which envisages man's salvation, affects the very act of creation and includes the incarnation of the Son of God.
Pope John Paul II says this in "Redemptor Hominis", 8: "The Redeemer of the world! In him has been revealed in a new and more wonderful way the fundamental truth concerning creation to which the Book of Genesis gives witness when it repeats several times, 'God saw that it was good' (cf. Gen 1 "passim"). The good has its source in Wisdom and Love. In Jesus Christ the visible world which God created for man (cf. Gen 1:26-30)--the world which, when sin entered, 'was subjected to futility' (Rom 8:19-22)--recovers again its original link with the divine source of Wisdom and Love."
10-12. This text shows that the apostolic ministry of preaching has a universal, cosmic, impact. Thanks to the Church's preaching of "the mystery", it is made known not only to mankind but also to the principalities and powers of the heavens. This preaching reveals the hidden, eternal plans of salvation whereby Jews and Gentiles, by being converted to Christ, come to have an equal place in the Church, and this fact in turn reveals the "mystery" of salvation even to the angels (cf. 1 Pet 1 :12), who come to realize the harmony that lies in God's various interventions in the course of history, from the Creation to the Redemption, including the history of the people of Israel.
The "principalities" and "powers" refer to the angelic powers which, according to Jewish belief, were the promulgators and guardians of the Law and whose mission included the government of men. But these "powers" did not know what God's plans were until they were carried out by Christ and his Church. In this passage St Paul does not say anything about whether these powers are good or evil (cf. note on 1:21). What he does re-assert, very clearly, is Christ's supremacy over all these powers, and the Church's role in bringing all creation to recognize that Christ is Lord of all. Therefore, the powers in the heavenly places no longer have any mastery over the Christian: through faith in Christ he acquires the freedom of a son of God and is able to address God confidently.
St Jerome, St Thomas and others interpret "the principalities and powers" as being good angels, like the "thrones" and "dominions" (cf. Col 1:16) and "virtutes" ("powers": cf. Eph 1:21). If we add to these titles appearing in St Paul's letters those to be found in other books of Sacred Scripture--cherubim, seraphim, archangels and angels--we get the nine angelic hierarchies known to tradition. The names simply reflect the qualities with which angels are endowed: they are spiritual beings, personal and free; they are incorporeal and because they are pure spirits, they have intellect, will and power far in excess of man's.