From: Colossians 2:6-15
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. [15] He disarmed the
principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing
over them in him.
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.").
15. Jesus is the only mediator between God and man. The angelic
principalities and powers are insignificant by comparison with him: God
has overpowered them and publicly exposed them through the death of his
Son. The sentence seems to evoke the idea of the parade of a victorious
general complete with trophies, booty and prisoners.
Some scholars interpret this passage differently; the "public
spectacle", according to their interpretation, would refer to the fact
that the good angels had been mediators in the revelation of the Mosaic
Law (cf. Gal 3:19) and were being venerated by some contemporary Jews
(among them some converts from Colossae) with a form of worship
bordering on superstition. God would have caused them to become "a
public spectacle" when they acted as a kind of escort in Christ's
victory parade. Thus, both interpretations lead to the conclusion that
angels, who are Christ's servants, should not be rendered the worship
due to him alone, even though they do play an important part in God's
plan of salvation. One of the missions entrusted to them is that of
continually interceding on behalf of mankind.
At the time this epistle was being written there was need to emphasize
first that Jesus Christ is the only mediator. The mediation of angels
depends on him (it is something revealed in fact in the Old Testament:
cf. Tob 12:3, 12ff; Dan 9:2ff; 10:13; Ezek 49:3; Zech 1:9; etc.). The
Blessed Virgin Mary's mediation, also subordinate to that of Christ,
is something which becomes clearer as the events of the New Testament
unfold. Mary's mediation is, however, on a higher level than that of
the angels. Pope Pius XII says this, echoing earlier teachings: "If, as
he does, the Word works miracles and infuses grace by means of the
human nature he has taken on, if he uses the sacraments, and his
Saints, as instruments for the saving of souls, how could he not use
the office and action of his most blessed Mother to distribute the
fruits of the Redemption?
"With a truly maternal spirit (our predecessor Pius IX of immortal
memory says), having in her hands the business of our salvation, she
concerns herself with all mankind, for she has been made by the Lord
Queen of heaven and earth and is raised above all the choirs of Angels
and all the degrees of the Saints in heaven; she is there at the right
hand of her only Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, in most effective
supplication, obtaining whatever she asks; she cannot but be heard"
("Ad Caeli Reginam", 17).
"Principalities and powers": see the note on Eph 6:12.
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.