Thursday, July 3, 2008

Eph 1, 8-9 He made known to us the mystery of his will

(Eph 1, 8-9) He made known to us the mystery of his will
[8] that he lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight, [9] he has made known to us the mystery of his will in accord with his favor that he set forth in him
(CCC 1066) In the Symbol of the faith the Church confesses the mystery of the Holy Trinity and of the plan of God's "good pleasure" for all creation: the Father accomplishes the "mystery of his will" by giving his beloved Son and his Holy Spirit for the salvation of the world and for the glory of his name (Eph 1:9). Such is the mystery of Christ, revealed and fulfilled in history according to the wisely ordered plan that St. Paul calls the "plan of the mystery" (Eph 3:9; cf. 3:4) and the patristic tradition will call the "economy of the Word incarnate" or the "economy of salvation." (CCC 2063) The covenant and dialogue between God and man are also attested to by the fact that all the obligations are stated in the first person (“I am the Lord.") and addressed by God to another personal subject (“you"). In all God's commandments, the singular personal pronoun designates the recipient. God makes his will known to each person in particular, at the same time as he makes it known to the whole people: The Lord prescribed love towards God and taught justice towards neighbor, so that man would be neither unjust, nor unworthy of God. Thus, through the Decalogue, God prepared man to become his friend and to live in harmony with his neighbor.... The words of the Decalogue remain likewise for us Christians. Far from being abolished, they have received amplification and development from the fact of the coming of the Lord in the flesh (St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres., 4, 16, 3-4: PG 7/1, 1017-1018).

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