Today,
we continue hearing from Paul’s letter to the Colossians, which was probably
written around the time he was under two years of house arrest in Rome. It always amazes me how optimistic Paul can
be about the faith we have in our Lord Jesus Christ even in the midst of the
imprisonment and sufferings he has to endure.
Paul tells us that we should walk in the light of Christ in which we
were taught, giving thanks in all things and not being held captive by the
empty, seductive philosophies that the secular world offers to us. That is such a problem for us today – it’s
not just something the people of the early Church were addressing. Our world tries to lure us from our faith in
so many ways. I recently had a friend proudly tell me that he is spiritual, not
religious. So many young people today
see it as a source of weakness to belong to a church community and to rely on
the practice of one of the organized religions as the foundation of your faith
and spirituality. Yet, when I look at
all of the support we give each other here in our Catholic community in Yazoo
City, when look upon our faith that goes back to the early Church fathers and
mothers, to the apostles, to what Paul is teaching us about today, how can
there be another answer, another manner to live out the faith we have in our
Lord Jesus Christ?
As Paul tells us, we were buried with
Christ in our baptism, we died with him, but then we rose with him to new
life. Jesus took our transgressions, he
obliterated the bond that our transgressions and sins had on us, he freed us,
then he nailed those sins and transgressions to cross on which he died. Our faith is not something that burdens us or
oppresses us, it frees us to new life, to new life of service, to the proclamation
of God’s kingdom to our world. We have
our triumph, our glory, our freedom in the faith we share together, in the
salvation Christ brings to us. May we
fully believe this truth, may we fully live it out in our lives.
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