From: Ephesians 2:12-22
Reconciliation of Jews and Gentiles in Christ
[12] Remember that you were at that time 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.
[13] But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been
brought near in the blood of Christ. [14] For he is our peace, who has
made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility,
[15] by abolishing, in his flesh the law of commandments and
ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the
two, so making peace, [16] and might reconcile us both to God in one
body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end. [17]
And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to
those who were near; [18] for through him we both have access in one
Spirit to the Father. [19] So then you are no longer strangers and
sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of
the household of God, [20] built upon the foundation of the apostles
and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, [21] in whom
the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in
the Lord; [22] in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place
of God in the Spirit.
Commentary:
11-22. What is the significance of the calling of the Gentiles to the
Church? Their previous situation, separated from Christ (vv. 11-12),
has undergone radical change as a result of the Redemption Christ
achieved on the Cross: that action has, on the one hand, brought the
two peoples together (made peace between them: vv. 13-15) and, on the
other, it has reconciled them with God, whose enemy each was (w. 16-
18). The Redemption has given rise to the Church, which St Paul here
describes as a holy temple built on the foundation of the apostles and
prophets (vv. 19-22).
11-12. Prior to the coming of the Messiah, the Gentiles bore the mark
of paganism even on their bodies: they were uncircumcised; and on this
account they were despised by the Jews. St Paul, however, goes much
further: he says that the essential distinction between Jews and
Gentiles was not circumcision but the grace of election, which
previously was extended only to the Jewish people. To them "belong the
sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship,
and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs" (Rom 9:4-5). The
Gentiles had been given no such grace; it had been reserved to the
people to whom God had promised the Messiah. Despite their myriad gods,
the Gentiles did not know the true God.
Thus, one of the great results of the Redemption wrought by Christ and
by God's mercy is that the Gentiles have been admitted to the covenants
God made with the patriarchs, covenants which contained the promise
that a Messiah would bring salvation (cf. note on Rom 9:4-6). This
fulfilled the promise made to Abraham that through him all the families
of the earth should account themselves blessed (cf. Gen 12:3). The
prophets proclaimed this many times (cf. Is 2:1-3; 56:6-8; 60:11-14;
etc.), and Jesus Christ saw it as imminent when he said that many would
come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
(cf. Mt 8:11).
14-15. "He is our peace": through his death on the cross Christ has
abolished the division of mankind into Jews and Gentiles. The Gentiles,
who had been far away from God, from his covenant and from his promises
(cf. v. 12), are now on a par with the Jews: they share in the New
Covenant that has been sealed with the blood of Christ. That is why he
is "our peace". In him all men find that solidarity they yearned for,
because, through his obedient self-sacrifice unto death, Christ has
made up for the disobedience of Adam, which had been the cause of human
strife and division (cf. Gen 3-4). "Christ, the Word made flesh, the
prince of peace, reconciled all men to God by the cross, and, restoring
the unity of all in one people and one body, he abolished hatred in his
own flesh (cf. Eph 2:16; Col 1:20-22) and, having been lifted up
through his resurrection, he poured forth the Spirit of love into the
hearts of men" (Vatican II, "Gaudium Et Spes", 78).
God's plan to attract mankind to himself and to reestablish peace
included the election of the Jewish people, from whom the Messiah would
be born; and in that Messiah all the nations of the world would be
blessed (cf. Gen 11:3). He is in fact called "prince of peace" (Is 9:6;
cf. Mic 5:4). However, many Jews had come to regard their election in
such a narrow-minded way that they saw it as creating a permanent
barrier between themselves and the Gentiles. Some rabbis of our Lord's
time despised and even hated the Gentiles. The separation between the
two peoples was reflected in the temple wall which divided the court of
the Gentiles from the rest of the sacred precincts (cf. Acts 21:28).
The real roots of the separation lay in Jewish pride at being the only
ones to have the Law of God and keep it by scrupulous attention to
countless legal niceties.
By his death on the cross Jesus Christ has broken down the barriers
dividing Jews from Gentiles and also those which kept man and God
apart. St Paul says this metaphorically when he says that Christ "has
broken down the dividing wall", referring to the wall in the temple.
But he is not resorting to metaphor when he says that Christ abolished
"in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances". Christ, through
his obedience to the Father unto death (cf. Phil 2:8), has brought the
Law to fulfillment (cf. Mt 5:17 and note on Mt 5:17-19); he has become,
for all mankind, the way to the Father. The Law of the Old Testament,
although it was something good and holy, also created an unbridgeable
gap between God and man, because man, on his own, was incapable of
keeping the Law (cf. notes on Gal 3:19-20; 3:21-25; and Acts 15:7-11).
Christ, through grace, has created a new man who can keep the very
essence of the Law--obedience and love.
The "new man" of whom St Paul speaks here is Jesus Christ himself, who
stands for both Jews and Gentiles, because he is the new Adam, the head
of a new mankind: the "new man", St Thomas Aquinas explains, "refers to
Christ himself, who is called 'new man' because of the new form his
conception took, ...the newness of the grace which he extends ..., and
the new commandment which he brings" ("Commentary on Eph, ad loc.").
By taking human nature and bringing about our redemption, the Son of
God has become the cause of salvation for all, without any distinction
between Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female (cf. Gal 3:28):
only through Christ's grace can peace be achieved and all differences
overcome. Pope John XXIII explains this in his encyclical "Pacem In
Terris": peace is "such a noble and elevated task that human resources,
even though inspired by the most praiseworthy goodwill, cannot bring it
to realization alone. In order that human society may reflect as
faithfully as possible the Kingdom of God, help from on high is
necessary. For this reason, during these sacred days our supplication
is raised with greater fervor towards him who by his painful passion
and death overcame sin--the root of discord and the source of sorrows
and inequalities--and by his blood reconciled mankind to the Eternal
Father: 'For he is our peace, who has made us both one'."
16. Through his death on the cross, Jesus Christ reestablishes man's
friendship with God, which sin had destroyed. Pope John Paul suggests
that "With our eyes fixed on the mystery of Golgotha we should be
reminded always of that 'vertical' dimension of division and
reconciliation concerning the relationship between man and God, a
dimension which in the eyes of faith always prevails over the
'horizontal' dimension, that is to say, over the reality of division
between people and the need for reconciliation between them. For we
know that reconciliation between people is and can only be the fruit of
the redemptive act of Christ, who died and rose again to conquer the
kingdom of sin, to reestablish the covenant with God and thus break
down the dividing wall which sin had raised up between people"
("Reconciliatio Et Paenitentia", 7). Redemption therefore brings about
our reconciliation with God (cf. Rom 5:10-2 Cor 5:18) and it affects
everyone, Gentiles as well as Jews, and all creation (cf. Col 1:20).
This reconciliation is achieved in the physical body of Christ
sacrificed on the cross (cf. Col 1:22) and also in his mystical body,
in which Christ convokes and assembles all whom he has reconciled with
God by his redemptive sacrifice (cf. 1 Cor 12:13ff). The words "in one
body" can be taken in two senses--as referring to Christ's physical
body on the cross and to his mystical body, the Church.
The sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ, "the memorial of the
death and resurrection of the Lord, in which the Sacrifice of the cross
is forever perpetuated, is the summit and the source of all worship and
Christian life. By means of it the unity of the body of Christ is
signified and brought about, and the building up of the body of Christ
is perfected" (Code of Canon Law, can. 897).
18. Prior to Christ's coming, man was excluded from the Father's house,
living like a slave rather than a son (cf. Gal 4:1-5). But in the
fullness of time God sent his Son to give us the spirit of sonship that
enables us to call God our Father (cf. note on Rom 8:15-17).
"The way that leads to the throne of grace would be closed to sinners
had Christ not opened the gate. That is what he does: he opens the
gate, leads us to the Father, and by the merits of his passion obtains
from the Father forgiveness of our sins and all those graces God
bestows on us" (St Alphonsus, "Thoughts on the Passion", 10, 4).
Here we see the part played by the Holy Spirit in the work of salvation
decreed by the Father and carried out by the Son. The words "in one
Spirit", as well as identifying the access route to the Father, also
imply two basic facts: on the one hand, that the mysterious union which
binds Christians together is caused by the action of the Holy Spirit
who acts in them; on the other, that this same Holy Spirit, inseparable
from the Son (and from the Father) because they constitute the same
divine nature, is always present and continually active in the Church,
the mystical body of Christ. "When the work which the Father gave the
Son to do on earth (cf. In 17:4) was accomplished, the Holy Spirit was
sent on the day of Pentecost in order that he might continually
sanctify the Church, and that, consequently, those who believe might
have access through Christ in one Spirit to the Father (cf. Eph 2:18).
[...] Hence the universal Church is seen to be 'a people brought into
unity from the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit' (cf.
St Cyprian, "De Oratione Dominica", 23)" (Vatican II, "Lumen Gentium",
4).
Christ has brought about salvation, and, to enable all to appropriate
that salvations he calls them to form part of his body, which is the
Church. The Holy Spirit is, as it were, the soul of this mystical body;
it is he who gives it life and unites all its members. "If Christ is
the head of the Church, the Holy Spirit is its soul: 'As the soul is in
our body, so the Holy Spirit is in the body of Christ, that is, the
Church' (St Augustine, "Sermon 187")" (Leo XIII, "Divinum Illud Munus",
8). The Holy Spirit is inseparably united to the Church, for St
Irenaeus says, "where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; and
where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church and the fullness of
grace" ("Against Heresies", III, 24).
19. After describing the Redemption wrought by Christ and applied in
the Church by the Holy Spirit, St Paul arrives at this conclusion: the
Gentiles are no longer strangers; they belong to Christ's Church.
In the new Israel (the Church) privileges based on race, culture or
nationality cease to apply. No baptized person, be he Jew or Greek,
slave or free man, can be regarded as an outsider or stranger in the
new people of God. All have proper citizenship papers. The Apostle
explains this by using two images: The Church is the city of saints,
and God's family or household (cf. 1 Tim 3:15). The two images are
complementary: everyone has a family, and everyone is a citizen. In the
family context, the members are united by paternal, filial and
fraternal links, and love presides; family life has a special privacy.
But as a citizen one is acting in a public capacity; public affairs and
business must be conducted in a manner that is in keeping with laws
designed to ensure that justice is respected. The Church has some of
the characteristics of a family, and some of those of a polity (cf. St
Thomas Aquinas, "Commentary on Eph, ad loc.").
The head of the Church is Christ himself, and in his Church are
assembled the children of God, who are to live as brothers and sisters,
united by love. Grace, faith, hope, charity and the action of the Holy
Spirit are invisible realities which forge the links bringing together
all the members of the Church, which is moreover something very
visible, ruled by the successor of Peter and by the other bishops
(cf. Vatican II, "Lumen Gentium", 8), and governed by laws--divine and
ecclesiastical--which are to be obeyed.
20-22. To better explain the Church, the Apostle links the image of
"the household of God" to that of God's temple and "building" (cf. 1
Cor. 3:9). Up to this he has spoken of the Church mainly as the body of
Christ (v. 16). This image and that of a building are connected: our
Lord said, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up"
(Jn 2:19), and St John goes on to explain that he was speaking "of the
temple of his body" (Jn 2:21). If the physical body of Christ is the
true temple of God because Christ is the Son of God, the Church can
also be seen as God's true temple, because it is the mystical body of
Christ.
The Church is the temple of God. "Jesus Christ is, then, the foundation
stone of the new temple of God. Rejected, discarded, left to one side,
and done to death--then as now--the Father made him and continues to
make him the firm immovable basis of the new work of building. This he
does through his glorious resurrection [...].
"The new temple, Christ's body, which is spiritual and invisible, is
constructed by each and every baptized person on the living
cornerstone, Christ, to the degree that they adhere to him and 'grow'
in him towards 'the fullness of Christ'. In this temple and by means of
it, the 'dwelling place of God in the Spirit', he is glorified, by
virtue of the 'holy priesthood' which offers spiritual sacrifices (1
Pet 2:5), and his kingdom is established in the world.
"The apex of the new temple reaches into heaven, while, on earth,
Christ, the cornerstone, sustains it by means of the foundation he
himself has chosen and laid down--'the apostles and prophets' (Eph 2:
20) and their successors, that is, in the first place, the college of
bishops and the 'rock', Peter (Mt 16: 18)" (John Paul II, "Homily at
Orcasitas, Madrid", 3 November 1981).
Christ Jesus is the stone: this indicates his strength; and he is the
cornerstone because in him the two peoples, Jews and Gentiles, are
joined together (cf. St Thomas Aquinas, "Commentary on Eph, ad loc".).
The Church is founded on this strong, stable bedrock; this cornerstone
is what gives it its solidity. St Augustine expresses his faith in the
perennial endurance of the Church in these words: "The Church will
shake if its foundation shakes, but can Christ shake? As long as Christ
does not shake, so shall the Church never weaken until the end of time"
("Enarrationes in Psalmos", 103).
Every faithful Christian, every living stone of this temple of God,
must stay fixed on the solid cornerstone of Christ by cooperating in
his or her own sanctification. The Church grows "when Christ is, after
a manner, built into the souls of men and grows in them, and when souls
also are built into Christ and grow in him; so that on this earth of
our exile a great temple is daily in course of building, in which the
divine majesty receives due and acceptable worship" (Pius XII,
'Mediator Dei", 6).
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.