Friday, July 23, 2010

Homily on St. Paul's letter to the Colossians 1:15-20

It is my wish to reflect with you this evening on the canticle taken from Paul’s letter to the Colossians. In this passage Paul is addressing a heresy that was beginning to emerge within this community of faith. As a result of his pastoral work we have the honor each Wednesday of praying this great hymn of praise to Christ who is both the source and summit of creation and redemption. The heresy that Paul is addressing is Gnostic in character because it claims that Christ is insufficient by himself to redeem humanity for the purpose for which it was created. I would like to emphasize one aspect of this great hymn of thanksgiving, namely, the verse that states, “all were created through him and for him.”
Underlying these words there exists the profound hunger of the heart of God, the call to live for him. The love we feel for people in our lives is sometimes overwhelming. God allows us to be drawn toward specific people to show us by way of analogy the energy that draws him to each human life. Whereas we tend to be drawn to one beautiful thing or person at a time, he is consumed by all that is beautiful in its entirety at each moment.
God wants nothing to get in the way of our reception of his love. We exist because he wants us to exist. Others exist in our lives because God wants them to exist. But first and foremost He wants us to exist for him. He has created us for his sole pleasure, and today he begs us not to rob him of this pleasure for after all he endured the Cross-for this pleasure.
We rob Christ of this pleasure when we like the Colossians begin doubting the all-encompassing power of Christ. Paul challenges us to live without reservations, trusting in the power of Christ. Is Christ supreme in our lives and is his sacrifice on the cross-adequate enough in meeting our deepest needs and desires or do we have reservations in entrusting our whole lives to Christ? What else is needed? The temptations faced by us are analogous to the temptation that the Colossians faced. We believe in Christ just like them and we also grapple with the temptation to lessen his supremacy in our lives by putting on par with Christ other things that seem to be necessary components in making for happiness and final fulfillment. Paul reminds us that Christ in his very person and mission alone reveals humanity to itself. We need not look elsewhere to find the purpose for which we were created. Let us entrust our whole selves to Christ this evening prayerfully remembering that his arm is not too short to save even in what seems hopeless.

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