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From: Colossians 1:24-2:3

Paul’s response to his calling

[24] Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what
is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, [25]
of which I became a minister according to the divine office which was given to
me for you, to make the word of God fully known, [26] the mystery hidden for
ages and generations but now made manifest to his saints. [27] To them God
chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory
of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. [28] Him we proclaim,
warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present
every man mature in Christ. [29] For this I toil, striving with all the energy which
he mightily inspires within me.

St. Paul’s concern for the faithful

[1] For I want you to know how greatly I strive for you, and for those at Laodicea,
and for all who have not seen my face, [2] that their hearts may be encouraged
as they are knit together in love, to have all the riches of assured understanding
and the knowledge of God’s mystery, of Christ, [3] in whom are hid all the trea-
sures of wisdom and knowledge.

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Commentary:

24. Jesus Christ our Lord perfectly accomplished the work the Father gave him
to to (cf. Jn 17:4); as he said himself when he was about to die, “It is finished”,
it is accomplished (Jn 19:30).

From that point onwards objective redemption is an accomplished fact. All men
have been saved by the redemptive death of Christ. However, St Paul says that
he completes in his flesh “what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions”; what does he
mean by this? The most common explanation of this statement is summarized
by St Alphonsus as follows: “Can it be that Christ’s passion alone was insuffi-
cient to save us? It left nothing more to be done, it was entirely sufficient to save
all men. However, for the merits of the Passion to be applied to us, according to
St. Thomas (Summa theologiae, III, q. 49, a. 3), we need to cooperate (subjective
redemption) by patiently bearing the trials God sends us, so as to become like
our head, Christ” (St Alphonsus, “Thoughts on the Passion”, 10).

St Paul is applying this truth to himself. Jesus Christ worked and strove in all
kinds of ways to communicate his message of salvation, and then he accomp-
lished the redemption by dying on the Cross. The Apostle is mindful of the Mas-
ter’s teaching and so he follows in his footsteps (cf. 1 Pet 2:21), takes up his
cross (cf. Mt 10:38) and continues the task of bringing Christ’s teaching to all
men.

Faith in the fact that we are sharing in the sufferings of Christ, Bl. John Paul II
says, gives a person “the certainty that in the spiritual dimension of the work of
Redemption he is serving, like Christ, the salvation of his brothers and sisters.
Therefore he is carrying out an irreplaceable service. In the Body of Christ, which
is ceaselessly born of the Cross of the Redeemer, it is precisely suffering per-
meated by the spirit of Christ’s sacrifice that is the irreplaceable mediator and
author of the good things which are indispensable for the world’s salvation. It is
suffering, more than anything else, which clears the way for the grace which
transforms human souls. Suffering, more than anything else, makes present in
the history of humanity the force of the Redemption” (”Salvifici doloris”, 27).

26-27. The “mystery”, now revealed, is God’s eternal plan to give salvation to
men, both Jews and Gentiles, making all without distinction co-heirs of glory
and members of a single body which is the Church (cf. Eph 3:6), through faith
in Jesus Christ (cf. Rom 15:25-26).

In Christ, who has brought salvation to Gentile and Jew, the “mystery” is fully re-
vealed. His presence in Christians of Gentile origin is in fact a very clear manifes-
tation of the supernatural fruitfulness of the “mystery” and an additional ground
for Christians’ hope. Thanks to this presence people who do not form part of Is-
rael are enabled to attain salvation. Previously subject to the power of darkness
and slaves of sin (vv. 13-14), the have now died to sin through Baptism (cf. Rom
6:2-3) and Christ, through grace, dwells in their hearts (on the salvific “mystery”,
cf. notes on Eph 1:13-14 and Eph 1:9, and “Introduction to the letters of St Paul”
in The Navarre Bible: Romans and Galatians, pp. 32-33).

In his infinite love Christ lives in us through faith and grace, through prayer and
the sacraments. Also, “he is present when the Church prays and sings, for he
has promised ‘where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the
midst of them’ (Mt 18:20)” (Vatican II, “Sacrosanctum Concilium”, 7).

“Christ stays in his Church, its sacraments, its liturgy, its preaching – in all that
it does. In a special way Christ stays with us in the daily offering of the Blessed
Eucharist […]. The presence of Christ in the host is the guarantee, the source
and the culmination of his presence in the world.

“Christ is alive in Christians. Our faith teaches us that man, in the state of grace,
is divinized – filled with God. We are men and women, not angels. We are flesh
and blood, people with sentiments and passions, with sorrows and joys. And this
divinization affects everything human; it is a sort of foretaste of the final resurrec-
tion” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ is passing by”, 102-103).

28. “In all wisdom”: St Paul is exhorting and teaching each and every one, com-
municating wisdom, the true teaching of Jesus Christ. The text clearly shows St
Paul’s conviction that he is a faithful transmitter of teachings revealed by God.
Possessed of such wisdom he is confident that he can lead his disciples to
Christian perfection.

2-3. The term “mystery”, which St Paul uses on other occasions (cf. 1:26; Eph
1:9), refers in this verse expressly to Christ: Christ is the complete manifestation
of the divine plan or “mystery” designed to bring about the salvation of mankind.
The name Jesus means Saviour and indicates his principal mission – to save
the people of Israel (and through them all mankind) from their sins (cf. Mt 1:21).

The assertion that in Christ “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge”
is based on the fact that Christ – God made man – is the incarnation of divine
Wisdom itself, for Wisdom is one of the names applied in Sacred Scripture to
the second Person of the Blessed Trinity. Hence St Athanasius’ comment that
“God no longer chose to make himself known, as in times past, by the reflection
and shadow of wisdom to be seen in created things: he determined that Wisdom
itself, in person, should become incarnate, should be made man and suffer death
on the cross, so that from then on all the faithful might attain salvation through
faith grounded on the cross” (”Oratio II contra Arianos”).

The infinite richness of wisdom and knowledge hidden in Christ means that medi-
tation on his life and his teachings is an inexhaustible source of nourishment for
the life of the soul. “There are great depths to be fathomed in Christ. For he is
like an abandoned mine with many recesses containing treasures, of which, for
all that men try to fathom them, the end and bottom is never reached; rather in
each recess men continue to find new veins of new riches on all sides” (St. John
of the Cross, “Spiritual Canticle”, 37, 3).

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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 6:6-11

The Cure of a Man with a Withered Hand

[6] On another Sabbath, when He (Jesus) entered the synagogue and taught, a
man was there whose right hand was withered. [7] And the scribes and the Pha-
risees watched Him, to see whether He would heal on the Sabbath, so that they
might find an accusation against Him. [8] But He knew their thoughts, and He
said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” And he
rose and stood there. [9] And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful on the
Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” [10] And He
looked around on them all, and said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did
so, and his hand was restored. [11] But they were filled with fury and discussed
with one another what they might do to Jesus.

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Commentary:

10. The Fathers teach us how to discover a deep spiritual meaning in apparently
casual things Jesus says. St. Ambrose, for example, commenting on the phrase
“Stretch out your hand,” says: “This form of medicine is common and general.
Offer it often, in benefit of your neighbor; defend from injury anyone who seems
to be suffering as a result of calumny; stretch your hand out also to the poor man
who asks for your help; stretch it out also to the Lord asking Him to forgive your
sins; that is how you should stretch your hand out, and that is the way to be
cured” (”Expositio Evangelii sec. Lucam, in loc”.).

11. The Pharisees do not want to reply to Jesus’ question and do not know how
to react to the miracle which He goes on to work. It should have converted them,
but their hearts were in darkness and they were full of jealousy and anger. Later
on, these people, who kept quiet in our Lord’s presence, began to discuss Him
among themselves, not with a view to approaching Him again but with the pur-
pose of doing away with Him. In this connection St. Cyril comments: “O Phari-
see, you see Him working wonders and healing the sick by using a higher power,
yet out of envy you plot His death” (”Commentarium in Lucam, in loc.”).

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