23 August 2015
21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Bible Study often invites us to slow down. It encourages us to stop and
ponder each line as we move deliberately through the text. This process
also bids us to stand back and see the whole, not to miss the trees for
the forest, so to speak.This is often a challenge as we encounter today’s second reading. This passage is often controversial and misunderstood because we fail to stop and ponder the first two lines. We hear “wives be submissive to your husbands” and we close our minds to the rest. But the first two lines put the rest of this passage in its proper perspective. Before we are wives and husbands we are brothers and sisters in Christ, “subordinate to one another” out of reverence for Christ.
As with all historical writing (including the Bible), there are cultural considerations we need to take into account when reading. In the first century, when this letter was written, women did not usually play a dominant role in society. Teachers developed “household codes” that defined the proper roles and conduct between masters and slaves, children and parents, and even husbands and wives.
What
we often miss within this passage is that this New Testament letter
actually elevates this Roman household code to a higher spiritual level. It
places this household code within the context of Christ, who is our Lord
and who loves us as a spouse. Thus, this passage is about mutual love
and service, as shown by the beautiful image given in the passage which reminds us that Christ
“handed himself over” in humility. He did this out of love, for the purpose of redeeming
and sanctifying his Church (Ephesians 5:25-27). In today's Scripture reading, what we are meant to come away with is the idea that subordination or superiority has no place within the Christian community. The humility of Christ is our model for all relationships. The Church was to be a model of mutual love and responsibility, always leading to the affirmation of human dignity. Let us live the Word of God by fostering, by our mutual love and service, the model of love and humility of Jesus Christ.The author, Ms. Barbara Gawle, leads Bible studies at her parish, Incarnation Church of Wethersfield, CT. She is a CBS graduate and the 2012 recipient of the Biblical School's highest award, the Lawrence Boadt Memorial Medal.
