Catholic lectionary for 21 September 2006

King James Version (en)

King James Version (en)

Ephesians, Chapter 4, verses 1-7, 11

¹ He exhorteth to unity, ⁷ and declareth that God therefore giveth diverse, ¹¹ gifts unto men

¹I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,

²With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;

³Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

⁴There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;

⁵One Lord, one faith, one baptism,

⁶One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

⁷But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
...

¹¹And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

Read more:Ephesians, Chapter 4

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4

4:1 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord - Imprisoned for his sake and for your sakes; for the sake of the gospel which he had preached amongst them. This was therefore a powerful motive to them to comfort him under it by their obedience.

4:3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit - That mutual union and harmony, which is a fruit of the Spirit.The bond of peace is love.

4:4 There is one body - The universal church, all believers throughout the world. One Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father - The ever - blessed Trinity. One hope - Of heaven.

4:5 One outward baptism.

4:6 One God and Father of all - That believe. Who is above all - Presiding over all his children, operating through them all by Christ, and dwelling in all by his Spirit.

4:7 According to the measure of the gift of Christ - According as Christ is pleased to give to each.

Luke, Chapter 9, verses 9-13

⁷ Herod desireth to see Christ; Christ feedeth five thousand

⁹And Herod said, John have I beheaded: but who is this, of whom I hear such things? And he desired to see him.

¹⁰And the apostles, when they were returned, told him all that they had done. And he took them, and went aside privately into a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida.

¹¹And the people, when they knew it, followed him: and he received them, and spake unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing.

¹²And when the day began to wear away, then came the twelve, and said unto him, Send the multitude away, that they may go into the towns and country round about, and lodge, and get victuals: for we are here in a desert place.

¹³But he said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they said, We have no more but five loaves and two fishes; except we should go and buy meat for all this people.

Read more:Luke, Chapter 9

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9

9:10 Mar 6:30.

9:12 Mat 14:15; Mar 6:35; Joh 6:3.

NOTES

Paul's words about one body, one spirit, one shared faithfulness and one baptism sound like one of the earliest Christian creeds. In those days there was no single creed; apparently there were several. And although no one formally canonized these creeds, in practice they...

Paul's words about one body, one spirit, one shared faithfulness and one baptism sound like one of the earliest Christian creeds. In those days there was no single creed; apparently there were several. And although no one formally canonized these creeds, in practice they served their purpose: they enabled Christians to formulate the central credo of their faith and their life briefly and concisely. At the heart of the formulation the apostle offers in his letter is the Church as one body and one spirit, united by one hope, the same hope for everyone.

It is precisely the Church with a capital C that is meant here: not an earthly community founded by human beings, but a spiritual reality. As a spiritual reality, the Church is always the Kingdom on earth. If a Christian is by definition an inhabitant of the Kingdom, then the Church is by definition the Kingdom's representation on earth. Its members are united by the one breath of this Kingdom, shared by all, and bound together by a common hope: the hope that the day will come when Christ returns in glory, when the Kingdom will unfold completely and in all its fullness, embracing and transfiguring the whole world.

That is why all Christians have one Master. In this case, that is exactly the word: Master with a capital M. The King. The Ruler of His Kingdom, the very Kingdom entered through baptism, which is also one. Of course, if there were many churches, there would also be many baptisms. But the Church with a capital C is one by definition. Therefore baptism too is one, if it is genuine: for it brings a person into this very Church with a capital C, not into some earthly community. Or it brings them nowhere at all, but then it is time to put the word ‘baptism’ in quotation marks.

And all Christians also share one faith, provided they truly are Christians: faith, of course, as faithfulness to Christ, not as various descriptions of the numerous versions of a Christian worldview. And there is one God above everyone and everything, and in everyone. For only God's presence can make the Church the body of Christ and the world the Kingdom. This is the hope of Christians, if, of course, we are speaking of genuine Christianity.

For the apostle, every ministry in the Church is above all the building up of the Body of Christ. Belonging to the Church does not mean belonging to a structure or even to a particular church community, or at least not merely formal membership. It means first of all being included in the relationship between the Father and the Son that...

For the apostle, every ministry in the Church is above all the building up of the Body of Christ. Belonging to the Church does not mean belonging to a structure or even to a particular church community, or at least not merely formal membership. It means first of all being included in the relationship between the Father and the Son that creates the Kingdom and opens it to every seeker. Throughout the ages, those seeking God tried in many different ways to establish a living relationship with Him. Sometimes they succeeded in something, but more often they did not. Now, after Christ has come, our relationship with God must be established together with Him - at least if we are Christians.

From this perspective Paul calls his brothers in Ephesus to view everything they do as Christians and members of the Church. This is not a matter of formal discipline or of having every action and ministry approved by some "senior leaders." The question is whether the person carrying out a ministry is aware of their direct relationship with Christ. There are many good and useful works. The only question is whether Christ has given grace specifically to us for the work we are doing at this moment. Today we are probably more accustomed to seeing grace as a kind of spiritual energy with which God strengthens us through Jesus Christ, giving us power for all the good works that occur to us and that we consider good - or simply for a pious life, which is also a good thing.

Paul connects grace with a specific commission given by Christ within the spiritual process of building the Kingdom and of forming and strengthening His relationship with the Father. Such are all Christ's gifts, and grace is given in proportion to the gift, providing the strength to put it into practice and unfold the possibilities Christ has given. Belonging to the Church means that a Christian's life and activity are directly included in the building of the Kingdom as the relationship between the Father and the Son grows and is strengthened. The person who enters and participates in this relationship is also changed, transformed, and made an inhabitant of the Kingdom. In this way the Church becomes the Body of Christ, full of love and life.

Luke briefly touches on a whole series of events about which the other evangelists, especially Matthew, speak in greater detail. He gives the central place to Peter's confession and to Jesus' account of His approaching death and resurrection. There is a logic to this presentation. First of all...

Luke briefly touches on a whole series of events about which the other evangelists, especially Matthew, speak in greater detail. He gives the central place to Peter's confession and to Jesus' account of His approaching death and resurrection. There is a logic to this presentation. First of all, the Savior lets His disciples feel the power of the Kingdom and learn from their own experience how this power acts in the world. And not only them: the miraculous feeding of thousands of people with five loaves and two fish is also possible only in the Kingdom. This is not surprising: when it comes to the Kingdom, it is easier to show than to tell. Meanwhile, even those who had previously taken no interest in Christ's testimony begin to notice it—for example, Herod, who was generally wary of every kind of messianic movement that threatened his power.

This is precisely why, immediately after Peter's confession, Jesus explains to the disciples just how different the messiahship He has brought into the world is. Of course, the apostles fully understood everything Jesus told them only on the day of Pentecost. But it was immediately after Peter's confession that He began speaking to them about His messiahship and His path. It is as though He is trying to make everything clear from the outset, so that His messianic ministry will not become associated in His disciples' minds with traditional popular messianic expectations.

From the very beginning, the Savior does everything possible to help His disciples understand as much as they can of what they will have to understand fully in due time. This is natural: Golgotha lay ahead. The disciples had to be prepared, as far as possible, for what awaited them—and what awaited them was the shock of the complete collapse of their entire worldview and sense of the world. Only the experience of the Kingdom could help them endure it—not the earthly kingdom of popular expectations, but the true Kingdom, the one the Savior brought into the world.

The apostles gained as much experience of the Kingdom as was then possible after they went out to preach on their own, without their Teacher. The new ideas about the Kingdom proved more difficult: they would not fit into the disciples' minds or find room in their consciousness. All that remained was to rely on their intuition and, above all, on the personal relationship that bound them to Jesus. Nevertheless, He tells the apostles everything that can be said in human words about His earthly path and earthly ministry. And then each one takes in as much of His words as he is able to take in.

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