On this Sunday our attention is drawn to a Pauline text of great theological depth: Ephesians 1.3-14. In it, Paul exhorts Christians to praise God for his work of redemption in Jesus Christ. The first reason for praise is the election (choice). When Paul speaks of election, he intends to highlight that God took the first step towards man, bringing him from disbelief to faith, from darkness to light. This election takes place with his good pleasure (eudokia), that is, with his loving good will. The second reason is the predestination to be adopted children. Jesus made a new relationship between God and man possible: God is father, and we are his children. The third reason for praise focuses on redemption, on liberation from sin and death; liberation that made entry into divine life possible. The revelation of the mystery is the fourth reason for praise. Here Paul means the benevolent will of God, the implementation of which was entrusted to Jesus. Believers thus become heirs of God. The fifth is the gift of the Holy Spirit, a guarantee in the present of the future inheritance. The sixth and last blessing is collected in one word: praise, in which the six previous stages are concentrated, thus attributing the initiative to the Father, the actualization to Jesus and the seal to the Spirit.  One word deserves the expression: “In the fullness of time: to bring all things back to Christ, the only head, both those in heaven and those on earth” (Eph 1:10). Anekephalaiosasthai tà panta en to Christo (to bring back/summarize everything in Christ). Here we have a reference to the stave (kephalaion), on which in ancient times the code, the parchment, was rolled. In other words: all the history written in God’s book is wrapped around the Christ/shaft, and in this way all our words, all our actions take on orientation and purpose. As an icon on this page of revelation we refer to Christ the Redeemer kept in the church of the Minerva in Rome. Michelangelo highlights that redemption occurred through the Passion of Christ. Here then are the signs of the cross, the rod and the sponge. Christ is represented as the typical Greek hero, powerful and strong, proud and victorious, aesthetically beautiful, to show how grace is the radiation of the pulchritudo Dei.

Commentary by b. Sandro Carotta, osb
Abbazia di Praglia (Italy)

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves,
Prinknash Abbey