The Stewardship of God's Grace

Paul begins today’s first reading, Eph. 3: 2-12,  with the statement: “Brothers and sisters: You have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for your benefit…”  Each of us, also, has been given “the stewardship of God’s grace” for others’ benefit, not for our own.  Earlier in this same letter,  Chapter 1, verses 1-11, Paul says to us: “In Christ…[you] were…chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the One who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will, so that we might exist for the praise of his glory.” We “were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,…the first installment of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s possession,to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1: 1-11).

Do I realize that I am not my own, that I belong to God? Do I realize that today God has a purpose for me or am I so intent on the goals I have set for myself that this underlying, foundational goal set by God is lost to me?  Does “this is what I am going to do today, in this meeting, in this encounter,” shut me out of waiting upon the Lord, allowing the Lord to show me His glory in “what I am going to do today, in this meeting, in this encounter”? Am I do noisy that I do not hear God at work?  If God’s grace is given to me for other people’s benefit, in what way do I allow “God’s grace” to reveal itself without my interference in  how that will happen in the events, the relationships, the opportunities given to me today to experience the “inheritance toward redemption”  (Ephesians 1: 11-14)that God wants to show me?

In Utmost for His Highest, the spiritual writer for today’s meditation, Oct. 22, challenges me with the words: “…abandon yourself to Him in total surrender….abandon your own reasoning and arguing” and then God will witness “to what He has done.” “The Spirit of God,” this spiritual author states, “witnesses to the redemption of our Lord, and to nothing else….We are inclined,” he says, “to mistake the simplicity that comes from our natural commonsense decisions for the witness of the Spirit, but the Spirit witnesses only to His own nature, and to the work of redemption, never to our reason[ing].”

All I can say is “Lord, have mercy!”

The First Installment of our Inheritance

Today’s first reading, Ephesians 1: 11-14, led me to think about  the excitement of persons who won a lottery of millions and millions of dollars and are promised 1000’s of dollars weekly.  The excitement, I imagine, is uncontainable. The future looks brighter than it ever has been.  For some, the hopes and dreams for their future are realized in genuine, authentic living of the messages of the Gospel. For others, living a purely secular lifestyle, the worst in human nature can spill out into jealousies, envious actions, abusive spending, selfish pursuits, wild ambitions, covetousness, prideful claims and so on.  Life, somehow, can become emptier and more chaotic than ever imagined.

Desperation, for some persons, leads them to turn to God, to take up the Bible, looking for help. The Spirit within them breaks through the darkness, as somewhere in the world prayers are being offered continually for the salvation of all persons.  Searching for God in the letter of St. Paul to the  Ephesians  in Chapter 1 verses 11-14, they are told that they are “chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the One who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will, so that…[they and] we might exist for the praise of his glory.”  In this passage, Paul reminds them and us that  we who first hoped in Christ….[and those who later come to believe in Him are] sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,…the first installment of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s possession.” 

Wow!  I wonder why our excitement is not as overwhelming as the excitement of those lottery winners!  We do not need to imagine “winning the lottery” that only God can give.  We did not even purchase a ticket. Jesus purchased it for us through His obedience to the Father’s plan for our redemption, his death and resurrection.  We have been given this inheritance  by the price which Christ Jesus paid for it.   The “inheritance toward redemption” includes the following: 

•  Being “chosen, destined in accord with the purpose”  of the Holy One, the giver of eternal wealth 

• Being “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,”  the “first installment of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s possession”

My response and yours? Let us, with Mary and all the saints and angels in heaven [and on earth],  praise God in the words of the Magnificat: “My being proclaims your greatness,” O God, “and my spirit finds joy in you, God, my Savior, for you have looked upon me, your servant, in my lowliness…God, you who are mighty, have done great things for me. Holy is your name….”