BLESSED BE GOD!

XV SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Ephesians 1:3-14

This Sunday, reading Ephesians 1:3-14, we are invited to reflect on God’s plan of salvation. We should start with an attitude of praise and thanksgiving, recognising Go’s holiness as the source of all blessings. Always and everywhere, we are called to give thanks to God from whom all goodness comes.

Throughout the passage, it is clear that God’s plan of salvation moves around Christ. He has made known “the mystery of his will”. In Christ, he set forth his purpose: He intends to unite all things in Christ in heaven and on earth, thus making Christ the centre of everything. In Christ, we are blessed, chosen and predestined. It is through Him that we receive all kinds of blessings. In Him, we were chosen “before the foundation of the world” to “be holy and blameless”. We were predestined to be adopted as children. And everything is done “to the praise of his glorious grace” and “to the praise of his glory”. For this plan to be carried out, “we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses”. Through his death on the cross, Jesus reconciled us with God and opened the way to holiness. Predestined to be adopted as children of God, “we have obtained an inheritance” - the inheritance due to the children, and have been “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it”.

In the gospel (Mark 6:7-13), Mark shows Jesus fulfilling God’s will and carrying out His plan. God’s merciful love is revealed through Jesus’ actions and words. Since the beginning, Jesus prepared his disciples to carry on his mission. He sent them in pairs. And “they set off to preach repentance; and they cast out many devils, and anointed many sick people with oil and cured them.” The Church has been entrusted with this same mission and we are responsible for carrying it out.