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Meditation Two Hundred Sixty Seven

The Second Week of April 2008

The Gospel According to Saint Paul

 Begin with prayer to the Holy Spirit 

 

 

Read Colossians 3: 1-4

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.  For you have died and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears then you also will appear with him in glory.”

 

Saint Paul often speaks of us being united with Christ in eternal glory, but the scholars say that this is not the same thing as our union with Christ in this world, which is something of which Saint Paul also speaks.  To be united with Christ, to have Christ living in us, is something that Saint Paul says is to happen in this world, during the time of our journey in the material world. It is important to realize this because the uniqueness of the Christian vocation can only be understood by grace.  Grace is the uncreated relationship of a human being with Almighty God.  All grace is won for us by Jesus Christ.  Insofar as non-Christians can be saved – which  the Second Vatican Council has made very clear that they can if they are outside of Christ through no fault of their own – they are  saved through the grace of Christ just as we are.  People who lived before the time of Christ are also saved through His grace.  There is no source of grace other then the holy life, terrible death and glorious resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ.  As Saint Paul has said: “He has nailed the decree against us to the cross.”

 

Unfortunately people don’t think too often of salvation right now. In the secularized world in which we live, salvation seems to have become a rather vague idea, and the assumption is that everybody’s going to be saved.  If you look at the outrageous behavior of people in public life, the support of infanticide and euthanasia, the indecency that has become common in public, the seduction of the young by the media, it is hard to believe that anyone is thinking much about salvation. 

 

When political figures propose and support things that are clearly contrary to the Gospel and the teachings of the Church, are they thinking about the fact that they will one day stand before the judgment seat of God?  The answer is a resounding “no.”  They are not thinking about such things at all.  But the devout Christian – certainly the Oratorian – must think long and hard about this, and we must be praying about it too that others will be saved by the grace of Christ, that He will call them to salvation and that they will heed that call. 

                                                                                                            

Quotation for Meditation

 

From Christ in the Mystical Teaching of St. Paul by Alfred Wikenhauser

 

Being in Christ is brought about by the sacramental act of dying with and rising with Christ in Baptism.  Baptism has not a merely a passing significance.  Its effect endures for it causes us to “be in Christ.”  Although Paul never says this in set terms, it is clearly his teaching, particularly in Romans 6:4.  “We are buried together with him by baptism unto death, that is Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life  . . .  so do you reckon that you are dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

 

Quiet Time and Then Discussion

 

Questions for Meditation

  

1. What does it mean to “live in Christ?”
2. Can a person who is baptized and in the state of Grace be said to be living in Christ?
3. But if the person is unaware of this, is it doing him or her much good be in Christ and not let this affect everyday life?  Is this where mediocrity enters the Christian life?

 

Prayer 

 

Lord Jesus Christ, you called me by your divine grace through your holy life which we read of in the Gospel.  Baptism, which You, Yourself established is the way in which we symbolically die with you and rise with you to lead a new life.  Help us, O Lord, to be aware of this every day, every hour.  Help us to be aware of it when we are asked to do good, to make sacrifices, to avoid evil, to resist, temptation.  Amen.