August 26 // Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

Reading I: Joshua 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b
Responsorial Psalm 34:2-3, 16-17, 18-19, 20-21
Reading II: Ephesians 5:21-32 or 5:2a, 25-32
Gospel: John 6:60-69

I have met many men and women in my last 45 years of ministry who ask with some anger about “wives be submissive to your husbands” in today’s reading from Ephesians. They were surprised to hear another line in scripture says, “slaves be submissive to your master.” Hmmm… most agree there is no argument about that. We grasp the difference between biblical times and our times. We’ve learned that slavery is sinful. Do we also grasp that sexism is sinful?

Jesus’ followers were affected by the rules of the society in which they lived. We have come to know that slavery is sinful and that dominating one over another in any relationship is sinful, especially marriage. In the Acts of the Apostles we see Priscilla and Aquila, a married couple founding and leading house churches in Rome, Corinth and Ephesus, and teaching Apollos about our Lord and Savior, Jesus. In Romans 16:3, Paul calls them co-workers in Christ. He calls the married couple, Andronicus and Junea, “prominent among the apostles” in Romans 16:7. These descriptions are of partnership and equality.

We submit to Christ, surrender to Jesus, and do what we’re asked us to do if it meshes with our well-formed conscience. Jesus says in Galatians 3:38, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”