Friday – 29th Week – Ordinary Time [II]
Ephesians 4:1-6 + Luke 12:54-59
October 21, 2016
“… live in a manner worthy of the call you have received….”
Saint Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians preaches about the nature of the Church’s as Christ’s Mystical Body. Concretely, St. Paul describes the Church through examples of loving one’s neighbor: this second of the two great commands of Jesus is the form that gives shape to the inter-relation of the varied members of the Body of Christ.
In today’s First Reading (a single sentence!), St. Paul stresses some of the demands—the stresses—that stretch one striving to live in Christ. He refers to himself as “a prisoner of the Lord”. He was often physically jailed for his ministry as an apostle, but perhaps here he’s using the phrase in a more metaphorical sense. Perhaps when he preaches about “the bond of peace” he’s using the word “bond” as referring to what holds him bound to others, as if the members of the Body of Christ are a chain gang. It’s this peace that makes possible the “bearing with one another through love”, and exhibiting the virtues of humility, gentleness, and patience.