Daily Liturgy
Tuesday September 7
TWENTY-THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
LIVING IN CHRIST THE LORD
Introduction
The community of the Christians of Colossae was threatened with deviations from pagan philosophies and Jewish practices. In the very dense and rich passage of today, Paul insists that all that counts is Christ; we live in him through baptism, and die and rise with him.
As in other very important occasions in his life, Jesus prays before selecting twelve apostles from among his disciples. For this is a very important moment. He will train them and then will take the risk of entrusting his own work to fallible people. He knows they will not always do the best they can, as they will have moments of fear, discouragement, cowardice and compromises. Still, he trusts them enough and will help them to bring his work to a good end in God’s own good time. In this eucharist we express our trust in the Church of Jesus Christ.
Opening Prayer
Almighty God, and Father,
in one of us, your Son Jesus Christ,
is found the fullness of what you are,
and which we can only stammer and surmise
in our inadequate human thoughts and words.
Root us and build us up in Christ;
liberate us from all forms of alienation
and let us share in his new humanity,
that we may live the life
of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Reading 1: Col 2:6-15
Brothers and sisters:
As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him,
rooted in him and built upon him
and established in the faith as you were taught,
abounding in thanksgiving.
See to it that no one captivate you with an empty, seductive philosophy
according to the tradition of men,
according to the elemental powers of the world
and not according to Christ.
For in him dwells the whole fullness of the deity bodily,
and you share in this fullness in him,
who is the head of every principality and power.
In him you were also circumcised
with a circumcision not administered by hand,
by stripping off the carnal body, with the circumcision of Christ.
You were buried with him in baptism,
in which you were also raised with him
through faith in the power of God,
who raised him from the dead.
And even when you were dead in transgressions
and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
he brought you to life along with him,
having forgiven us all our transgressions;
obliterating the bond against us, with its legal claims,
which was opposed to us,
he also removed it from our midst, nailing it to the cross;
despoiling the principalities and the powers,
he made a public spectacle of them,
leading them away in triumph by it.
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 145:1b-2, 8-9, 10-11
(9) The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.
I will extol you, O my God and King,
and I will bless your name forever and ever.
Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works.
R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.
Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your Kingdom
and speak of your might.
R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.
Alleluia: See Jn 15:16
Alleluia, alleluia.
I chose you from the world,
that you may go and bear fruit that will last, says the Lord.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: Lk 6:12-19
Jesus departed to the mountain to pray,
and he spent the night in prayer to God.
When day came, he called his disciples to himself,
and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles:
Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew,
James, John, Philip, Bartholomew,
Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus,
Simon who was called a Zealot,
and Judas the son of James,
and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
And he came down with them and stood on a stretch of level ground.
A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people
from all Judea and Jerusalem
and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon
came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases;
and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured.
Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him
because power came forth from him and healed them all.
Intercessions
– That Christ may be our model and our strength and life, we pray:
– That made one with Christ at our baptism, nothing may separate us from him, we pray:
– That we may always be joyful people, for God has chosen us to be his sons and daughters with our brother Jesus Christ, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Loving God,
what made you stoop down to us
and raise us to new life in Christ?
With these gifts of bread and wine
we offer you our thanks and praise your name.
Help us to live his life to the full,
aware as we are of our own limitations
but relying on the power of your love
and on the presence among us
of him who is your image and fullness,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Prayer after Communion
Lord our God,
in baptism you have implanted us
in your Son Jesus Christ;
you have spoken to us in this eucharist
of his greatness and his work of love,
by which he reconciled us with you.
Let us share in his life,
and fill us with his strength,
that we may learn from him
to be great by serving
and to live by dying to ourselves.
Grant this through Christ our Lord.
Blessing
“Continue to live your lives in Christ Jesus the Lord, rooted and built up in him. You were buried with him in baptism; you were raised with him through faith. God made you alive together with him.” Stay in him with the blessing of almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Commentary
Today’s first reading from Colossians spells out the benefits of Christian baptism. In Christ dwells the fullness of the deity. By being incorporated into him, we are circumcised with a circumcision not of the flesh but one in the Spirit. When we were dead by reason of our transgressions, in our state of the uncircumcision, we were buried with him in baptism and thence brought to life. And what did that mean? All of our transgressions were obliterated. The handwriting that had been against us was nailed to the cross, rendering powerless the evil powers that had been aligned against us.
This is what Christian freedom means. We are no longer the slaves of sin nor subject to a law that was powerless to save. We are now free to do the good that God inspires, as long as we walk in Christ, rooted in him, established in the faith, and abounding in thanksgiving.
Our lives should make a difference. Our conduct should be an inspiration. Some time back, five Amish children in Pennsylvania were killed in a school classroom by a crazed citizen of the town. What was the response? Profound grief, of course. But also a common sense of forgiveness for the crime’s perpetrator and a common ministration to his family. This was what Christ asked of them. Uncommon, yes, but deeply Christian as well.
Points to Ponder
The meaning of baptism
My life in Christ and Christ in me
Our sins, nailed to the cross.