FROM THE SERVANT GENERAL
OUR THEME FOR 2021
(Part 30)
MINISTERS OF GOD
September 4, 2021
Today’s reading:
Colossians 1:21-23
The basic commission for a Christian, and thus ours as well, is to share Christ, to work so that the gospel is “preached to every creature under heaven” (v.23d). This has been a process, where we first meet and know Christ, then we start to live Christ, and finally we share Christ.
Paul reminds us of how this has come to pass.
First, for most if not all of us, we “once were alienated and hostile in mind because of evil deeds” (v.21). We were alienated from God because of the way we lived our lives, some in great sin, others being worldly, others having nothing much to do with God. For some others, as is the case today with many so-called Christians, there were those who were hostile to the faith. Today this is manifested in egregious ways, such as support for abortion and LGBT while claiming to be devout Catholics. Let us never forget how once we were lost, but now we have been found.
So God in His mercy somehow touched our lives. Somehow we were re-introduced to Christ. We met Jesus and got to know him in an intimate way. We understood what he had done for us, in going to the cross to win for us our salvation, such that “he has now reconciled (us) in his fleshly body through his death” (v.22a).
Now that was just the start. There was so much more. We began to live Christ, and even now continue to grow in him, as Jesus’ intent is “to present you holy, without blemish, and irreproachable before him” (v.22b). It was not just moving away from sin, but it is all about being like Jesus himself, being pure and holy, striving for perfection so as to be without the stain of sin, able to stand before a holy God without being faulted in any way.
How is such a thing to happen? How can mere human flesh attain to the holiness of God? This happens when “you persevere in the faith” (v.23a). We accept Jesus as Savior and Lord. We learn his ways and his commands, and we strive to be faithful in keeping them. Faith in Jesus provides the grace we need, in the face of so many challenges. The strength of the Holy Spirit helps us to overcome our own weaknesses and to endure and persevere.
Our Christian faith, properly understood and lived out, provides what we need, so that we will be “firmly grounded, stable, and not shifting from the hope of the gospel” (v.23b). Our spiritual house must be built on the Rock that is Christ. We must be steadfast in hope. We must not veer away. We must look to God for anything and for everything.
This gospel we cling to is “the gospel that you heard” (v.23c), that is, from Jesus himself, from the apostles, from the sacred word spoken through the scriptures. As such, especially during these times, we are to be careful and discerning, as there are many, including false prophets and pastors, who are distorting the gospel. Modernism has come into our Church.
And so we have met and known Christ, we are striving to live Christ, and then we must share Christ. The blessings we have received, we are to help impart to others. We are to be instruments of salvation, to the ends of the earth.
Paul has referred to the gospel as the work “of which I, Paul, am a minister.” (v.23e). We are called to the same work. We too are to be ministers of God.
