22nd Week, Friday, Sept 3
Colossians 1:15-20 / Luke 5:33-39
Christ is the visible likeness of God; God's fullness resides in Jesus
The great American statesman Adlai Stevenson was fond of telling this story. A little girl was sitting on the kitchen floor. She had her box of crayons out and was busy drawing a picture. After a while, her mother looked down and said, “Whose picture are you drawing, Amy?" "I'm drawing God's picture," said Amy. "But, darling," said her mother, "nobody knows what God looks like." "They will when I get finished," said Amy. Something like that happened in Jesus. In Jesus, the Father drew a picture of himself that we could understand and relate to.
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What facet of the personality of Jesus do we find most appealing? Why this facet? Jesus said, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father." John 14:9
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In today’s first reading, Paul makes or more probably uses, a liturgical hymn that describes the primacy of Christ as the Lord of all. This is precisely the core of our faith, that Christ is the first-born of creation, and, as the risen Lord, the head of all humanity, the principle of authority and vitality, the source of all life and growth. He restores people and all things from alienation.
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"Christ is the head of all creation” could be used as the title of this poem. Please note - This hymn of St Paul and the prologue to the gospel of St John say really the same and yet the words sound so different. Christ is the head of everything that exists: He is the creator of all: Through him all things came to be, not one thing has its being but through him (John 1,2). Both say: He is also the head of the new creation, of all that has been redeemed. He is the head since he has always existed and he holds all things. The Colossians believe in the world of spirits and angels: they call them by different names: "Thrones, Dominations, Sovereignties, Powers". The whole world is full of them. They are the fullness (pleroma) of the world. If they exist, God made them all. In one more sense - Christ is the head of all creation: He is the head of the church. He is the head: he is the image of the unseen God: No one has ever seen God: it is the only Son who has made him known. In his humanity, he was the visible manifestation of the invisible God. He was the first to be born to a newness of life. He 1s the first because he represents the whole of mankind before God. His death on the cross brought peace to the world. John in the prologue to his gospel and Paul in this hymn say the same about Christ. Truth, like a jewel, has many facets.
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One of the things in life that is not that easy to accept is change. Maybe because we have our reservations about change. We wonder if it will be for the better or for the worse? For e.g., when we change our electronic gadgets like our handphones or computer. There is a whole lot of relearning to do and we spend quite a bit of unproductive time getting used to it. And we may end up not liking the change at all!
Even Jesus acknowledged that change is not all that easy to accept when He said in the gospel that "The old is good". But yet Jesus did not say that the new would not be good. Hence the example of the new wine in new wineskins is indeed a good illustration. The new wine, over time, would be just as good, and maybe even better than the old wine.
Jesus came to renew all creation. He came to renew all humanity so that mankind can now have a deeper life and existence. In the beginning, man was made in the image and likeness of God. But sin distorted that image. But now because of Jesus, mankind is recreated in the image of God again.
For that reason, St. Paul says in the 1st reading that Jesus is the first-born of all creation. So it all simply comes down to this - God became man, so that man can go back to God. That indeed is a wonderful change
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We are created anew in Christ, the Lord and the new beginning of all. With Christ, we have to renounce all compromises with the old in us and live in the new spirit of Christ. How well have we accepted the renewal that Vatican II asks of us?
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Prayer
Faithful God of tenderness and mercy, you want us to be your people on the march with Jesus your Son toward a new future of justice and love. Do not allow us to suffocate in being contented with old habits and sluggish ways. Help us to accept the pain of leaving the familiar behind us and open us to the challenge of the gospel to become more like your Son who guides our faltering steps, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
