Remodeling The House
January 3, 2024
Fr. John Riccardo
“Brothers and sisters: You have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for your benefit, namely, that the mystery was made known to me by revelation. It was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel”
(Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6)
I had a conversation with a young woman recently that I can’t shake. Hers is a rather common tale: she grew up in a strong Catholic family, went to Catholic schools, got to college and drifted away. There’s much more to it, of course, but how many young people are in her shoes, and how many parents know the anguish that hers know? Part of the reason for drifting away was that what she had been taught seemed to have nothing to say to all that she was learning about and seeing happen in the expanding world around her. As we spoke, an image came to my mind and I shared it with her. Whether the image was from the Lord or not, it has lingered for quite some time now. The image was of a house being knocked down and simultaneously rebuilt. The house was her understanding of the story of faith. Now, there were many good features to be sure, and these remained, but there were some others that weren’t so good, and these were being demolished and then remade brick by brick. For a variety of reasons, she has a rather truncated understanding of what it means to be a Christian and, related to that, what faith has to do with daily life, aside from avoiding things she has been told she shouldn’t do. She simply didn’t see how everything “fit together.” I think this young woman is emblematic of many people, even many people who regularly go to Church. I have to admit the Lord has been doing some serious remodeling in my own understanding of the faith and the mission of being a disciple too.
How do we understand what God has done for us in Jesus? I think for not a few people it goes something like this: God sent Jesus to save us from our sins so we can go to heaven. What exactly we’ll do there, we don’t really know, and it can sound kind of boring to many of us, with images of clouds and harps and whatnot. In such a story, what’s life here and now all about? Is there a purpose for marriage, family, sex, work, friendship, food, leisure, play, politics, art, education, sport – anything?! Did God have a plan when He created this world or didn’t He? Or, from another perspective, did He have a plan, one that we see in the first Chapters of Genesis, but then for some reason decided to scrap the whole thing and now the goal is to get out of here as untainted as possible and to bring as many people as possible with us?
This is a gross oversimplification, I know, and I apologize to you who have a much more mature faith than this. However, from my experience this is an all too common view.
Paul tells the Christians in Ephesus that he is a steward of a gift given to him by God, and that gift is a heretofore unknown or, better, unclear, mystery that has finally been made known in Jesus. In other words, Paul is proclaiming to the Ephesians, and indeed to every place he travels in the Roman Empire, the story, the plan, the reason for existence. As has been said by many authors, this mystery wasn’t about “religion”, as we know that word today. It was about, well, everything. Paul was preaching that there was an Author behind it all, and that He had and has a point behind the story He is writing. This Author is a good Father, someone we can trust, someone who not only loves but who is Love. Paul was writing and preaching that in Jesus the plan God had for us and all of His good creation was being restored – and not just restored but brought into an even greater state of being than it was in the beginning when everything was “very good!”
That plan wasn’t just for the Jewish people but for the entire human race, and it wasn’t about our getting out of here and getting to heaven. It was about God Himself coming “in disguise”, as C.S. Lewis put it, to rescue His creation and especially us from the powers of Sin, Death and Satan, reconciling us to the Father, and forgiving our sin. It was about being set free from in order to be set free for. Free from slavery, idolatry, hatred, anger, the fear of death and so much more, in order to be free for loving both God and each other; free for doing everything – work, play, art, sports, entertainment, education, family – for the glory of God and the good of others. Free for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. In doing all of this, the story that began way back in Genesis, the story of God creating us in His image and likeness, made out of love for love and friendship with Him and each other, to rule over His good creation, can once again get back on track.
Just before the passage we’re going to hear this Sunday, Paul told the Ephesians that they – who were not Jewish – were “without God in this world” and, as a result, “without hope” (cf. Eph 2:12). In other words, before they heard the gospel they didn’t know there was a good Father. They didn’t even know there was a story. Life was futile; it was just “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Now, clearly, everything is not yet as it should be. We are not yet fully experiencing total freedom from and for; we are not yet fully experiencing everything having been restored. And yet it has begun. The most important day in the history of the world has already happened. Jesus has risen and in doing so has defeated the powers of Sin, Death and Satan (He just hasn’t destroyed them…yet). When we come to understand what God has done for us in Jesus, we are not only rescued from the despair and fear and anger that had controlled our lives, but we are then sent as His agents to go and rescue others. We are sent to tell others about the God who is Love and who loves us; we are sent to do all we can to make this world ever more human, ever more in accord with how He created it to be at the beginning, until that day when the Lord returns not to take us away but to make all things new.
As we enter into 2024, perhaps our own understanding of “the story” might be in need of a little “remodeling.” I for one have many many rooms and wings still being rebuilt! May St. Paul intercede for us, that we might come to know more fully the mystery, and to live and speak in such a way that we rescue others from futility and glorify the Lord in everything we do.
ACTS XXIX Prayer Intentions
Protection for us, our mission and our families.
All the Bishops, priests and lay leaders we are ministering to this month.