12/09/2023

When we are taught something new our teachers have to make use of images of what we do know so that we remember the new in its differences from the old. 

Today St Paul makes us think of Baptism as a complete stripping away of all flesh. He compares it to circumcision. Before Baptism we were guided in our lives only by our  bodily needs but the spiritual cleansing that is Baptism by Father, Son and Holy Spirit is a sinless new beginning. 

The earliest Christians had first been instructed in Faith and then Baptised. Most of us were baptised as infants and we have had to devote our lives to the Church in which we, by the providence of God, find ourselves. Later Church members would conceive of our births as a predetermining act by God. This of course resulted in the "empty second hand, rational philosophy based on the principles of this world instead of on Christ." that St Paul warns us against.

Paul is writing to educated people of the first century. He is teaching them, and us, how to complete their lives in this world to be accepted into the Resurrection which is Christ's gift to the whole world. When he speaks of "debts" our Christian formed understanding thinks "sin". But in the time of the Roman Empire "debt" would have been understood as the crippling burden of financial debt endured by most citizens.

The "triumphant procession" would not have been just the figurative language it seems to us  but was a reference to the celebratory, triumphant displays of rulers slaves and bounty granted by Rome to its victorious generals and their legions. It is more than possible that Paul and some of his readers had witnessed  Claudius' Triumph to celebrate his successful invasion of Britain.

All of the above happened in the "real time" that is past for us. For the timelessness of Father, Son and Holy Spirit everything is still as Now.  St Paul, the Colossians, Claudius were real people of those times. They are all known to God as each one of us is today. The billions of us who have lived since then have all had the same freedom to choose to follow or not the path to Blessedness that Jesus began for us with his choosing of the twelve who were to be with him throughout the years of his earthly ministry.