For those who do
not believe
The last part of today’s
second reading is often quoted at weddings, but the first part of Paul’s words
addressed to the Ephesians today are seldom voiced. True, the language seems antiquated for the
modern western world, but if this passage is read in its entirety, we might
come to understand that it’s not meant as a measurement of the worth of women
versus men. Rather it’s meant to show us
that all of us are meant to complement one another.
The believing community that
gathers to pray is more and more today like the gathering of Israelites who
stood with Joshua and heard him ask them to choose which god they would
follow. They made a choice that day, and
we have the heritage of faith to show for it, but we too make a choice today:
ours is the choice to accept the inheritance of faith that has been passed down
to us; ours is the choice to learn it well; ours is the choice to pass it on to
future generations so that they too can come to know the Lord.
Before we can make such a
choice, we must first be given the opportunity to meet the Lord, to come to
know who God is, for our God is not an inanimate statue that stands far off and
gazes at us. Jesus came to teach us that
our God cares deeply for us, our God loves us, our God wants to lavish us with
gifts like parents, grandparents and godparents might lavish them upon a
newborn infant. The gifts that God offers
are not tangible, but they are enduring.
These gifts will never clutter our shelves, but they will always remain
with us to guide us and to enliven us.
Beginning in October of this
year, the Church will live a Year of Faith.
This is a special invitation for us to discover or to re-discover the
treasures of our faith; an invitation for children of all ages to discover or
to re-discover that faith is about a relationship that is cultivated between
people and God. There are some aspects
of our faith that are meant to be discovered one-on-one in the quiet of
individual prayer, and there are others that are meant to be enjoyed in
community. The secret is to understand
that faith begins with a personal relationship, and once that relationship has
had a chance to grow, we too will respond like Saint Peter: Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.
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