NOTES for Eph 2:19

In his letters, the Apostle Paul constantly returns to the theme of Christian universality. The serious and profound division between those who inherit the faith of the chosen people and those who are strangers to it is overcome by Christ’s death for all people. The apostle goes on to say that, to open to the Gentiles the possibility of entering the Church and entering into a covenant with God, there was a special revelation of the mystery of Christ, given to the apostles and prophets by the Holy Spirit. Today, those who have entered the Church from among the ‘Gentiles’, that is, from outside Israel, form its overwhelming majority, and so our awareness of the greatness of this gift has grown dull.

The distinctions that have arisen between people in the course of history are overcome in the Church, and all become, in the apostle’s words, ‘no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household’. These distinctions themselves therefore have only a very relative significance. Yet relations in the world around us are organised as if divisions into historically formed groups existed eternally and had an enduring value. To a considerable extent, we become aware of and understand our own identity by identifying with a particular type of group. This has always been so, from primitive ancient tribes to the complex, multifaceted society of today. In essence, the apostle offers Christians another way of identifying themselves: to be fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household.