Tuesday of the Twenty-third week in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

In the passage from Colossians today, St. Paul paints a unique picture of Christ and how we participate in his life, death, and resurrection.

In Christ dwells the fullness of the divine, and we have a share in it. How so? Read on.

In Christ, we are circumcised, not according to the old law but according to the new. Circumcision was the way in which followers of the Mosaic law would join the covenant community. For those in Christ, baptism is the way.

At baptism, we are buried in the waters, so to speak, and we are raised from the waters. St. Paul paints with watercolors, showing how we participate in the death and resurrection of Christ through the waters of baptism.

For some, we know what we were like before our participation in Christ. We were dead in our transgressions and in the uncircumcision of our flesh, as St. Paul puts it. However, regardless of the extent of our previous depravity in morals and interior life, all of us were born with the birthmark of the original sin of Adam—this initial separation from God. In His mercy and plan of salvation, God raised us from the dead, so to speak, by forgiving us in Christ!

To finish his painting, St. Paul uses hammer and nails: God nailed the bond against us—the Mosaic law, the original sin of Adam—to a cross. And of course, a victory march: the principalities and the powers of the world have been defeated, and they are led away in captivity.

Reflection: How do we think about our participation in Christ from day to day? How could we participate in Christ more?

Reflection by Br. Luke Kral, OSB