Word to the Wise
Thursday, September 12, 2013 - Thursday in the 23th Week in Ordinary Time
[Col 3:12-17 and Luke 6:27-38]Put on, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. And over all these put on love, that is the bond of perfection......
St. Paul seems to have been into clothing! He speaks of our being "clothed in Christ" [Gal. 3:27] and in another place of putting on "the armor of light.." [Rom. 13:12]. Today he comes up with a complete wardrobe of virtues! The sense in which all of this is meant is most likely taken from drama. The Greeks and Romans built theaters wherever they extended their influence, and no doubt St. Paul may have attended the plays. A change of costume meant a change of character - a different "persona." Indeed our modern word, "person," comes from that milieu, along with "persona!"
Today's passage from Colossians builds on the notion that through baptism, we are "clothed with Christ," and therefore we should "put on" what is proper to that role. If we live differently and in conflict with the virtues that St. Paul describes, we are really acting "out of character." Note also the lines, "as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do." They echo the Lord's Prayer: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us!" The whole passage could be a charter for Christian community life. If we read it together with the gospel scripture today, which is taken from St. Luke's "sermon on the plain," [his version of the sermon on the mount], we have a lot to reflect on and aim for. What we cannot afford to do is stand at the closet of Christian identity and wonder what we are going to wear today! AMEN