Please read the Scripture passage before the homily.
This passage is the one time in the New Testament when Paul speaks to children and to the parents of children. This points to a later period in the life of the early Church. A later generation of Christians had come to understand that the second coming of Christ would probably not come in their lifetime and their children would probably grow up to raise their children in the Christian faith. It also points to a Church struggling to remain faithful to God in a heavily pagan culture.
How do we deal with cultural norms and situations that challenge our Christian way of life? What does a Christian do about family life and slavery? It is a matter of living the freedom and equality we have from Christ in a society that wants us in slavery to a system of dominance.
We still live in these circumstances. We are free and equal in Christ, but society wants us the live in a society where there are winners and losers, slaves and free. We are challenged to live in the freedom God has given us through Christ with the mutual respect that shows itself in our relationships with everyone in society regardless of race, color, language, national origin, gender, sexuality, financial state, political party or any other peripheral distinction.
The circumstances that provoked this letter to the Ephesians are the circumstances in which we are to read and understand the letter.