When St. Paul fell off his horse on the road to Damascus, blinded by light from heaven, his life, his outlook, his mission was turned upside down. What Paul saw, or encountered then was Jesus Christ. And in that moment he understood, with unbreakable conviction, that he had been wrong, wrong, wrong. Jesus was not an enemy, a blasphemer, a false prophet, a corrupter of Israel, as Paul had previously thought.
No!
Paul now saw - he knew - Jesus is the Lord. He was dead, and now he is forever alive. Jesus is the Christ, the promised Messiah. He is the Shepherd of Israel, the Son of David, and also the Son of God. In Jesus, through Jesus, God has wrought salvation. In Jesus, God has supremely manifested his glory, his fidelity, his goodness, his love.
This overwhelming truth has huge, vast, inexhaustibly rich implications. By a special, even unparalleled grace of the Holy Spirit, St. Paul directly saw, understood, entered into, unfolded, insisted on these implications. What he wrote about them remains until the end of time a light and reference point for the Church.
Over a series of seven Sundays these days we’re hearing little excerpts, as our second reading at Mass, from the Letter to the Ephesians. In this letter Paul steps back, as it were, to gaze in wonder, almost it seems in ecstasy, at the mystery of Christ; at what God has done for us in Christ; at what a difference Christ makes for us, both now and in the life to come. Our passage today was from Ephesians Chapter 2. Here Paul dwells on one of his central themes, controversial among his fellow Christian Jews, and for his former co-religionists, ample justification for murder. That is, Paul teaches that the Gentiles, no less than the Jews, and equally with the Jews, are called to salvation in Christ.
Perhaps we might be tempted to feel a bit impatient with the emphasis Paul puts on this. For us nowadays, the distinction between baptised Jews and baptised Gentiles might seem hardly relevant. But actually the point is crucial. For the Jews, at stake is the fidelity of God, and the coherence of his saving plan. So Paul the Jew speaks for them all. He remains intensely proud of his identity as a member of God’s chosen people: “a Hebrew of the Hebrews; circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and as to the law a Pharisee” (cf. Phil 3:5). Under-valuing nothing of that, now that he is in Christ Jesus, he will bless God (1:3), and praise his glory (1:12) all the more. Now, all the more Paul will ponder the Jewish Scriptures. He will read there of the Creation of the world, and the story of Adam, and the covenants made with Noah, and Abraham, and Moses, and David. He will read the Hebrew Prophets, and the Sages, and the Psalms, and the history of Israel, including the Exile and Return. All of it, without exception, he will understand now as pointing to, foreshadowing, preparing for the coming of Christ. Christ, Paul now sees, is the focal point of everything: of creation, of salvation history, of Divine Revelation, of God’s eternal purpose. In Him, all God’s promises are ratified, and fulfilled: but also they are opened up, as their whole purpose is at last made manifest.
As for the Gentiles who are in Christ Jesus (Eph 2:13), they also will praise God’s glory for ever (1:14). They’ll do that in perfect union with their baptised Jewish brethren, yet also always in their own distinctive manner. We Gentiles must be mindful not of our historic privileges, but precisely of our historic exclusion. As Paul instructs the Ephesians: “Remember that you were separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.” “But now” – so our passage today begins –“now you have been brought close, by the blood of Christ” (2:13). Now: we are set free from our former spiritual and moral blindness, from slavery to false gods, and from our corrupting appetites. And with our Jewish Christian brethren, we express the salvation we now have in Christ using theological terms from the Old Testament. So we use words like redemption, atoning sacrifice, covenant, sin, holiness, election, divine adoption, promise, God with us. We Gentiles, who come into all that from outside, wonder, no less than the Jews, at the sheer gratuity of God’s loving mercy towards us. As in a choir, singing in harmony, though each in his own register, we together rejoice ceaselessly in praise of God, and in thanksgiving for such blessings we have received in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Our passage today contains a phrase that might well sound inflammatory. “In his flesh”, says St. Paul, “Christ has abolished the law” (cf. 2:15). But did not Jesus himself say “I have come not to abolish but to fulfil… Not an iota, not a dot shall pass from the law until all is accomplished” (Mt 5:17)? Yes, of course we hold both statements as true. The divinely inspired scriptures stand forever. Yet: the ceremonial precepts of the law, whose purpose is now fulfilled, are certainly now abolished. Among them all, of great prominence was the separation of Jew from Gentile. Israel, consecrated to God, was commanded to keep itself separate, in order to avoid the worship of idols, and pagan immorality. Markers of this separation were circumcision, Sabbath observance, rituals of food, and the famous dividing wall in the Temple. But now together we gaze at Jesus hanging on the Cross. His Body hangs vertically; his arms stretch out horizontally: reconciling, uniting, recapitulating, inviting, embracing, loving.
Now, Paul teaches, the unity of Jew and Gentile - the unity the Church - reflects the unity of Christ, head and Body. So also this divinely gifted unity is rooted, not in any humanly constructed treaties or agreements, but in the unity of the three Trinitarian Persons. Helped by St. Paul, we see now how the Cross of Jesus has social, moral, liturgical, even political implications. But above all, because of it, our relationship with God is transformed. For, as St. Paul says, “through him, in one Spirit, we all have access to the Father” (2:18).
As we come to Mass today, it's wonderful to be reminded of the thrilling, inspiring, life-giving vision of St. Paul. This vision gives our life its purpose, and fills us with invincible hope. And now it’s all perfectly expressed, and nourished, and summarised. For we, who are Christ’s Body, come together now in the Holy Spirit to offer his Body, and to receive his Body – in order to be united in peace with him and with one another - to the glory of God the Father.