Word to the Wise
Wednesday, September 12, 2007 - Twenty-third Wednesday in Ordinary Time
[Colossians 3:1-11 and Luke 6:20-26]Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry.....
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2007 TWENTY-THIRD WEDNESDAY IN ORDINARY TIME [Colossians 3:1-11 and Luke 6:20-26] Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry....... Life must have been pretty interesting in the culture where the Colossians were living! The two lists of objectionable conduct that appear in the passage are rather nasty, although we see a lot of them in our own time. What is more interesting is to understand why St. Paul challenges the Colossians to "put to death" those parts of the person! It's not so much that the conduct in question is wrong in itself (it is), but rather that the conduct is completely incompatible with their new Christian identity. What may have seemed natural and normal to them before their conversion is now alien and inconsistent in their new way of life! What Paul warns against is something that I see a lot of in our own time: compartmentalization. "Compartmentalization" is a long word that describes how people can put their faith in one little compartment, their family in another, their business life in still another and keep them apart so that they don't seem to have anything to do with one another. Faith, family, business, etc... all become "things" that the person has - almost like possessions. What Paul is pointing to is a much more "holistic" reality: the entire person as Christian. The identity and conversion should be so complete that the forms of conduct that previously characterized life are unthinkable. We know from human experience that it takes a constant and consistent effort to avoid getting caught up in some of the conduct criticized by Paul. It is only by calling on the resources God has given to us: faith, family, friends - that we can maintain our commitment at a high level and not settle for "occasional" Christianity, or "cafeteria" Christianity or "compartmentalized" Christianity. Further words from this scripture say it well: "(Y)ou have taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed for knowledge." Go for it! AMEN
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