Link to today’s readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090121.cfm

Today in our First Reading we start reading from Paul’s Letter to the Colossians, and we will continue to do so up to and including Thursday 09 September (Thursday of the 23 Week in Ordinary Time). Colossians is a short letter of only four chapters and was written by St Paul around 60-61c.e., when Paul was first imprisoned in Rome. Though it might be short in length, the Letter to the Colossians is rich in theology, especially that branch of theology we call Christology – the theology of / thinking about Jesus the Christ.

The city of Colossae was on the trade route between Ephesus and the East, in that part of the world we would now refer to as modern Turkey. The people of the Church of Colossae had been influenced by false teaching the challenged the divinity of Jesus, and so Paul writes to challenge this false teaching and correct their belief. In this letter then we find quite a developed Christology (Col 1:15-20) that sees Jesus the Christ as the ‘image of the unseen God’, who ‘existed before all things, and in him all things hold together’, who is ‘the first-born from the dead’, and through whom “all things…everything in heaven and everything on earth” have been reconciled to the Father”. It is in this letter that we find this wonderful promise: “You have been buried with him in baptism, by which also you have been raised up with him through your belief in the power of God who raised him from the dead” (Col 2:12).

This letter provides a rich foundation for us to understand ourselves as living in Christ: “As the chosen of God, then, holy and beloved. Clothe yourselves in heartfelt compassion, in generosity and humility, gentleness and patience” (Col 3:12).

Today’s First Reading, and tomorrow’s (Thursday) form part of Paul’s thanksgiving and prayer for the people of Colossae, and set the scene for Paul’s wonderful description of Christ as the head of all creation. To simply ‘sit in’ the verses of Col 1:15-20 and let our minds (and souls) conjure up images in response will help, if only fleetingly, to grasp cosmic and timeless nature of the Christ.

For today though let us rest in Paul’s words as they apply to us:

We give thank for you to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, continually on our prayers, since we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you show towards all God’s saint, because of the hope which is stored up for you in heaven.