Word to the Wise
Saturday, September 4, 2021 - Saturday in the 22th Week in Ordinary Time
[Col 1:21-23 and Luke 6:1-5]You were once alienated and hostile in mind because of evil deeds; God has now reconciled you in the fleshly Body of Christ through his death, to present you holy, without blemish, and irreproachable before him, provided that you persevere in the faith, firmly grounded, stable, and not shifting from the hope of the Gospel that you heard, which has been preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, am a minister. [Colossians]
Scripture scholars debate the Pauline authorship of the Letter to the Colossians on the basis of language, style and timing of an earthquake that destroyed Colossus between 61-64 AD. One strong argument is that the letter was written at Paul's direction and he added his signature. The community at Colossus was not one that he founded. It was originally evangelized by one of his co-workers, Epaphras. Paul apparently learned that later other preachers with a kind of pseudo Jewish/Christian message, mixed with some pagan elements had been evangelizing in the area and he is exhorting the community to stand fast on the gospel as preached to them by Epaphras.
The key to the letter is in the "hymn" in vv. 15-20, a grand vision of salvation. What follows is a kind of commentary or expansion of the ideas in that hymn. Paul refers to the state of being of the Colossians before their conversion. This is not "original sin" as we understand it today, but rather their entire spiritual/moral way of living prior to coming to faith in Christ. It is the death of Jesus that has made it possible for them to rise above their previous degraded way of living and participate in the salvation being offered to them. But they have to continue to live in accord with the preaching they have received and not allow themselves to be deceived by other preaching that is unfaithful to the gospel preached to them by Epaphras.
This might be merely interesting Christian history were it not for the fact that the same problem that concerned Paul about the Colossians (and other communities he wrote to) exists in our own time. We are constantly bombarded by messages contrary to the gospel in the form of secular materialism that places lifestyle and consumption in place of love of God and neighbor. It is an insidious process that can take hold of us without our realizing it. A classic work on this would be J.F.Kavanaugh's FOLLOWING CHRIST IN A CONSUMER SOCIETY - A SPIRITUALITY OF COUNTER RESISTANCE.
The grand vision of salvation that the letter offers is only realized by daily living in accord with the teaching of Christ. This may not seem exciting, but it's the way most of us have to travel. AMEN