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From: Colossians 2:12-14 (Canada: Colossians 2:6-14)

A Warning About Empty Philosophies

[6] As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live in him,
[7] rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as
you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

[8] See to it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and empty
deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental
spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.

Defense of Sound Teaching in the Face of Heresy

[9] For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, [10] and you
have come to fullness of life in him, who is the head of all rule and
authority. [11] In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision
made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the
circumcision of Christ; [12] and you were buried with him in baptism,
in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of
God, who raised him from the dead. [13] And you, who were dead in
trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive
together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, [14] having
canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this
he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

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Commentary:

4-8. These verses reveal the Apostle’s pastoral solicitude for the
faithful of Colossae. Although physically absent, he is with them in
spirit. He rejoices and gives thanks to God for their steadfastness,
but he leaves them in no doubt about the dangers which threaten their
faith. Clearly he is referring to those who were adulterating the
Colossians’ faith by intruding erroneous ideas. By sophistry and deceit
they were trying to convince the faithful that it was better to have
recourse to angels rather than to Christ, arguing that angels were the
chief mediators between God and men.

The Christian faith is not opposed to human scholarship and science, it
rejects only vain philosophy, that is, philosophy which boasts that it
relies on reason alone and which fails to respect revealed truths.

Over the centuries, people have often tried to adapt the truths of
faith to the philosophies or ideologies which happen to be in vogue. In
this connection Leo Xlll said: “As the Apostle warns, ‘philosophy and
empty deceit’ can deceive the minds of Christians and corrupt the
sincerity of men’s faith; the supreme pastors of the Church, therefore,
always see it as part of their role to foster as much as they can
sciences which merit that name, and at the same time to ensure by
special watchfulness, that human sciences are taught in keeping with
the criteria of Catholic faith—particularly philosophy, because proper
methodology in the other sciences is largely dependent on [correctness
in] philosophy” (”Aeterni Patris”, 1).

“The elemental spirits of the universe”: see the note on Gal 4:3.

9. This is such an important verse that it deserves close analysis.
“Dwell”: the Greek word means a stable way of living or residing, as
distinct from a transitory presence: in other words, the union of
Christ’s human nature with his divine nature is not just something
which lasts for a while; it is permanent. “Deity”: the Greek word can
also be translated as “divinity”; in either case, the sentence means
that God has taken up a human nature, in such a way that, although it
was only the second divine Person, the Son, who became incarnate, by
virtue of the unity of the divine essence, where one divine person is
present the other two persons are also present.

This verse enunciates the profound mystery of the Incarnation in a
different way to John 1:14: “And the word became flesh and dwelt among
us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory; glory as of the
only Son from the Father” (cf. also 1 in 1:1-2).

When the sacred text says that in Christ “the whole fullness of deity
dwells bodily”, it means, St John of Avila explains, “that it does not
dwell in him merely by grace-as in the case of the saints (men and
angels both), but in another way of greater substance and value, that
is, by way of personal union” (”Audi, “Filia”, 84).

In Jesus Christ, then, there are two natures, divine and human, united
in one person, who is divine. This “hypostatic union” does not prevent
each nature from having all its own proper characteristics, for, as St
Leo the Great defined, “the Word has not changed into flesh, nor has
flesh changed into Word; but each remains, in a unity” (”Licet Per
Nostros”, 2).

10. Since Christ is head of angels and men, the head of all creation
(cf. Eph 1:10) and especially head of the Church (cf. Col 1:18), all
fullness is said to reside in him (cf. note on Col 1:19). Hence, not
only is he pre-eminent over all things but “he fills the Church, which
is his body and fullness, with his divine gifts (cf. Eph 1:22-23), so
that it may increase and attain to all the fullness of God (cf. Eph
3:19)” (Vatican II, “Lumen Gentium”, 7).

Union with Christ makes Christians sharers in his “fullness”, that is,
in divine grace (of which he is absolutely full and we have a partial
share), in a word, in his perfections.

That is why the members of the Church who “through the sacraments
are united in a hidden and real way to Christ” (”Lumen Gentium”, 7) can
attain the fullness of the Christian life.

It was very appropriate for St Paul to be instructing the Colossians in
these truths at this time, because it put them on their guard against
preachers who were arguing for exaggerated worship of angels, to the
detriment of Christ’s unique, pre-eminent mediation.

11-12. This is a reference to another error which the Judaizers were
trying to spread at Colossae and which was already treated in detail in
the letters to the Galatians and the Romans—the idea that it was
necessary for Christians to be circumcised. Physical circumcision
affects the body, whereas what the Apostle, by analogy, calls “the
circumcision of Christ”, that is, Baptism, puts off the “body of flesh”
(an expression which seems to refer to whatever is sinful in man). “We,
who by means of (Christ) have reached God, have not been given fleshly
circumcision but rather spiritual circumcision [...]; we receive it by
the mercy of God in Baptism” (St Justin, “Dialogue with Trypho”, 43,
2). “By the sacrament of Baptism, whenever it is properly conferred in
the way the Lord determined and received with the proper dispositions
of soul, man becomes truly incorporated into the crucified and
glorified Christ and is reborn to a sharing of the divine life, as the
Apostle says: [Col 2:12 follows]” (Vatican II, “Unitatis
Redintegratio”, 22).

As on other occasions (cf. Rom 6:4), St Paul, evoking the rite of
immersion in water, speaks of Baptism as a kind of burial (a sure sign
that someone has died to sin), and of resurrection to a new life, the
life of grace. By this sacrament we are associated with Christ’s death
and burial so as to be able to rise with him. “Christ by his
resurrection signified our new life, which was reborn out of the old
death which submerged us in sin. This is what is brought about in us by
the great sacrament of Baptism: all those who receive this grace die to
sin [...] and are reborn to the new life” (St Augustine, “Enchiridion”,
41-42).

13-14. This is one of the central teachings of the epistle—that Jesus
Christ is the only mediator between God and men. The basic purpose
of his mediation is to reconcile men with God, through the forgiveness
of their sins and the gift of the life of grace, which is a sharing in God’s
own life.

Verse 14 indicates how Christ achieved this purpose—by dying on the
Cross. All who were under the yoke of sin and the Law have been set
free through his death.

The Mosaic Law, to which the scribes and Pharisees added so many
precepts as to make it unbearable, had become (to use St Paul’s
comparison) like a charge sheet against man, because it imposed heavy
burdens but did not provide the grace needed for bearing them. The
Apostle very graphically says that this charge sheet or “bond” was set
aside and nailed on the Cross—making it perfectly clear to all that
Christ made more than ample satisfaction for our crimes. “He has
obliterated them,” St John Chrysostom comments, “not simply crossed
them out; he has obliterated them so effectively that no trace of them
remains in our soul. He has completely canceled them out, he has nailed
them to the Cross [...]. We were guilty and deserved the most rigorous
of punishments because we were all of us in sin! What, then, does the
Son of God do? By his death on the Cross he removes all our stains and
exempts us from the punishment due to them. He takes our charge-sheet,
nails it to the Cross through his own person and destroys it” (”Hom. on
Col, ad loc.”).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: Luke 11:1-13

The Our Father

[1] He (Jesus) was praying in a certain place, and when He ceased, one
of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught
His disciples.” [2] And He said to them, “When you pray, say: `Our
Father, hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come. [3] Give us each day
our daily bread; [4] and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive
every one who is indebted to us; and lead us not into temptation.’”

Effective Prayer

[5] And He (Jesus) said to them (the disciples), “Which of you who has
a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me
three loaves; [6] for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I
have nothing to set before him’; [7] and he will answer from within, ‘Do
not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in
bed; I cannot get up and give you anything’? [8] I tell you, though he
will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet
because of his importunity he will rise and give him whatever he
needs. [9] And I tell you, Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and
you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. [10] For every one
who asks receives, and he who seeks find, and to him who knocks it will
be opened. [11] What father among you, if his son asks for a fish,
will instead of a fish give him a serpent; [12] or if he asks for an
egg, will give him a scorpion? [13] If you then, who are evil, know how
to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

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Commentary:

1-4. St. Luke gives us a shorter form of the Lord’s Prayer, or Our
Father, than St. Matthew (6:9-13). In Matthew there are seven
petitions, in Luke only four. Moreover, St. Matthew’s version is given
in the context of the Sermon on the Mount and specifically as part of
Jesus’ teaching on how to pray; St. Luke’s is set in one of those
occasions just after our Lord has been at prayer—two different
contexts. There is nothing surprising about our Lord teaching the same
thing on different occasions, not always using exactly the same words,
not always at the same length, but always stressing the same basic
points. Naturally, the Church uses the longer form of the Lord’s
Prayer, that of St. Matthew.

“When the disciples asked the Lord Jesus, `Teach us to pray’, He
replied by saying the words of the `Our Father’, thereby giving a
concrete model which is also a universal model. In fact, everything
that can and must be said to the Father is contained in those seven
requests which we all know by heart. There is such simplicity in them
that even a child can learn them, but at the same time such depth that
a whole life can be spent meditating on their meaning. Isn’t that so?
Does not each of those petitions deal with something essential to our
life, directing it totally towards God the Father? Doesn’t this prayer
speak to us about `our daily bread’, `forgiveness of our sins, since we
forgive others’ and about protecting us from `temptation’ and
`delivering us from evil?’” ([Pope] John Paul II, “General Audience”,
14 March 1979).

The first thing our Lord teaches us to ask for is the glorification of
God and the coming of His Kingdom. That is what is really
important—the Kingdom of God and His justice (cf. Matthew 6:33). Our
Lord also wants us to pray confident that our Father will look after
our material needs, for “your Heavenly Father knows that you need them
all” (Matthew 6:32). However, the Our Father makes us aspire
especially to possess the goods of the Holy Spirit, and invites us to
seek forgiveness (and to forgive others) and to avoid the danger of
sinning. Finally the Our Father emphasizes the importance of vocal
prayer. “`Domine, doce nos orare. Lord teach us to pray!’ And our
Lord replied: `When you pray say: “Pater noster, qui es in coelis”...
Our Father, who art in Heaven...’. What importance we must attach to
vocal prayer!” ([St] J. Escriva, “The Way”, 84).

1. Jesus often went away to pray (cf. Luke 6:12; 22:39ff). This
practice of the Master causes His disciples to want to learn how to
pray. Jesus teaches them to do what He Himself does. Thus, when our
Lord prays, He begins with the Word “Father!”: “Father, into Thy hands
I commit My spirit” (Luke 23:46); see also Matthew 11:25; 26:42, 53;
Luke 23:34; John 11:41; etc.). His prayer on the Cross, “My God, My
God,...” (Matthew 27:46), is not really an exception to this rule,
because there He is quoting Psalm 22, the desperate prayer of the
persecuted just man.

Therefore, we can say that the first characteristic prayer should have
is the simplicity of a son speaking to his Father. “You write: `To
pray is to talk with God. But about what?’ About what? About Him,
about yourself: joys, sorrows, successes, failures, noble ambitions,
daily worries, weaknesses! And acts of thanksgiving and petition: and
love and reparation. In a word: to get to know Him and to get to know
yourself: `to get acquainted!’” ([St] J. Escriva, “The Way”, 91).

2. “Hallowed be Thy name”: in this first petition of the Our Father “we
pray that God may be known, loved, honored and served by everyone and
by ourselves in particular.” This means that we want “unbelievers to
come to a knowledge of the true God, heretics to recognize their
errors, schismatics to return to the unity of the Church, sinners to be
converted and the righteous to persevere in doing good.” By this first
petition, our Lord is teaching us that `we must desire God’s glory more
than our own interest and advantage.” This hallowing of God’s name is
attained “by prayer and good example and by directing all our thoughts,
affections and actions towards Him” (”St. Pius X Catechism”, 290-293).

“Thy Kingdom come”: “By the Kingdom of God we understand a triple
spiritual kingdom—the Kingdom of God in us, which is grace; the
Kingdom of God on earth, which is the Catholic Church; and the Kingdom
of God in Heaven, which is eternal bliss [...]. As regards grace, we
pray that God reign in us with His sanctifying grace, by which He is
pleased to dwell in us as a king in his throne-room, and that He keeps
us united to Him by the virtues of faith, hope and charity, by which He
reigns in our intellect, in our heart and in our will [...]. As
regards the Church, we pray that it extend and spread all over the
world for the salvation of men [...]. As regards Heaven, we pray that
one day we be admitted to that eternal bliss for which we have been
created, where we will be totally happy” (”ibid.”, 294-297).

3. The Tradition of the Church usually interprets the “bread” as not
only material bread, since “man does not live by bread alone, but by
every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4;
Deuteronomy 8:3). Here Jesus wants us to ask God for “what we need
each day for soul and body [...]. For our soul we ask God to sustain
our spiritual life, that is, we beg Him to give us His grace, of which
we are continually in need [...]. The life of our soul is sustained
mainly by the divine word and by the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar
[...]. For our bodies we pray for what is needed to maintain us” (”St.
Pius X Catechism”, 302-305).

Christian doctrine stresses two ideas in this petition of the Our
Father: the first is trust in Divine Providence, which frees us from
excessive desire to accumulate possessions to insure us against the
future (cf. Luke 12:16-21); the other idea is that we should take a
brotherly interest in other people’s needs, thereby moderating our
selfish tendencies.

4. “So rigorously does God exact from us forgetfulness of injuries and
mutual affection and love, that He rejects and despises the gifts and
sacrifices of those who are not reconciled to one another” (”St. Pius V
Catechism”, IV, 14, 16).

“This sisters, is something which we should consider carefully; it is
such a serious and important matter that God should pardon us our sins,
which have merited eternal fire, that we must pardon all trifling
things which have been done to us. As I have so few, Lord, even of
these trifling things, to offer Thee, Thy pardoning of me must be a
free gift: there is abundant scope here for Thy mercy. Blessed be
Thou, who endurest one that is so poor” (St. Teresa of Avila, “Way of
Perfection”, Chapter 36).

“And lead us not into temptation”: it is not a sin to “feel” temptation
but to “consent” to temptation. It is also a sin to put oneself
voluntarily into a situation which can easily lead one to sin. God
allows us to be tempted, in order to test our fidelity, to exercise us
in virtue and to increase our merits with the help of grace. In this
petition we ask the Lord to give us His grace not to be overcome when
put to the test, or to free us from temptation if we cannot cope with
it.

5-10. One of the essential features of prayer is trusting
perseverance. By this simple example and others like it (cf. Luke
18:1-7) our Lord encourages us not to desist in asking God to hear us.
“Persevere in prayer. Persevere even when your efforts seem barren.
Prayer is always fruitful” ([St] J. Escriva, “The Way”, 101).

9-10. Do you see the effectiveness of prayer when it is done
properly? Are you not convinced like me that, if we do not obtain what
we ask God for, it is because we are not praying with faith, with a
heart pure enough, with enough confidence, or that we are not
persevering in prayer the way we should? God has never refused nor
will ever refuse anything to those who ask for His graces in the way
they should. Prayer is the great recourse available to us to get out
of sin, to persevere in grace, to move God’s heart and to draw upon us
all kinds of blessing from Heaven, whether for the soul or to meet our
temporal needs” (St. John Mary Vianney, “Selected Sermons”, Fifth
Sunday after Easter).

11-13. Our Lord uses the example of human parenthood as a comparison
to stress again the wonderful fact that God is our Father, for God’s
fatherhood is the source of parenthood in Heaven and on earth (cf.
Ephesians 3:15). “The God of our faith is not a distant Being who
contemplates indifferently the fate of men—their desires, their
struggles, their sufferings. He is a Father who loves His children so
much that He sends the Word, the Second Person of the Most Blessed
Trinity, so that by taking on the nature of man He may die to redeem
us. He is the loving Father who now leads us gently to Himself,
through the action of the Holy Spirit who dwells in our hearts” ([St] J.
Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”, p. 84).

13. The Holy Spirit is God’s best gift to us, the great promise Christ
gives His disciples (cf. John 5:26), the divine fire which descends on
the Apostles at Pentecost, filling them with fortitude and freedom to
proclaim Christ’s message (Acts 2). “The profound reality which we see
in the texts of Holy Scripture is not a remembrance from the past, from
some golden age of the Church which has since been buried in history.
Despite the weaknesses and the sins of every one of us, it is the
reality of today’s Church and the Church in all times. ‘I will pray to
the Father,’ our Lord told His disciples, ‘and He will give you another
Counsellor to be with you for ever.’ Jesus has kept His promise. He
has risen from the dead and, in union with the eternal Father, He sends
us the Holy Spirit to sanctify us and to give us life” ([St] J. Escriva,
“Christ Is Passing By”, 12).

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.