(Please read this Scripture passage first, before the homily.)
Paul in his early life in Judaism, had persecuted the Church of God. Later he considered himself the least of all the holy ones. It was the grace of God that lifted Paul out of his sinful life and revealed to him the mystery of Christ. Paul had preached this mystery that they Gentiles, were coheirs, members of the same one Body of Christ and copartners in the promise of Christ.
The second-generation Christians at Ephesus had not met Paul. They needed to hear where they had been and what they had become through the grace of God. We like them need the same message.
This is the mystery. Everything that has happened in the world has happened according to God’s plan. The choice of Israel as God’s chosen people is according to God’s plan. The mission of all the prophets is according to God’s plan. The coming of Christ during a time of Roman occupation is according to God’s plan. The spread of the Gospel throughout the world is according to God’s plan. The spread of the human family to all continents is according to God’s plan. The coming together of people in what we call The United States is somehow according to God’s plan. Even this cycle of elections is somehow according to God’s plan.
This does not mean that we do not have to work at it or that we merely have to receive what we have. It also means that God has given us tasks to do in this mystery of Christ in the Church, in the development and migration of peoples, in the challenges of climate change, in the danger of a pandemic, in the task of choosing elected officials. The fact that we exist in this time, in this place, with these circumstances, is according to God’s plan.
With Christ we are coheirs, copartners and coworkers with each other in the work of spreading the Gospel and bringing the peace and grace of God in Christ Jesus to the whole of creation. This is the mystery that was revealed to Paul. This is the mystery he preached. This is the mystery that God has revealed to us.
We need have no fear as if this mystery and its challenge were daunting. We have boldness of speech, boldness of power, boldness of action, along with confident access through faith in Christ Jesus, just as Paul and the Ephesians before us had.
Through our generation which has believed in Christ, just as through Paul’s generation and the generations that followed him, this mystery of Christ is meant to be revealed so that those who do not believe may come to faith and that those who do believe can pass on to the next generation the mystery of God’s wisdom at work in the world.
The task of Paul the Apostle and the task of the Ephesians is our task. We must pass on to others this mystery of God in the world.