September 5, 2025
Friday
of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary:
435
Reading 1
Brothers
and sisters:
Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.
For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers;
all things were created through him and for him.
He is before all things,
and in him all things hold together.
He is the head of the Body, the Church.
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he himself might be preeminent.
For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell,
and through him to reconcile all things for him,
making peace by the Blood of his cross
through him, whether those on earth or those in heaven.
Responsorial Psalm
R.
(2b) Come with joy into the presence of the Lord.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
serve the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful song.
R. Come with joy into the presence of the Lord.
Know that the LORD is God;
he made us, his we are;
his people, the flock he tends.
R. Come with joy into the presence of the Lord.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
his courts with praise;
Give thanks to him; bless his name.
R. Come with joy into the presence of the Lord.
For he is good,
the LORD, whose kindness endures forever,
and his faithfulness, to all generations.
R. Come with joy into the presence of the Lord.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
I am the light of the world, says the Lord;
whoever follows me will have the light of life.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
The
scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus,
"The disciples of John the Baptist fast often and offer prayers,
and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same;
but yours eat and drink."
Jesus answered them, "Can you make the wedding guests fast
while the bridegroom is with them?
But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
then they will fast in those days."
And he also told them a parable.
"No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one.
Otherwise, he will tear the new
and the piece from it will not match the old cloak.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins,
and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined.
Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins.
And no one who has been drinking old wine desires new,
for he says, 'The old is good.'"
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090525.cfm
Commentary on Colossians
1:15-20
One
of the main problems Paul was dealing with in writing to the Colossians
concerned their ideas about angelic powers in the cosmos which threatened to
push Christ into second place. Today we have Paul’s magnificent response, one
of the most inspired passages in the New Testament which, as we shall see, has
many echoes of John’s magisterial prologue on Jesus as the Word.
Originally,
it was perhaps an early Christian hymn on the supremacy of Christ, and was used
here by Paul to counteract the false teachings at Colossae. It is divided into
two parts:
- Christ’s
supremacy in creation (vv 15-17)
- Christ’s
supremacy in redemption (vv 18-20)
The New
American Bible gives the following analysis of the passage:
Scholars
raise the question whether Paul may not have adapted these verses from a
Christian hymn or a Hellenistic wisdom poem. Whatever the case, the passage
with all its lyricism is probably Paul’s. Its exalted Christology synthesises
the growing awareness in New Testament times of Christ as man, Son of God, king
and judge of the world, endowed with divine redemptive power, and containing in
himself the fullness of that effective presence of God among humans which was
first manifested in the Old Testament (see John 1:1-18). Whereas the human
person is patterned after the image of God, being given a certain likeness to
him (Gen 1:26), Christ is the actual likeness of God. Through faith, the remote
reality of the Deity is rendered discernibly present in him and comprehensible
to humans. He is the image of the invisible God (v 15), in the sense that as a
person he is supreme in every way over all creation. Christ’s supremacy
requires not only that nothing appear in creation except in relation to him,
but also that he himself share in the creation of all things (v 16). Such is
his supremacy that he existed before creation came into being. It is to him
that creation owes all that it has been, is, and will be (v 17).
Christ
cannot be anything but supreme over the whole church, which in any case is
unthinkable and unrealisable without him (his body). Furthermore, because of
his supremacy he was the first to be raised by God from the dead; and his
resurrection placed him in full possession of headship over the community which
he brought into being (v 18). Since, as is clear from Christ’s role in creation
(v 16), the cosmos is dependent on him (v 19), his death upon the cross has its
effect on the whole of creation without exception, bringing it peace and
uniting it to God (v 20). Paul’s clear exposition of the supremacy of Christ
was occasioned by the Colossians’ difficulties concerning the relationship of
angelic spirits to the world. (edited)
Paul
introduces two ways in which Christ can claim to be the ‘head’ of everything
that exists:
- He is the
head of creation, of all that exists naturally (vv 15-17).
- He is head of
the new creation and of all that exists supernaturally through having been
saved (vv 18-20).
The
subject of the poem is the pre-existing Christ, but considered only in so far
as he was manifest in the unique historic person that is the Son of God made
man (see Phil 2:5-8). It is as the incarnate God that Jesus is the ‘image of
God’, i.e. his human nature was the visible manifestation of God who is
invisible (see Rom 8:29). As such, it is in his concrete human nature, and as
part of creation, that Jesus is called the ‘first-born of creation’—not in the
temporal sense of having been born first, but in the sense of having been given
the first place of honour.
Let
us now go to the text of the reading from Paul.
Christ’s
supremacy in creation (vv 15-17):
Jesus is the image of the invisible God; i.e. when we see and hear him, we see
and hear God, though veiled in the limitations of human form. The full glory of
God cannot be seen in the humanity of Jesus. In Hebrews, he is described as
the:
…reflection
of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being. (Heb 1:3)
This
figure of the image suggests two truths:
- God is
invisible (“no one has ever seen God”, see John 1:18)
- Christ, who
is the eternal Son of God and who became the God-man, reflects and reveals
him to us (see John 1:18; 14:9).
Just
as Moses had to veil his face when speaking to the Hebrews after conversing
with Yahweh, so Jesus needs to veil his divine nature by his humanity so that
we may have access to him. During the experience of the Transfiguration, the
three disciples got a glimpse of the veil being briefly removed.
Jesus
is the first-born of all creatures:
He
was in the beginning with God. (John 1:2)
As
a member of the human race, he is first-born in dignity, but not in time. Just
as the firstborn son had certain privileges and rights in the biblical world,
so also Christ has certain rights in relation to all creation—priority,
preeminence and sovereignty (vv 16-18):
…in
him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and
invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers… (vv 16-18)
As
John also said:
All
things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into
being. (John
1:3)
In
the reading, we have Paul’s refutation of the Colossians’ belief in cosmic
powers. Everything that exists, however lofty and powerful, comes into being
through Christ and goes back to God through him.
Seven
times in six verses Paul mentions “all creation”, “all things” and
“everything”, thus stressing that Christ is supreme over all. “Thrones,
dominions, rulers or powers” refers to angels, and a hierarchy of angels
figured prominently in the heretical beliefs of some Colossians. Here Paul
clearly asserts that the angels have their origin from Christ as the Creative
Word of God. They were created through him and for him. They bow down in
worship before him.
Christ
exists before all else that is:
In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He
was in the beginning with God. (John 1:1-2)
and
Very
truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am. (John 8:58)
In
him all things hold together:
What
has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. (John 1:3-4)
The
continuing existence of every created thing totally depends on his creative and
conserving power.
Christ’s
supremacy in redemption (vv 18-20)
And
he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things
for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. (Eph
1:22-23)
For
Paul’s description of the church, we read in 1 Corinthians (12:12-16) that the
church is the Body of the Risen Christ.
In other words, it is through his Body that Christ remains visible to the
world. It is through his Body that he continues to communicate his Good News of
the Kingdom. For each one of us, both individually and especially collectively,
it is a huge responsibility. And we can only fulfil our mission effectively in
so far as we are totally united in mind, heart and spirit with the Head of the
Body, Christ Jesus our Lord and with the Word he brought for the world.
Christ
is the Beginning, the first-born of the dead, so that he should be supreme in
every way. Jesus comes before all, on earth and in the heavens. Nothing or no
one comes before him in time or in rank. He is the Beginning of the new
creation. He is the First-born, because he was the first to rise from the dead
with a resurrected body. Elsewhere Paul calls him “the first fruits of those
who have died” (1 Cor 15:20).
Others
who were raised from the dead—the widow’s son raised to life by Elisha (2 Kings
4:35); the widow’s son at Naim (Luke 7:15); Lazarus (John 11:44); Tabitha,
raised to life by Peter (Acts 9:36-41); the boy who slept during one or Paul’s
sermons, fell out of a window and died and then was restored to life by Paul
(Acts 20:7-11)—all were raised only to die again.
God
wanted all fullness to be found in him—Jesus is the source of the fullness to
which we all aspire, to be totally filled with the Spirit of Christ. ‘Fullness’
(pleroma) is a word rich in meaning when used by Paul. Originally it was
part of the technical vocabulary of some Gnostic philosophies. In these systems
it meant the sum of the supernatural forces controlling the fate of people. For
Paul, ‘fullness’ meant the totality of God with all his powers and attributes
(Col 2:9).
In
this context, the exact meaning of the word pleroma (literally,
the thing that fills up a gap or hole, like a patch, see Matt 9:16) is not
certain here. Some writers have thought it must mean the same as in Colossians
2:9 (“…the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily…”), but since vv 15-18 have
already dealt with the divinity of Jesus, it seems likely that the reference
here is to the biblical concept of the entire cosmos as filled with the
creative presence of God.
This
concept was also widespread in the Graeco-Roman world. Paul teaches that the
incarnation and resurrection make Christ head not only of the entire human
race, but of the entire created cosmos, so that everything that was involved in
the fall is equally involved in the salvation. So, in Romans Paul writes:
For
the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of
God…We know that the whole creation has been groaning together as it suffers
together the pains of labor. (Rom 8:19,22)
And
to the Corinthians he wrote:
But
we speak God’s wisdom, a hidden mystery, which God decreed before the ages for
our glory and which none of the rulers of this age understood, for if they had,
they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (1 Cor 2:7)
This
is the work of Jesus: to bring reconciliation and healing where there is
division. The end of today’s passage says:
…through
him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in
heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
That
is, the work of Jesus is to bring together not only people, but the whole of
creation. This reconciliation of the whole universe (including angels as well
as human beings) means, not that every single individual will be saved, but
that all who are saved will be saved by their collective return to right order
and the peace of perfect submission to God. This was the mission that Jesus
gave to his disciples as he breathed his Spirit on them after the resurrection:
Receive
the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you
retain the sins of any, they are retained. (John 20:22-23)
In
this scene the only mission given is to reconcile people with God and with each
other in Christ. This is the work of the Kingdom, to bring all peoples and the
whole of creation into peace and harmony based on truth, love and justice.
Making
peace through Christ’s death on the cross
After all the triumphant language of the passage this comes as something of a
surprising anticlimax, but totally in keeping with the meaning of Christ. The
peace and reconciliation that he brings is through the blood of the cross, the
ultimate sacrifice of his humanity in love for his people and the world. This
is what constitutes the real greatness of Christ. Because of his death on the
cross:
…God
exalted him even more highly
and gave him the name
that is above every other name,
so that at the name given to Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2:9-11)
We,
too, are called to follow in his footsteps, ready to carry our cross for the
sake of the Kingdom:
Blessed
are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. (Matt 5:9)
The
passage is extraordinarily rich in meaning and requires much time to be
absorbed into the fabric of our thinking. It is both a profession of faith and
the basis for very deep prayer.
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Commentary on Luke 5:33-39
The
call of the first disciples is followed in Luke by the cure of a leper and then
of a paralytic. Then there is the call of Levi (who is called Matthew in
Matthew’s Gospel) and the discussion with Jesus about his mixing with sinful
and unclean people. It is the first of many confrontations between Jesus and
the Jewish leaders.
We
then come to today’s reading. Some scribes and Pharisees want to know why, when
their disciples and those of John the Baptist regularly fast, Jesus’ disciples
freely eat and drink. We know that John grew up in the desert and lived on an
austere diet of locusts and wild honey. He also preached an austere penitential
message and lived a highly disciplined life. The Pharisees also led a highly
regimented and strict lifestyle. Jesus, however, together with his disciples,
is frequently seen eating at the tables of Pharisees, tax collectors, and in
the houses of friends. But while Jesus rejected ostentatious fasting, we know
he fasted (once for 40 days) and praised it together with prayer and
almsgiving, provided it was done discreetly and not for display.
Jesus
gives two answers to the question. First, he says that it is not appropriate
for guests to fast when the bridegroom is still around. A Jewish wedding was
and is a specially joyous occasion (plenty of wine needed, as we saw in Cana)
and it could last for a week. It would be unthinkable to fast at such a time.
Here Jesus is the bridegroom. There will come a time when he is not physically
with his disciples, and then they will fast.
The
second reason goes deeper and is presented in the form of a parable. One does
not use a new piece of cloth to patch an old garment. At the first sign of
stress, the new cloth will be stronger and the old cloth will tear out. Nor
does one put new wine into old wineskins. The new wine is still fermenting and
expanding. The old wineskins, made of goatskins, are already stretched and no
longer flexible. When the new wine expands, the old wineskins will not be able
to stretch any more and will burst. The result is lost wine and ruined
wineskins. So new wine has to be poured into new wineskins.
In
this Jesus is clearly saying that his whole vision of religion is new, and that
it can only be accepted and adopted by people who are prepared to see things in
a new way. His teaching, his vision cannot be grafted on to the old religion.
The old religion emphasised externals like observance of legal and ritual
regulations and fasting; Jesus emphasises the interior spirit, which is the
real measure of a person’s value.
This
parable may also be read in conjunction with John’s account of the wedding
feast at Cana, where Jesus produced new and better wine from the water in the
ritual washing jars.
Jesus
knows the difficulties his adversaries face:
No
one after drinking old wine desires new wine but says, ‘The old is good.’
Those
who had grown up with the ‘old wine’ of the Mosaic Law would find it difficult
to switch to the ‘new wine’ that Jesus was offering.
Even
in our Church today there are some who still hanker for the ‘old wine’ of the
pre-Vatican II days. They have not made the inner shift which is necessary.
They have not understood that Vatican II was much more than a change of
external practices (such as have taken place in the liturgy). They
nostalgically long for the Tridentine Mass in Latin and proclaim it preferable
to the ‘new’ liturgy which they find superficial and lacking in reverence. But
they do not seem to have grasped the thinking which is behind the liturgical
changes. The new patch does not fit their old cloth. “The old wine is better,”
they say.
Going
forward, this thinking will not likely disappear because “the world writes the
agenda for the church” and there will no doubt be other changes. The new wine
will not be appreciated until the wineskins are also changed; otherwise we are
in the same situation as the Pharisees were with Jesus.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/o1226g/
Friday,
September 5, 2025
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Almighty God,
every good thing comes from you.
Fill our hearts with love for you, increase our faith,
and by your constant care
protect the good you have given us.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - Luke 5: 33-39
The disciples said to Jesus,
‘John’s disciples are always fasting and saying prayers, and the disciples of
the Pharisees, too, but yours go on eating and drinking.’
Jesus replied, ‘Surely you cannot
make the bridegroom’s attendants fast while the bridegroom is still with them?
But the time will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them; then, in
those days, they will fast.’
He also told them a parable, ‘No one tears a
piece from a new cloak to put it on an old cloak; otherwise, not only will the
new one be torn, but the piece taken from the new will not match the old. ‘And
nobody puts new wine in old wineskins; otherwise, the new wine will burst the
skins and run to waste, and the skins will be ruined. No; new wine must be put
in fresh skins. And nobody who has been drinking old wine wants new. “The old
is good,” he says.’
Reflection
In today’s Gospel we witness closely a conflict between
Jesus and the religious authority of the time, the Scribes and the Pharisees
(Lk 5: 3). This time the conflict is concerning the practice of fasting. Luke
narrates diverse conflicts concerning the religious practice of the time:
forgiveness of sins (Lk 5: 21-25), to eat with sinners (Lk 5: 29-32), fasting
(Lk 5: 33-36), and two conflicts on the observance of Saturday, the Sabbath (Lk
6: 1-5 and Lk 6: 6-11).
•
Luke 5: 33: Jesus does not insist on the
practice of fasting. The conflict here is concerning the practice of fasting.
Fasting is a very ancient use, practiced by almost all religions. Jesus Himself
followed it during forty days (Mt 4: 2). But he does not insist with the
disciples that they do the same. He leaves them free.
This is why, the disciples of John
the Baptist and of the Pharisees, who were obliged to fast, want to know why
Jesus does not insist on fasting.
•
Luke 5: 34-35: When the bridegroom is with them
they are not obliged to fast. Jesus responds with a comparison. When the
bridegroom is with the friends of the bridegroom, that is, during the wedding
feast, they should not fast. Jesus considers himself the bridegroom. During the
time when Jesus is with the disciples, it is the wedding feast. One day will
come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then if they wish
they can fast. Jesus refers to his death. He knows and he is aware that if he
wants to continue along this path of liberty, the authority will want to kill
him.
•
Several times, in the Old Testament, God
presents himself as the bridegroom of the people (Is 49: 15; 54: 5, 8; 62: 4-5;
Os 2: 16-25). In the New Testament, Jesus is considered the bridegroom of his
people (Ep 5: 25). The Apocalypses speaks of the celebration of the marriage of
the Lamb with his spouse, the Heavenly Jerusalem (Rv 19: 7-8; 21: 2, 9).
•
Luke 5: 36-39: New Wine in new skins! These
words pronounced concerning the new piece of cloth on an old cloak and about
new wine in old skins should be understood like a light which gives clarity on
diverse conflicts, narrated by Luke, first and after the discussions concerning
fasting. They clarify the attitude of Jesus concerning all the conflicts with
the religious authority. Today, these would be conflicts such as: marriage
between divorced persons, friendship with prostitutes and homosexuals, to
receive communion without being married by the Church, not to go to Mass on
Sunday, not to fast on Good Friday, etc.
A piece of new cloth is not sewed on an old cloak; because
when it is washed the new piece of cloth shrinks and tears the old cloak more.
Nobody puts new wine in old skins, because the new wine when it is fermented
makes the old skins burst. New wine in new skins! The religion diffused by the
religious authority was like an old cloak, like an old skin. It is not
necessary to want to combine the novelty brought by Jesus with old customs or
uses. Either one or the other! The new wine which Jesus brings bursts the old
skins. It is necessary to know how to separate both of these things. Very
probably, Luke gives these words of Jesus to orientate the communities of the
years 80. There was a group of Christian Jews who wanted to reduce the novelty
of Jesus to the Judaism of the beginning. Jesus is not against what is
“ancient.” But he does not want the ancient to be imposed on the new,
preventing it from manifesting itself. It would be as if the Catholic Church
reduced the message of Vatican Council II to the Church before the Council,
like many persons today seem to want to do it.
Personal Questions
•
Which are the conflicts about religious
practices which cause suffering to persons today and are the cause of much
discussion and polemics? Which is the subjacent image of God in all these
preconceptions, norms and prohibitions?
•
How can we understand today the phrase of Jesus:
“do not put a new piece of cloth on an old cloak? Which is the message which
you can draw from this for your life and for the life of the community?
Concluding Prayer
Commit your destiny to Yahweh, be confident in him,
and he will act, making your uprightness clear as daylight, and the justice of
your cause as the noon. (Ps 37: 5-6)
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