The Holy Martyrs Menodora, Metrodora, and Nymphodora.
Post-feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God.
Ephesians 1:1-9; Mark 7:24-30.
Read Ephesians 1:1-9
When Saint Paul speaks a blessing, what exactly is he saying and doing? Some insights come from, non other, than St John Chrysostom; his words reflecting on St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is quoted as follows:
Ephesus is the Metropolis of Asia. It was dedicated to Diana, whom they worship there, especially as their great goddess. Indeed so great was the superstition of her worshipers, that when her temple was burned, they would not so much as divulge the name of the man who burned it. The blessed John the Evangelist spent the greater part of his time there; he was there when he was banished, and there he died. It was there too that Paul left Timothy, as he says in writing to him, ‘As I exhorted you to tarry at Ephesus (1 Tim. 1:3) …He wrote the Epistle from Rome, and, as he himself informs us, in bonds …It abounds with sentiments of overwhelming loftiness and grandeur …Observe that he calls ‘saints’ men with wives and children and domestics. For that, these are the ones who he calls by this name is plain from the end of the Epistle (Cf.Eph. 5:22, 6:1, 6:5). Think how great is the indolence that possess us now, how rare is anything like virtue now and how great the abundance of virtuous men must have been then, when even secular men could be called, ‘saints and faithful’ …And what do you lack yet? You are made immortal; you are made free; you’re made a son; you are made right righteous; you are made a brother; you are made a fellow heir; you reign with Christ; you are glorified with Christ.
(St. John Chrysostom. Argument and Homily I on Ephesus I. Cf. The Bible and the Holy Fathers for Orthodox.)
Speaking a blessing over a person, for a person, comes from that place of our being that is most beautiful; filled with love and the greatest of hope one person can have for another. Saint Paul is a celibate man and as St John Chrysostom indicates, he is speaking to ‘men with wives and children and domestics’ who, like the “Father” emulating the “Heavenly Father” loves all of them very deeply and to top this off he is communicating this to them from prison.
We do very well to pay great attention when one prays a blessing for us; it truly is God communicating His love for us through that person. Let us never hesitate to receive that embrace and reciprocate it by being the very blessing that makes The One giving it to delight in us.