From: Colossians 3:12-17
Progress in the Spiritual Life
*********************************************************************************************
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).
*********************************************************************************************
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 6:27-38
Love of Enemies
[32] “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners
love those who love them. [33] And if you do good to those who do good to you,
what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. [34] And if you lend to
those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners
lend to sinners, to receive as much again. [35] But love your enemies, and do
good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and
you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish.
[36] Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
[37] “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be
condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; [38] give, and it will be given to you;
good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your
lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”
*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:
27. “In loving our enemies there shines forth in us some likeness to God our Fa-
ther, who, by the death of His Son, ransomed from everlasting perdition and re-
conciled to Himself the human race, which previously was most unfriendly and
hostile to Him” (”St. Pius V Catechism”, IV, 14, 19). Following the example of
God our Father, we must desire for everyone (even those who say they are our
enemies) eternal life, in the first place; additionally, a Christian has a duty to re-
spect and understand everyone without exception, because of his or her intrin-
sic dignity as a human person, made in the image and likeness of the Creator.
28. Jesus Christ teaches us by example that this is a real precept and not just
a pious recommendation; even when nailed to the cross He prayed to His Father
for those who had brought Him to such a pass: “Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do” (Lk 23:34). In imitation of the Master, St Stephen, the
first martyr of the Church, when he was being stoned, prayed to our Lord not to
hold the sin against his persecutors (cf. Acts 7:60). In the liturgy of Good Friday
the Church offers prayers and suffrages to God on behalf of those outside the
Church, asking Him to give them the grace of faith; to release from their igno-
rance those who do not know Him; to give Jews the light to the truth; to bring
non-Catholic Christians, linked by true charity, into full communion with our Mo-
ther the Church.
29. Our Lord gives us more examples to show us how we should act if we want
to imitate the mercy of God. The first has to do with one of what are traditionally
called the “spiritual works of mercy” — forgiving injuries and being patient with
other people’s defects. This is what He means in the first instance about turning
the other cheek.
To understand what our Lord is saying here, St. Thomas comments that “Sa-
cred Scripture needs to be understood in the light of the example of Christ and
the saints. Christ did not offer the cheek to be struck in the house of Annas (Jn
18:22ff), nor did St. Paul when, as we are told in the Acts of the Apostles, he
was beaten in Philippi (Acts 16:22f). Therefore, we should not take it that Christ
literally meant that you should offer the other cheek to some to hit you; what He
was referring to was your interior disposition; that is, if necessary we should be
ready not to be intolerant of anyone who hurts us, and we should be ready to put
up with this kind of treatment, or worse than that. That was how the Lord acted
when He surrendered His body to death” (”Commentary on St John”, 18, 37).
36. The model of mercy which Christ sets before us is God Himself, of whom St.
Paul says, ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions” (2 Cor
1:3-4). “The first quality of this virtue”, Fray Luis de Granada explains, “is that it
makes men like God and like the most glorious thing in Him, His mercy (Lk 6:
36). For certainly the greatest perfection a creature can have is to be like his
Creator, and the more like Him he is, the more perfect he is. Certainly one of
the things which is most appropriate to God is mercy, which is what the Church
means when it says that prayer: ‘Lord God, to whom it is proper to be merciful
and forgiving...’. It says that this is proper to God, because just as a creature,
as creature, is characteristically poor and needy (and therefore characteristical-
ly receives and does not give), so, on the contrary, since God is infinitely rich
and powerful, to Him alone does it belong to give and not to receive, and there-
fore it is appropriate for Him to be merciful and forgiving” (”Book of Prayer and
Meditation”, third part, third treatise).
This is the rule a Christian should apply: be compassionate towards other peo-
ple’s afflictions as if they were one’s own, and try to remedy them. The Church
spells out this rule by giving us a series of corporal works of mercy (visiting and
caring for the sick, giving food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty...) and spiritual
works of mercy (teaching the ignorant, correcting the person who has erred,
forgiving injuries...): cf. “St Pius X Catechism”, 944f.
We should also show understanding towards people who are in error: “Love and
courtesy of this kind should not, of course, make us indifferent to truth and good-
ness. Love, in fact, impels the followers of Christ to proclaim to all men the truth
which saves. But we must distinguish between the error (which must always be
rejected) and the person in error, who never loses his dignity as a person even
though he flounders amid false or inadequate religious ideas. God alone is the
judge and searcher of hearts; He forbids us to pass judgment on the inner guilt
of others” (Vatican II, “Gaudium Et Spes”, 28).
38. We read in Sacred Scripture of the generosity of the widow of Zarephath,
whom God asked to give food to Elijah the prophet even though she had very
little left; He then rewarded her generosity by constantly renewing her supply
of meal and oil (1 Kings 17:9ff). The same sort of thing happened when the boy
supplied the five loaves and two fish which our Lord multiplied to feed a huge
crowd of people (cf. Jn 6:9) — a vivid example of what God does when we give
Him whatever we have, even if it does not amount to much.
God does not let Himself be outdone in generosity: “Go, generously and like a
child ask Him, ‘What can You mean to give me when You ask me for “this”?’”
(St. J. Escriva, “The Way”, 153). However much we give God in this life, He will
give us more in life eternal.
*********************************************************************************************
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.