28th week in Ordinary Time, Saturday, October 21,2006

Scripture: Ephesians 1:15-23. Psalm 8. Luke 12:8-12.

Sometimes the first reading clashes with the reading from the Gospel. If one finds this difficult, it is good to turn to the Psalm response and its verses. This usually confirms one of the readings and gives us an insight as to how to pray and interpret in prayer the message of one of the readings. I found today's selections falling into this contrast. In Paul we have the Holy Spirit encouraging and supporting the faith of the believers in Ephesus and elsewhere. I say this because the letter itself is like a cover letter or circular letter for many churches not only the church of Ephesus. Paul himself witnesses to the faith and will do so through his own martyrdom soon to take place in Rome. The recipients of his message are thanked because of their constancy and perseverance in the Good News about Jesus. The whole of chapter one is an easy chapter to reflect and pray. Not so the Gospel.

Luke, writing for the Churches founded by Paul and his companions, is very concerned about apostasy. It is one of the underlying themes of his Gospel. He is concerned about those who do not witness to the Gospel nor to Jesus. He is not speaking about the contemporaries of Jesus who rejected him as the Son of Man, but of those who, after having embraced the Christian faith, renounce Christ as the Son of God. This means that he is writing for those who have once accepted the Resurrected Jesus but now no longer do so. To have discovered the earthly Jesus or what we call the Jesus of history and then to have rejected him as such is a forgiveable sin, but to have embraced through the Spirit the Christ of faith or the Resurrected Jesus and then walk away is apostasy. This is what Luke means by the sin against the Holy Spirit. I realize this is a difficult situation for an apostate. Somehow I believe they can be forgiven and have been forgiven by God. So with this difficult passage, I can go back to the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians and take its encouraging message to remain faithful to the Gospel, to persevere, and to remain at table with other Christian brothers and sisters. This will help me through any thoughts of leaving the Church and choosing to be an apostate. Through prayer apostasy becomes a No No! I like the humility statement in the Psalm that helps to cushion any lofty thoughts of how great we are! "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings you have fashioned praise because of your foes." Amen.