Word to the Wise
Friday, September 4, 2009 - Friday in the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
[Colossians 1:15-20 and Luke 5:33-39]Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and invisible.....
It's not always a good idea to analyze a poem or a hymn too closely! The result can be like analyzing a flower. One will get all the parts but lose the point of the whole! Nevertheless, scripture scholars have combed over the hymn from Colossians and still disagree about its origin and meaning. Those concerns need not bother us at the moment. I would recommend instead reading this hymn and then reading another hymn in Philippians 2:6-11 and the Prologue to the Gospel of John. It seems to me that the authors do something that I know I do - some situations make me think of songs or hymns and I will use lines from them in my preaching or conversation! St. Paul seems to have done this in Colossians. (I know, I know, there's some disagreement about the Pauline authorship of Colossians!) The vision of the hymn is beautiful. It places Christ at the beginning and the end of all creation. This is a rather "cosmic" way of looking at things, but then again we occasionally need to leave our houses and all their concerns to go out and look at the stars and wonder about it all and our place in this vast "scheme of things." As Christians, we center our faith on "the Christ event" but often without giving it any thought beyond getting to and through Mass! The hymn from Colossians offers us a chance to expand our awareness and open our eyes a little wider! AMEN
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