The Good Samaritan, Aimé Morot, 1880
Musée des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris
Which of these three, in your opinion,
was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?”
He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.”
Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
(Luke 10:36–37)
Fr. Smith’s Commentary on the Second Reading
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Colossians 1:15–20
July 10, 2022
Our second reading for the rest of the month will be from the “Letter to the Colossians”. We read Colossians once before and an introduction can be found in the commentary for last Easter. It was written around the same time and place as the letter to the Ephesians, which we read last year, and shares some of its themes. There is some debate if Paul wrote these letters himself or if they should be credited to disciple after his death. This is not of great consequence as it does not change the situation or the message. We will for the sake of convenience say the author was Paul. More certain is that it was to a mixed audience of Jewish and Christian born believers and that he is answering philosophical or cosmic questions.
Our reading today is in the first chapter of the letter. It is a song. Indeed, the congregation might well have been familiar with the basic hymn before the letter but the hymn may have been written by Paul.
He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.(Col 1:15)
From the Greek word we are translating as image (eikon), we also get icon. Although used more widely now in a secular sense, icons originally were pictures of Jesus, Mary or the Saints in the Eastern Church and were “windows” to the reality of the sacred. Sacrament would come closer to our understanding in the west. When we meet Jesus in the flesh, we meet God. Continue reading “15th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Bringing the World to Fulfillment”
