B Cycle – 15^th Sunday in Ordinary Time 24

Eph. 1:3-14

Blessed be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as He chose us before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before Him.  Paul certainly had a way with words and could clearly convey God’s plans for us, the crowning glory of all He created.   Before God created the world and the universe that surrounds it, He planned for us to exist in in this world and share intimacy with Him.   He created us in His image, holy and without sin and gave us dominion of all creation. 

We know the envy of the devil and our own human weakness disrupted the plan of God for us. The sin of Adam destroyed what God intended for us. That means we who exist today must deal with the consequences of Adam’s sin and our own tendencies to doubt in God’s goodness.  We need to prayerfully reflect on what Paul experienced and that is God’s plan for us never changed.  God created us to be holy and to share intimacy with Him.  Saul of Tarsus, as an educated Pharisee, believed holiness was achieved by self-discipline, strict adherence to the laws and by adhering to the requirements of ritual sacrifices.   Actions which are in the complete control of the individual. 

But Paul the apostle understood holiness is the result allowing God to equip us for holiness.  Embracing the gift of forgiveness won for us by Christ and allowing the Holy Spirit to change us.  By allowing the grace of forgiveness won for us by Jesus Christ to remove from us the barrier that sin creates between us and God.  That barrier is of our own making as seen in the reaction of Adam and Eve as they hide from God after they sinned.  That barrier caused them to desperately try to cover up their sin and their “nakedness.”  The poor image of who they have become because of their sin.  Paul tells us this in our first reading today, but he also reveals the answer to sin is that in this letter to the Ephesians, but he also tells us we have redemption by shed blood of Jesus. 

Our recognition and embracing forgiveness are one part of God’s plan for our holiness.  Yet we struggle with the guilt of our sin even as we embrace God forgiveness. Our failure to overcome sin haunts us and we cry out to God for the grace to overcome that one repeated sin each time we are tempted. We cannot seem to overcome that one sin that continues to entice us. Guilt haunts us and tells us we are unworthy.  We chastise ourselves for our weakness and we cry out to God for help, but it never seems to come.  Will we ever be as holy as God desires us to be holy? 

Paul says we can, and he knows this from his own experience.  His encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus shows how our belief structure is used by the one who seeks to destroy as it seeks to keep us from receiving what we need to overcome sin. 

Paul understood the way to do God’s will is by complete dependence on the promises of God to make us holy.  We depend on self and by doing so fail to rely on the “promise of the Father.” God planned for our holiness by providing everything we need to become holy.  That promise of the Father was to send us the Holy Spirit to change our hearts and to strengthen us in holiness.  The spirit will allow us to see ourselves as God sees us. Without blemish, without the pollution of sin covering us.  He created us in His image, and we are destined to be like Christ in everything we do and say.  The Spirit will help us grow in holiness, motivate our prayer, enhance our worship, and begin to clearly see the plans God has for us as disciples.   

We need to respond to the voice of God challenging us to answer one simple question.   Who told you that you were naked?  There it is, the one who tempts us to sin is not satisfied with just the sin.  No, he continues to lie to us and tells us to hide from God and to cover our sins.  Those actions will only separate us from God and will add to our guilt because we are focused on the sin not the grace offered us.   

God only sees what He created us to become and what He desires for us.  It is vastly different than our own image of ourselves.  Paul expresses it this way.  “… you who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit which is the first installment of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s possession” (Eph. 1:13). God wants us to come to Him and allow the gift of the Spirit to change us from sinners to saints like Paul.  To experience the embrace of forgiveness and the Holy Spirit “transforming us from one degree of glory to another” (2Cor.3:18) by allowing that Spirit access to our hearts.   

God is inviting you to look at yourself the way He looks at you and stop allowing the one who seeks to destroy you from convincing you that you are weak, unworthy and will never be embraced by God.  We are His delight and within us lies the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Come Holy Spirit and fill the hearts of your servant should be our prayer.