Sunday before the Theophany of our Lord. The Circumcision of our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ. Our Father Among the Saints Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia (379).
2 Timothy 4:5-8; Colossians 2:8-12; Mark 1:1-8; Luke 2:20-21, 40-52.
Read Colossians 2:8-12
Christ is born! Glorify Him!
It is preferable to be at the top of the food chain. We prefer to eat rather than be eaten. We shouldn’t need any warning other than that to avoid such a ghastly fate. In today’s reading, St. Paul thinks we do.
Culture is the most powerful influence in our lives because it consists of all that we consider normal and do not question; it is the lens through which we see everything, even spiritual things. We can be aware of culture which differs from ours, but are we aware of our own personal culture? We can be vulnerable to “philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition” and “the elemental spirits of the universe” because we are human and live in the universe. There is nothing wrong with being human and living in the universe, but we are faced with “philosophy” and “tradition” that are not benign, that the Apostle says will “make a prey” of us if we don’t “see to it”. He is shouting, “Look out!” And he gives us a clearer lens to see by: Christ and the reality of our being united with Him.
The Apostle hammers this home unequivocally: we are so connected to Christ that everything that He did and happened to Him, we did and happened to us. Because there is nothing missing in Him – “for in Him the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily” – there is nothing missing in us by being connected with Him “through faith in the working of God who raised Him from the dead.” Christ’s circumcision is ours. We need no other. Christ’s burial and resurrection are ours – “All you, who have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. Alleluia!” Keeping this at the forefront, seeing things this way, we can avoid being spiritually eaten alive.