Tuesday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 438

For in him dwells the whole fullness of the deity bodily, and you share in this fullness in him, who is the head of every principality and power.


I was often told as a child, "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing." (Perhaps I should be reminded again but the grey hairs protect me.)
    Addressing the church at Colossae, Saint Paul had to direct the eager curiosity of new Christians who fell prey to speculators and fantasists with strange religious ideas. (That tradition still survives on the History Channel.) As pagans they were all too familiar with gods, goddesses, "principalities and elemental powers" largely fabricated by human imagination. With some misinformation and a bit of misdirection the Colossians could suppose Jesus is just another member of that celestial three-ring circus.
    Saint Paul wants his people to come back to earth and the reality of their own experience, Forget your religious theories and remember your baptism!

"In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not administered by hand, by stripping off the carnal body, with the circumcision of Christ. You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God,..."

    If circumcision seemed too high a price for becoming a Jew -- a price many gentiles would not pay -- Baptism was even more demanding! Through Baptism, our entire carnal body has been stripped away from us with the "circumcision" of Christ. You did not suffer merely a loss of some superfluous flesh, you died and were buried with him in baptism." 
    We encounter this difficult conversation in the writings of Saint Paul and Jesus' controversies in the gospels. Because the Gospel is so accessible, because Jesus is so approachable, our Way seems easy. Some enthusiastic evangelists might even assure prospective members, "There's nothing to it! All you have to do is 'Believe and be saved!'"
    Protestant preachers will announce, "Once saved, always saved!" Catholics might declare, "You made your first communion, you are saved!" or "You made your nine first Fridays, you're in like Flynn!
    In their eagerness to sell a product or win a convert, they forget that this stripping off the carnal body is not easy and may be very painful. Jesus warned these enthusiasts,

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves."

"Successful preacher" is probably an oxymoron. The only successful preacher in the Bible was the fictional, foolish Jonah, who bitterly regretted his success and despised God's mercy. The faithful Christian cannot expect success.
   Today, when far too many people claim the title of Christian, we should ponder its challenge and consider its price.