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From: Colossians 3:12-17
Progress in the Spiritual Life
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Commentary:
12-13. Putting on the new nature is not just an external action, like putting on dif-
ferent clothes. It is a transfiguration involving the whole person — soul and body,
mind and will. This interior change begins to operate when one makes a firm re-
solution to lead a fully Christian life; but it calls for an on-going effort, day in day
out, to practice all the virtues. “Conversion is something momentary; sanctifica-
tion is the work of a lifetime. The divine seed of charity, which God has sown in
our souls, wants to grow, to express itself in action, to yield results which continu-
ally coincide with what God wants. Therefore, we must be ready to begin again,
to find again—in new situations — the light and the stimulus of our first conversion”
(St. J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 58).
The virtues which the Apostle lists here as characteristic of the new man are all
expressions, in one way or another, of charity, which “binds everything together
in total harmony” (v. 14). Meekness, patience, forgiveness and gratefulness all
reect an essential virtue —humility. Only a humble person can be forgiving and tru-
ly appreciative, because only he realizes that everything he has comes from God.
This realization leads him to be understanding towards his neighbor, forgiving
him as often as needs be; by acting in this way he is proving the genuineness of
his faith and love.
See the note on Eph 4:20-24.
14. The comparison of the new nature to a new outfit is extended here by a further
metaphor: charity is the belt which keeps everything together. Without it the other
virtues would fall apart: supernatural virtue could not survive (cf. 1 Cor 13 1-3). St
Francis de Sales uses simple examples to explain this truth: “Without cement and
mortar, which knits the bricks together and strengthens the walls, the entire buil-
ding is bound to collapse; a human body would simply disintegrate unless it had
nerves, muscles and tendons; and if charity were absent, virtues simply could not
stay together” (St Francis de Sales, “Treatise on the Love of God”, 11, 9).
“Love, as the bond of perfection and fullness of the law (cf. Col 3:14; Rom 13:10),
governs, imbues, and perfects all the means of sanctification” (Vatican II, “Lumen
Gentium”, 42). Therefore, “if we want to achieve holiness — in spite of personal
shortcomings and miseries which will last as long as we live — we must make an
effort, with God’s grace, to practice charity, which is the fullness of the law and the
bond of perfection. Charity is not something abstract, it entails a real, complete,
self-giving to the service of God and all men — to the service of that God who
speaks to us in the silence of prayer and in the hubbub of the world and of those
people whose existence is interwoven with our own. By living charity — Love — we
live all the human and supernatural virtues required of a Christian” (St. J. Escriva,
“Conversations”, 62).
15. The “peace of Christ” is that which flows from the new order of grace which
he has established; grace gives man direct access to God and therefore to that
peace he so much yearns for. “Thou has made us for thyself and our hearts are
restless till they rest in thee” (St Augustine, “Confessions”, 1, 1). This is not a
peace the world can give (cf. Jn 14:27), because it is not a function of purely ma-
terial progress or well-being, nor does it derive from the sort of peace that should
obtain among nations. “Peace on earth, which men of every era have most eager-
ly yearned for, can be firmly established only if the order laid down by God is duti-
fully observed” (John XXIII, “Pacem In Terris”, 1).
The peace of Christ, then, is “a peace that comes from knowing that our Father
God loves us, and that we are made one with Christ. It results from being under
the protection of the Virgin, our Lady, and assisted by St Joseph. This is the great
light that illuminates our lives. In the midst of difficulties and of our personal failings,
it encourages us to keep up our effort” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 22).
16. “The word of Christ”: the whole corpus of our Lord’s teachings, of which the
Apostles are accredited witnesses. This should be ever-present to the Christian’s
soul and “dwell...richly” in him, imbuing everything he does: the word of Christ is
the best nourishment of one’s life of prayer and an inexhaustible source of practi-
cal teaching; and it is to be found in the first instance in the books of the New Tes-
tament. St John Chrysostom says that these writings “are teachers which never
cease to instruct us [...]. Open these books. What a treasury of good remedies
they contain! [...]. All you need do is look at the book, read it and remember well
the wise teachings therein. The source of all our evils is our ignorance of the sa-
cred books” (”Hom. on Col, ad loc.”).
St Paul also reminds us that our appreciation should lead us to glorify the Lord
with songs of joy and gratitude. We can use ready-made hymns for this purpose,
and also the Psalms, which the Church has always used in its liturgy to praise
God and to nourish the spiritual life. “Just as the mouth savors good food, so
does the heart savor the Psalms” (St Bernard, “Sermons on the Song of Songs”,
7, 5).
See the note on Eph 5:19.
17. All genuinely human things can and should be sanctified (cf. 1 Cor 10:31),
by being done perfectly and for love of God.
The Second Vatican Council has recalled this teaching: “Lay people [...], while
meeting their human obligations in the ordinary conditions of life, should not sepa-
rate their union with Christ from their ordinary life; through the very performance of
their tasks, which are God’s will for them, they actually promote the growth of their
union with him. This is the path along which lay people must advance, fervently, joy-
fully” (”Apostolicam Actuositatem”, 4).
This teaching was very much part of the message and life of the founder of Opus
Dei: “I assure you, my children, that when a Christian carries out with love the
most insignificant everyday action, that action overflows with the transcendence
of God. That is why I have told you repeatedly, and hammered away once and
again on the idea, that the Christian vocation consists in making heroic verse
out of the prose of each day. Heaven and earth seem to merge, my children, on
the horizon. But where they really meet is in your hearts, when you sanctify your
everyday lives” (”Conversations”, 116).
The Second Vatican Council also sees in this passage of Colossians a basis for
ecumenical dialogue with non-Catholics: “And if in moral matters there are many
Christians who do not always understand the Gospel in the same way as Catho-
lics, and do not admit the same solutions for the more difficult problems of modern
society, they nevertheless want to cling to Christ’s word as the source of Christian
virtue and to obey the command of the Apostle: [Col 3:17 follows]” (”Unitatis Re-
dintegratio”, 23).
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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.