Living in Christ

 Reflection on Today's Readings, Tuesday of 23rd Week in Ordinary Time, Year 1, September 7th, 2021
Texts: Col. 2:6-15; Ps. 145: 1-2, 8-11; Luke 6:12-19
Today, St. Paul admonishes us that as we have received Christ Jesus the Lord, we should live in Him, be rooted and built up in Him, established in faith and abounding in thanksgiving. We live in Christ when we live in obedience to His words. By saying that we should live in Christ, St. Paul admonishes us to live in accord with Christ's gospel value. To live in Christ also means to allow Christ's will to prevail in our lives, to follow His ways, allowing Him to rule over us.  We are rooted in Christ when we are grounded in His knowledge and the mysteries of God. When we are grounded in the knowledge of Christ and the mysteries of God, we will remain undisturbed by false doctrines. Hence, St. Paul says, "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." The point, here, is that the call to be rooted in Christ ist the call to be grounded in His knowledge and the mysteries of God. The knowledge of Christ and the mystery of God St. Paul put forward today is the Divinity of Christ and our life in Him. He says, "For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness of life in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ; 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." In Christ we have fullness of life. Our life in Christ consists in putting off the body of flesh, that is, putting off the desire of the flesh to do the will of God. Putting off the desire of the body for Christ is man's greatest challenge. The greatest of this desire is the desire to live. Putting off of desire is not an annihilation of desire but subjection of desire to God's will. In this way it means putting desires of the body under control. This is a call for self-control.  If our own desires still rule us, if the will of God still give way for our own desire to prevail, then we are not yet in Christ; we are living outside Him. To be in Christ is to surrender our will to Him, putting off our desires.
He also asks us to build up in Him. This means we are to grow and become mature in Him. We are to grow in virtues, knowledge, wisdom and understanding of Christ and mysteries of God. We are also to be established in faith. We are established in faith when we are abreast with the truths of the faith and committed to them in words and deeds. It is an admonition to live our faith. We are also to be abounding in thanksgiving. We will be abounding in thanksgiving when our eyes are open to see the good. When we see good in whatever circumstance we find ourselves, we will give thanks to God always. We will also appreciate others if we learn to see good in them.

May the Lord grant us grace to live in Christ, be rooted and built up, established in faith and abounding in thanksgiving. Amen.

Fr. Andrew Olowomuke