Homily for Friday
29th Week of Ordinary Time
Oct. 21, 2022
Eph 4: 1-6
Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y.
“I, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received” (Eph 4: 1).
Paul has been
expounding on the glorious relationship between Christians and God the Father,
established by Christ. His tone changes
now to an appeal to his disciples in Ephesus to consider their call—that
relationship—and to live up to it; to be who they are. His appeal takes the tone even of a last
bequest: “I, a prisoner for the
Lord….” His relationship with God
in Christ means so much to him that he’s undergoing persecution for it and may
die for it.
The Ephesians’ relationship with God unites
them with God. So Paul speaks of unity,
of being one with God and with one another, one in everything spiritual; he
enumerates 7 unities (4:4-6).
To achieve and maintain unity within the
body of the Church, Christ’s followers must be like him: humble, gentle, patient, bearing with one
another thru love (4:2). Those qualities
foster unity in the Church and in a Salesian community. They’re hard—at least for me. I have to resolve every day to practice those
virtues; I hope I succeed now and then.
We need the help of the one Spirit, the
bond of unity (4:3-4), to practice those virtues of Christ, to live “in a
manner worthy of the call [we] have received.”
But the one who called us is eager to help us with his grace as he
helped St. Paul and numberless saints, so that “Christ may dwell in [our]
hearts,” as we heard yesterday (3:17) and we might all “be filled with the
fullness of God” (3:19).
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