Word to the Wise
Wednesday, September 9, 2015 - Wednesday in the 23th Week in Ordinary Time
[Col 3:1-11 and Luke 6:20-26]WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2015 ST. PETER CLAVER, SJ [Colossians 3:1-11 and Luke 6:20-26] "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory. Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry. ....By these you too once conducted yourselves, when you lived in that way." [Colossians] A great theologian once said, "To grow is to change. To be perfect one must change often." The change that the Letter to the Colossians envisions is a deep one. Although scripture scholars debate some about St. Paul's authorship of this letter, the change spoken of here is rooted in faith and baptism. He speaks of the "new self, which is being renewed, for knowledge, in the image of its creator." It is this deeper change which motivates the change in behavior. Those who are "cradle Catholics" tend to take Baptism for granted. It's one of those things that happened when we were babies and is not repeated. I try to point out at parish missions that when one enters a Catholic Church, that familiar holy water fount that we touch and make the sign of the cross is meant to remind us of our Baptism and the change [conversion] that we are constantly called to make. Perhaps we haven't been quite as rowdy as the Colossians seem to have been, but we know our faults and sins and how we must work every day to live more in accord with the "new self" that is really the one we have from God - made in God's own image and likeness. It is a lifelong process but Christian integrity is a lifelong thing. AMEN
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