30 Oct. Tuesday of Week Thirty

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Eph 5: 21ff. Love between spouses mirrors Christ’s love for the church.

Luke 13:18ff. The reign of God is like a mustard seed… or yeast.

The holiness of everyday things

Deep within our human nature is planted a seed that will grow in surprising ways; there is an inner “yeast” to transform us as in the dough that is baked into fresh bread, the staff of life. Marriage, one of the most basic, elementary of human institutions, mirrors the mystery of Christ’s love for the church.

Christian hope is not centred on looking heavenward but attends to the details of human life. Ephesians suggests that marriage, family and marital love are spirited by the example and the immediate presence of Jesus. Where there is faithful, fruitful marriage, it is a powerful image of Jesus’ love for the church. Both aspects of love, within marriage and within the church, result in holiness. It is helpful to apply to marriage, as is intended in this passage from Ephesians, what is said of Christ’s love for the church: He gave himself up for her to make her holy.

The idea of wives being submissive to their husbands is an outdated one, that should be interpreted according to the culture and customs of that ancient time. This same larger section of Ephesians also speaks of servants and their obligation to “obey your human master” (Eph 6:5). No one would quote this today to support slavery, that was also part of culture of that time.

If we seek our place in the reign of God, we must reverence the hidden mustard seed of divine possibility in our lives. We must be like the woman who so kneads the yeast into the dough that other people’s lives rise with freshness, life and dignity.

First Reading: Ephesians 5:21-33

Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Saviour. Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, so as to present the church to himself in splendour, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind – yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hates his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, because we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the church. Each of you, however, should love his wife as himself, and a wife should respect her husband.

Gospel: Luke 13:18-21

He said therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what should I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.”

And again he said, “To what should I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

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