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From: Colossians 1:15-20
Hymn in Praise of Christ as Head of All Creation
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Commentary:
15-20. Now we come to a very beautiful hymn in praise of Christ’s
sublime dignity as God and as man. This was a truth deserving
emphasis in view of the danger to the faith which the false apostles’
teaching represented (cf. note on vv. 7-8). However, quite apart from
the particular situation in Colossae, the sublime teaching contained
in this canticle holds good for all times; it is one of the most important
Christological texts in St Paul’s writings.
The real protagonist of this passage is the Son of God made man, whose
two natures, divine and human, are always linked in the divine person
of the Word. However, at some points St Paul stresses his divinity (vv.
16, 17, 18b and 19) and at others his humanity (vv. 15, 18a, 18c and
20). The underlying theme of the hymn is Christ’s total pre-eminence
over all creation.
We can distinguish two stanzas in the hymn. In the first (vv. 15-17)
Christ’s dominion is stated to embrace the entire cosmos, stemming
as it does from his action as Creator: “in him all things were created”
(v. 16). This same statement is made in the prologue to the fourth
Gospel (cf. Jn 1:3), and it is implied in the Book of Genesis, which
tells us that creation was effected by God’s word (cf. Gen 1:3, 6, 9,
etc.). Since Christ is the Word of God, he is above all things, and
therefore St Paul stresses that all angels—irrespective of their
hierarchy or order—come under his sway.
Christ’s pre-eminence over natural creation is followed by his primacy
in the economy of supernatural salvation, a second creation worked by
God through grace. The second stanza (vv. 18-20) refers to this further
primacy of Christ: by his death on the cross, Christ has restored peace
and has reconciled all things—the world and mankind—to God. Jews and
Gentiles both are called to form part of one body, the Church, of which
Christ is the head; and all the celestial powers are subject to his
authority.
This passage is, then, a sublime canticle celebrating Christ, the head
by virtue of his surpassing excellence and his salvific action. “The
Son of God and of the Blessed Virgin”, Pius XII teaches, “must be
called the head of the Church for the special reason of his
preeminence. For the head holds the highest place. But none holds
a higher place than Christ as God for he is the Word of the Eternal
Father and is therefore justly called ‘the first-born of all creation’.
None holds a higher place than Christ as man, for he, born of the
immaculate Virgin, is the true and natural Son of God, and by reason
of his miraculous and glorious resurrection by which he triumphed over
death he is ‘the first-born from the dead’. And none stands higher than
he who, being the ‘one mediator between God and man’ (1 Tim 2:5),
admirably unites earth with heaven; who, exalted on the Cross as on his
throne of mercy, has drawn all things to himself” (”Mystici Corporis”,
15).
15. By the unaided use of reason man can work out that God exists,
but he could never, on his own, have grasped the essence of God: in
this sense God is said to be invisible (cf. St Thomas, “Commentary on
Col, ad loc.”). This is why it is said in St John’s Gospel that “no one
has ever seen God” (Jn 1:18).
In Sacred Scripture we are told that man was created “in the image of
God” (Gen 1:26). However, only the second person of the Blessed
Trinity, the Son, is the perfect image and likeness of the Father. “The
image [likeness] of a thing may be found in something else in two ways;
in one way it is found in something of the same specific nature—as the
image of the king is found in his son; in another way it is found in
something of a different nature, as the king’s image on the coin. In
the first sense the Son is the image of the Father; in the second sense
man is called the image of God; and therefore in order to express the
imperfect character of the divine image in man, man is not simply
called ‘the image’ but is referred to as being ‘according to the
image’, whereby is expressed a certain movement or tendency to
perfection. But it cannot be said that the Son of God is ‘according to
the image’, because he is the perfect image of the Father” (”Summa
Theologiae”, I, q. 35, a. 2 ad 3). And so, “for something to be truly
an image, it has to proceed from another as similar to it in species,
or at least in some aspect of the species” (”Summa Theologiae”, I, q.
35, a. 1, c.) To say that the Son is “image of the invisible God” means
that the Father and the Son are one-in-substance—that is, both possess
the same divine nature—, with the nuance that the Son proceeds from
the Father. It also conveys the fact that they are two distinct
persons, for no one is the image of himself.
The supreme revelation of God is that effected by the Son of God
through his Incarnation. He is the only one who can say, “He who has
seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9). His sacred humanity, therefore,
reflects the perfections of God, which he possesses by virtue of the
hypostatic union—the union of divine nature and human nature which
occurs in his person, which is divine. The second Person of the Trinity
restored man to his original dignity. The image of God, imperfect though
it be, which there is in every man and woman, was blurred by Adam’s
sin; but it was restored in Christ: God’s true self-image takes on a
nature the same as ours, and thanks to the redemption wrought by
his death, we obtain forgiveness of sins (v. 14).
Jesus Christ is the “first-born of all creation” by virtue of the hypostatic
union. He is, of course, prior to all creation, for he proceeds eternally
from the Father by generation. This the Church has always believed,
and it proclaims it in the Creed: “born of the Father before time began
..., begotten, not made, of one being [consubstantial] with the Father”
(”Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed”).
In Jewish culture, the first-born was first in honor and in law. When
the Apostle calls Jesus “the first-born of all creation”, he is referring
to the fact that Christ has pre-eminence and headship over all created
things, because not only does he pre-date them but they were all
created “through him” and “for him” (v. 16).
16-17. Jesus Christ is God; this is why he has pre-eminence over
all created things. The relationships between Christ and creation are
spelled out by three prepositions. “In him all things were created”:
in Christ: he is their source, their center and their model or exemplary
cause. “All things were created through him and for him”: through him,
in other words, God the Father, through God the Son, creates all
things; and for him, because he is the last end, the purpose or goal
of everything.
St Paul goes on to say that “in him all things hold together”; “the Son
of God has not only created everything: he conserves everything in
being; thus, if his sovereign will were to cease to operate for even an
instant, everything would return into the nothingness from which he
drew everything that exists” (Chrysostom, “Hom. on Col, ad loc.”).
All created things, then, continue in existence because they share,
albeit in a limited way, in Christ’s infinite fullness of existence or
perfection. His dominion extends not only over celestial things but
also over all material things, however insignificant they may seem:
it embraces everything in heaven and in the physical universe.
The sacred text also points to Christ’s supremacy over invisible
creation, that is, over the angels and celestial hierarchies (cf. Heb
1:5). If St Paul stresses this fact, it is to expose the errors of
those who were depicting Jesus as a creature intermediary between
corporeal beings and spiritual created beings, and, therefore, lower
than the angels.
18. “He is the head of the body, the church”: this image shows the
relationship of Christ with the Church, to which he sends his grace in
abundance, bearing life to all its members. ‘The head,” St Augustine
says, “is our very Savior, who suffered under Pontius Pilate and now,
after rising from the dead, is seated at the right hand of the Father.
And his body is the Church [...] For the whole Church, made up of the
assembly of the faithful—for all the faithful are Christ’s
members—has Christ, as its head, who rules his body from on high”
(”Enarrationes in Psalmos”, 56, 1).
St Paul unequivocally teaches that the Church is a body. “Now if the
Church is a body it must be something one and undivided, according to
the statement of St Paul: ‘We, though many, are one body in Christ’
(Rom 12:5). And not only must it be one and undivided, it must also be
something concrete and visible, as our Predecessor of happy memory,
Leo XIII, says in his Encyclical “Satis Cognitum”: ‘By the very fact of
being a body the Church is visible.’ It is therefore an aberration from
divine truth to represent the Church as something intangible and
invisible, as a mere ‘pneumatic’ entity joining together by an invisible
link a number of communities of Christians in spite of their difference
in faith.
“But a body requires a number of members so connected that they help
one another. And, in fact, as in our mortal organism when one member
suffers the others suffer with it, and the healthy members come to the
assistance of those who are ailing, so in the Church individual members
do not live only for themselves but also help one another, alleviating
their suffering and helping to build up the entire body” (Pius XII,
“Mystici Corporis”, 7).
“He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead”: this can be said
because he was the first man to rise from the dead, never again to die
(cf. 1 Cor 15:20; Rev 1:5), and also because thanks to him it enabled
men to experience resurrection in glory (cf. 1 Cor 15:22; Rom 8:11),
because they are justified through him (cf. Rom 4:25).
So, just as the previous verses looked to Christ’s pre-eminent role in
creations the hymn now focuses on his primacy in a new creation—the
rebirth of mankind, and all creation in its train, in the supernatural
order of grace and glory. Christ rose from the dead to enable us also
to walk in newness of life (cf. Rom 6:4). Therefore, in every way Jesus
Christ is “pre-eminent.”
19. The word “pleroma” translated here as “fullness”, has two meanings
in Greek: one, an active meaning, describes something that “fills” or
“completes”; for example, a ship’s full load can be referred to as its
pleroma. The other meaning is passive, “that which is filled” or “that
which is complete”, so that a ship can be said to be “pleroma” when it
is fully loaded. In this passage St Paul is using the word in both
senses: Christ is the fullness (passive sense) of the Godhead (cf. Col
2:9), because he is full of all the perfections of the divine essence;
and he is the fullness (active sense), because he fills the Church and
all creation.
St John Chrysostom suggests that “the word ‘fullness’ is to be taken to
mean the divinity of Jesus Christ [...]. This term has been chosen the
better to show that the very essence of the godhead resides in Jesus
Christ” (”Hom. on Col, ad loc.”).
Since Christ possesses the divine nature, he also possesses the
fullness of the supernatural gifts, for himself and for all mankind.
Hence St Thomas’ comment that pleroma “reveals the dignity of the
head in so far as it has the fullness of all grace” (Commentary on Col,
ad loc.). In this sense, Christ is the fullness of the Church, for as its
head he vivifies his body with all kinds of unmerited gifts. Finally,
the entire created universe can be termed the “fullness” (”pleroma”) of
Christ, because everything that exists in heaven and on earth has been
created and is maintained in existence by him (cf. vv. 16-17); they are
ever-present to him and are ruled by him (cf. Is 6:3; Ps 139:8; Wis
1:7; etc.). Thus, the world, which was created good (cf. Gen 1:31)
tends towards its fulfillment insofar as it clearly reflects the imprint
God gave it at the start of creation.
20. Since Christ is pre-eminent over all creation, the Father chose to
reconcile all things to himself through him. Sin had cut man off from
God, rupturing the perfect order which originally reigned in the
created world. By shedding his blood on the cross, Christ obtained
peace for us; nothing in the universe falls outside the scope of his
peace-giving influence. He who in the beginning created all things in
heaven and on earth has reestablished peace throughout creation.
This reconciliation of all things, ushered in by Christ, is fostered by
the Holy Spirit who enables the Church to continue the process of
reconciliation. However, we will not attain the fullness of this
reconciliation until we reach heaven, when the entire created universe,
along with mankind, will be perfectly renewed in Christ (cf. “Lumen
Gentium”, 48).
“The history of salvation—the salvation of the whole of humanity, as
well as of every human being of whatever period—is the wonderful
history of a reconciliation; the reconciliation whereby God, as Father,
in the Blood and the Cross of his Son made man, reconciles the world
to himself and thus brings into being a new family of those who have
been reconciled.
“Reconciliation becomes necessary because there has been the
break of sin from which derive all the other forms of break within man
and about him. Reconciliation therefore, in order to be complete,
necessarily requires liberation from sin, which is to be rejected in its
deepest roots. Thus a close internal link unites “conversion” and
“reconciliation”. It is impossible to split these two realities or to
speak of one and say nothing of the other (John Paul II, “Reconciliatio
Et Paenitentia”, 13).
Jesus Christ also counts on the cooperation of every individual
Christian to apply his work of redemption and peace to all creation.
The founder of Opus Dei says, in this connection: “We must love the
world and work and all human things. For the world is good. Adam’s sin
destroyed the divine balance of creation; but God the Father sent his
only Son to reestablish peace, so that we his children by adoption,
might free creation from disorder and reconcile all things to God”
(”Christ Is Passing By”, 112).
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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.