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The Apostle's Prayer

Commentary:

14. St Paul now continues the prayer which he interrupted in v. 1, to
entreat the Father to let Christians understand as deeply as possible
the divine plan for salvation implemented in Christ (vv. 16-l9).

"I bow my knees": the Jews generally prayed standing up. Only at
moments of special solemnity did they kneel or prostrate themselves
in adoration. The Apostle, by introducing this almost liturgical
reference, is expressing the intensity of his prayer, and the
humility which inspires it.

Bodily gestures--genuflections, bowing of the head, beating the breast,
etc.--which accompany prayer should be sincere expressions of devotion.
They allow the entire person, body and soul, to express his love for
God. "Those who love acquire a refinement, a sensitivity of soul, that
makes them notice details which are sometimes very small but which are
important because they express the love of a passionate heart" (J.
Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 92).

15. To "take a name" from something means to derive one's being or
existence from it, and the word translated here as "family" ("patria"
in Greek) means a grouping of individuals who are descended from a
common father; it could be translated as "paternity", as the New
Vulgate does.

The Apostle is saying that every grouping which is regarded as a
family, whether it be on earth (like the Church or the family), or in
heaven (like the Church triumphant and the choirs of angels), takes
its name and origin from God, the only Father in the full meaning of
the word. Thus, the word "Father" can be correctly used to designate
not only physical but also spiritual fatherhood.

The parenthood of married people is an outstanding example of the love
of God the Creator. They are cooperators in that love, and, in a
certain sense, its interpreters (cf. Vatican II, "Gaudium Et Spes",
50). Hence, "when they become parents, spouses receive from God the
gift of a new responsibility. Their parental love is called to become
for the children the visible sign of the very love of God, 'from whom
every family in heaven and on earth is named"' (John Paul II,
"Familiaris Consortio", 14).

16-17. The strengthening of the inner man through the Spirit means
growth in faith, charity and hope, which is what the Apostle prays for
here (cf. vv. 16-19).

"Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things
not seen" (Heb 11:1); it is, then, a virtue whereby the Christian in
this life anticipates, imperfectly, the object of his hope--that
perfect union with God which will take place in heaven.

Love follows from knowledge: one cannot love someone one does not know.
And so, when goodness is known, it comes to be loved. Thus, the
knowledge of God, which faith provides, is followed by the love of God,
which stems from charity. Charity, for its part, is the basis of the
Christian's spiritual life. "The spiritual edifice cannot stay
standing--the same is true of a tree without roots, or a house without
a foundation, which can easily be toppled--unless it be rooted and
grounded in love" (St Thomas Aquinas, "Commentary on Eph, ad loc.").

18. St Paul asks God to give Christians understanding of the "mystery
of Christ", which essentially is the outcome of his love. In referring
to the vast dimensions of this mystery he uses an enigmatic phrase--
"the breadth and length and height and depth". These and similar terms
were used by Stoic philosophy to designate the cosmos as a whole. Here
they express the immense scale of the "mystery" which embraces the
entire plan of salvation, the actions of Christ and the activity of the
Church. St Augustine interpreted these words as referring to the cross,
the instrument of salvation which Christ used to show the full extent
of his love (cf. "De Doctrina Christiana", 2, 41).

St Paul may indeed be trying to sum up all the richness of the
"mystery" of Christ in a graphic way--in terms of a cross whose
extremities reach out in all four directions seeking to embrace the
whole world. The blood which our Lord shed on the cross brought about
the Redemption, the forgiveness of sins (cf. Eph 1:7). It did away with
hostility, reconciling all men and assembling them into one body (cf.
Eph 2:15-16), the Church. Therefore the cross is an inexhaustible
source of grace, the mark of the true Christian, the instrument of
salvation for all. When, through the action of Christians, the cross of
Christ is made present at all the crossroads of the world, then is that
"mystery" implemented whose purpose it is to "unite all things in
Christ" (cf. Eph 1:10).

19. Christ's love for us is infinite; it is beyond our grasp, because
it is of divine dimensions (cf. Jn 15:9 and note on Jn 15:9-11).

Knowledge of the history of salvation and of the "mystery" of Christ is
ultimately what gives us a notion of the scale of God's love. Therefore,
it is the basis of the Christian life: "We know and believe the love
which God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in
God" (1 Jn 4:16). Eternal life will consist in enjoying the love of God
without any type of distraction. During his life on earth, the believer
receives a foretaste of this joy to the degree that he abides in the
love of Christ (cf. Jn 15:9), that is, is rooted and grounded in love
(v. 17). However, this knowledge of Christ is always very imperfect
compared with that in heaven.

It is worth pointing out that the "knowledge" ("gnosis") which St Paul
is speaking about is not simply intellectual cognition but rather a
kind of knowledge which permeates one's whole life. It does not consist
so much in knowing that God is love as in realizing that we are
personally the object, the focus, of God's love: he loves us one by one,
as good parents love their children.

20-21. The dogmatic section of the letter concludes at this point, and
St Paul breaks into a short hymn of praise or doxology, in awe at the
divine plan of salvation revealed in Christ. He speaks his praise "in
the church and in Christ Jesus".

God knows more than we do; and, since he is a Father who loves us
unreservedly, he is always providing us with those things we stand in
real need of; moreover, he anticipates our requests, "for he responds
to the inner, hidden desires of the needy, not waiting for them to make
explicit requests" ("St Pius V Catechism", IV, 2, 5).

St Thomas Aquinas points out that "neither the mind nor the will of man
could have thought or conceived or asked God that he might become man
and that man might become God, a share in the divine nature; yet the
latter has been wrought in us by his power, and the former has been
effected by the incarnation of his Son" ("Commentary on Eph, ad loc.").

In its liturgy the Church is forever giving God the honor which is his
due and praising him for the gifts which it receives in Jesus Christ:
in the Mass, for example, at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer it
proclaims, "Through him [Christ], with him, in him, in the unity of the
Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, almighty Father, for ever
and ever. Amen."

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.