Ephesians 2:12-22 / Luke 12:35-38
Paul talks about our salvation: Christ has brought us closer to God.
Bill Wilson was a “high roller” in the 1920s. Then came the stock market crash. Bill lost everything. Like many other victims of the crash, Bill turned to drink. Soon he found himself addicted to drink. In the next two years, he made four attempts to break his addiction.
They all failed, leaving him hopeless. The saving moment of his life came when he met Dr. Robert H. Smith. Together, in 1935, they founded the program that is now called Alcoholics Anonymous. Bill Wilson, and thousands like him, can relate to Paul’s words in today’s reading: “You, who used to be far away, have been brought near by the sacrificial death of Christ.” How have we experienced Christ’s saving power in our own personal lives?“Amazing grace! . . . I once was lost, but now am found.” John Newton
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Saint Luke, Evangelist (-c.74)
St Luke was a native of Antioch, the capital of Syria. A physician by profession (cfr. Col 4:14), he was consulted by St Paul during an illness on his 2nd great missionary journey, and converted by him to the Faith. Himself a gentile, he thenceforth associated himself with the great Apostle of the Gentiles, and while Paul was preaching in Thessalonica, Athens and Corinth, and during his 3-year stay at Ephesus, Luke carried on the work of Evangelization in Philippi. He returned with Paul to Jerusalem, and visited him frequently during his imprisonment at Caesarea; it was probably at that time that Luke wrote his extensive Gospel which Sts Jerome and John Chrysostom called St Paul’s Gospel. He is rightly said to have been “illumined by St Paul”, for he recorded and interpreted with utmost fidelity the oral preaching and catechizing of the great missionary. He is also credited with having painted a portrait of the Virgin Mary.
Being highly educated, Luke could write in polished, elegant Greek, and he related the events to contemporary history. In his endeavour to furnish an historical background for the faith of the educated Greek converts of the young Church, he particularly stressed the fact that God’s mercy and forgiveness extended universally both to the Jews and the Gentiles who believed in him. Thus, the parables of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son, for instance, appear only in his Gospel. St Luke is the Patron of physicians, artists, brewers, butchers, glass-workers and notaries.
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We usually like to be notified in advance
if someone wants to pay us a visit. Then we will tidy up our house or office
and prepare something to welcome and entertain our guests. But if someone
visits us without prior notice, then we may be caught in an inconvenient or
untimely situation. But for those servants in the gospel passage, they knew
that their master will return from the wedding feast, just that they did not
know when would it be.
Jesus is telling us to be ready and alert
always and He will visit us in the form of persons whom we don't usually pay
much attention to or whom we don't usually have time for. We must be ready and
alert and be aware that it is in such persons and situations that Jesus is
paying us a gracious visit. Because whenever Jesus pays us a visit, it is
always a visit that comes along with His blessings of love and peace and joy. It
may be at an inconvenient and unexpected time, but it will always be a
God-filled and blessed moment.
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Let us Pray: Lord our God, Jesus
your Son has broken down the barriers dividing peoples and nations, but why are
we still so far apart, even within our own households? He has brought us close by his blood, but why
does his one body remain a dream far removed from reality? God, let us not be aliens to one another, bring
us together, help us to demolish the walls of hatred and exploitation, of
distrust and power that divide your people, that we may be all one in Jesus
Christ our Lord.
