Today’s first reading from Colossians 1 is full of Christology. We’ll talk about it in a moment. In our Gospel reading from Luke 5, Jesus talks about wine and wineskins. The new wine and the new wineskins are the new creation in Christ that we become. Jesus says, “No one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’ ” He’s talking about how we can become very complacent with the way things are. We don’t want to change. Ahh, but once you taste the new wine, you wonder why you ever wanted to stay with the old!
Today’s first reading starts out with “Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” Striking language, isn’t it? But it doesn’t end there. St. Paul gives a primer on the person of Christ. But it all begins by telling us that Jesus is the image of God. Such a paradox. In one sense, we can’t see God. St. Paul himself says He is invisible. Yet, when we look upon Jesus, we indeed see God.
The Church teaches that each and every human being is created “in the image and likeness of God.” If you take that to its logical conclusion, since Jesus is the image of God and we are created in the image and likeness of God, then we, by nature are Christ-like. Now, we may not always act that way. (Perhaps even rarely, in my case.) But that is how we were created! It is in our DNA. Being Christ-like is something that we ARE from the very moment of our conception. It is also something that we can develop to a greater degree as we go through life. The question is, are we?
Father, we thank you for Your Son, Jesus, the very image of God. We thank you for creating us in your image and likeness. May we become more Christ-like every day. Amen.
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