Friday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
(Colossians 1:15-20; Luke 5:33-39)
Once, a teacher of pastoral ministry compared the students in his class to different animals of the forest. A solitary timid person was named a coyote, and a very plodding student was said to be a horse. But how was the teacher to view the fellow who seemed to have everything together? The student in mind could laugh with the merry and had no trouble commiserating with the sad. The instructor saw him a pond – the entity in which, through which, and around which all the other animals dwell. The author of the letter to the Colossians makes such a comparison in describing Jesus.
According to the passage, Jesus is the one in whom all things were created. Like an environment, then, Jesus provides space so that nature can take place and progress onward. He is the first to experience the ultimate human destiny of the resurrection from the dead. Finally, he heads the Church giving it direction and correcting its faults.
The passage is actually a hymn of praise to Jesus probably adapted by the author of the letter to introduce the important themes just mentioned. We regularly recite it in the Divine Office to give Jesus our highest admiration.
