Paul Writes to the Colossians

Homily for Wednesday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

As we begin reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Colossians, it is important for us to remember that this particular community was not founded by St. Paul. It is also important to remember that St. Paul writes this letter from prison. The opening words of this letter are certainly not what we would expect to hear from someone who is experiencing life in prison.

St. Paul begins by expressing his gratitude for the fact that he has heard about the Colossians in very positive terms. He congratulates them because he has heard of their faith, hope, and love for one another. Though these three words: faith, hope and love, which we have come to know as the theological virtues, are buried in the typical Pauline verbiage, they are most definitely uppermost in St. Paul’s mind. He goes on to commend Epaphras, the disciple who has brought Christianity to Colossae. He frames his gratitude in his familiar admonition about bearing good fruit.

I found myself wondering what kind of letter St. Paul would have written to me, to you, to the Catholic Christian community of the diocese of Joliet in Illinois. The community at the southern tip of Lake Michigan was first evangelized by the Jesuits, Father Jacques Marquette in particular. He accompanied other French explorers and cartographers who were sent to the Mississippi River Valley to map this section of North America. After mapping the Mississippi River, they turned back and entered the Illinois River which brought them to the shores of Lake Michigan. Along the way, Father Marquette brought the Gospel to the Native Americans and the European settlers who had made it to the Midwest.

It is good to think about what, if anything, affects our ability to carry out our part of the mission of the church. We take our inspiration from Jesus whose activity at the beginning of St. Luke’s Gospel is filled with stories about healings and the expulsion of demons. Whatever our state in life in the world, we can follow the example of the people in Jesus’ day and come to him with our needs and struggles, knowing that Jesus is always ready to heal us and lead us forward in our pursuit of the Christian life. Our Eucharist is the food for our journey and the source of all healing in our lives.