20 October 2020 – St Paul of the Cross – Tuesday of 29th week in ordinary time – Ephesians 2:12-22

       We hear Paul talk about the unity we have in Christ in his letter to the Ephesians.   The Ephesians at one time were without Christ, estranged from Israel, strangers to the covenant with God.  Now, through the covenant they share with Christ, the wall dividing them from others came down, and now they have found peace and are reconciled with God.  Like the Ephesians, we are members of the House of God. However, we live in a world that is still so divided, with violence, social unrest, and terrorism. Our faith urges us to work toward that peace, to work toward the fulfillment of God’s kingdom. 

       In the midst of our own struggles and challenges, in the midst of the division we see in the world, we are called to carry our crosses and to unite those crosses with the cross of Christ.  We are called to unite our struggles and our challenges to the passion of Christ. Paul of the Cross is a saint whose feast day we celebrated yesterday.  After serving a solider in Italy, he turned to a life of prayer and developed a devotion to Christ’s passion.  In Christ’s passion, Paul of the Cross saw the love and mercy Christ has for us rooted in his passion.  The preaching of Paul of the Cross on Christ’s passion really touched the heart of the people.  In fact, Paul founded the Congregation of the Passion in 1720, known popularly as the Passionists.  The Passionists added the vow of spreading the memory of Christ’s passion to the people to the traditional vows of poverty, obedience, and chastity.  May we find comfort, love, and mercy in Christ’s passion and cross.