A New Reality

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

The reading from the Letter to the Ephesians which is used in today's liturgy is a well-known passage: "One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all . . ." (Ephesians 4:5-6a)

The Letter to the Ephesians is an important part of the Pauline corpus because it contains the most well-developed description of St. Paul's "ecclesiology." Ecclesiology is the theology of the church. Keeping in mind that neither Jesus nor St. Paul intended to form a "church," we can gain insight into how the Christian community developed by careful reading of St. Paul's letters.

From historical documents we know that the Christian community began to separate itself from the Jewish community around the eighth decade of the Common Era. Until that time, Christians regarded themselves as members of the Jewish synagogue who had accepted Jesus as the expected Messiah. However, when Rome destroyed the Temple, the Jews began to expel the Christian believers from the synagogue, blaming them for the fact that Rome had turned against the Jewish authorities. When they found themselves separated from their religious heritage, it became necessary to gather together to form a new alliance. The Christian Church is the result.

St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians makes the case that all believers, Jews and Gentiles alike, were gathered together into a new body under Christ, the head of the body. It is in this context that we read this principle of unity – one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all. In this new alliance, the distinctions of the past were laid aside in favor of this new creation which had its foundation in God and in His Son, Jesus.