Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B Second Reading

A reading from the letter of Paul to the Ephesians.

Defer to one another out of reverence to Christ.

Those of you who are in relationships should yield to each other as if to Christ, because you are part of each other, just as Christ is part of the body, the church, as well as its Savior.  As the church yields to Christ, so you should yield to your partner in everything.  Love one another as Christ loved the church.  He gave himself up for it to make it holy, purifying it by washing it with the Gospel’s message, so that Christ might have a glorious church, holy and immaculate, without specks or wrinkles or anything of that sort.  You should love one another as you do your own bodies.  Those who love their partners love themselves.  Observe that no one ever hates one’s own flesh; one nourishes it and takes care of it as Christ cares for the church – for we are members of Christ’s body.

This is why one person leaves home and cleaves to another, and the two become one flesh.  This is a great foreshadowing; I mean that it refers to Christ and the church.

The Word of God recorded in the letter of Paul to the Ephesians.