No mystery to God’s plan of History- Monday, 23rd week in ordinary time- St Paul’s letter to the Colossians 1:24–2:3

The letter of St Paul to the Colossians arrived hand delivered by Tychicus. This gent was no courier boy or a side kick of Paul. He was, in Paul’s own words, “a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant”. It is he who now comes with the letter to the Colossians, but even more to explain Paul’s mind to the community; for Paul himself has not evangelized this community. Hence, Paul feels compelled to present his credentials of suffering, as proof of his commitment to the teachings that he holds and propagates.

When Paul wrote this letter, he was in Rome, awaiting trial. He suffered much, all through his missions for the sake of Christ. Among many others sufferings, he had been beaten with rods, scourged on five occasions, stoned once, shipwrecked thrice, arrested several times, bitten by a snake, kidnapped, threatened, accused in lawsuits, interrogated, ridiculed and ignored.

Like Christ, Paul too suffers willingly; a suffering in which he rejoices for the sake of the Colossians and for the sake of the Church at large. Paul is not asking for a reprieve from his sufferings; rather he suggests that if in any way there was still some suffering that could have been inflicted on Christ and was not; he is willing to accept it now, for the sake of the Colossians. Therefore, verse 24 does not imply in any way that Christ’s atoning death on the cross was defective.

What then is Paul’s interest in the Colossians? Why is he willing to go out on a limb for them? The newly converted Colossians are plagued by false teachers from within the community. These teachers have dabbled in other religions and cults and have proposed a fusion of the teachings of Christ with different religions, cultures and philosophies, often known as the mystery religions.

These mystery religions were characterized by the annual vegetation cycle with deep significance given to the concepts of growth, death, decay and rebirth. The cult of Eleusis and its central deity, Demeter, goddess of the soil and farming, is one example. The mystery religions also had secret ceremonies and rites of initiation that separated its members from the outside world. Every mystery religion claimed to impart secret knowledge of the deity. This knowledge would be communicated in clandestine ceremonies often connected to an initiation rite. The focus of this knowledge was not on a set of revealed truths to be shared with the world, but on hidden higher knowledge to be kept within the circle of believers.

In contrast to the “mysteries” (plural) of the Hellenistic (Greek) or Jewish cults in which knowledge of cosmic or religious secrets were available to a few privileged, “the mystery “(singular) of God, is revealed to all, not just a chosen few. What then is the “mystery of faith”? It is that “Christ is in you, the hope of glory” (verse 27). It is to share this mystery, that Paul is so willing to undergo struggles.

In short, Paul says there is no need to believe these false teachers who make Christ accessible only to a chosen few; there are no chosen few in Christianity; there are no special folk. Jesus came for all and nothing needs to be done to access His love, for He is accessible; HE IS IN US; CHRIST IN US. Hence there is no mystery to God’s plan of history.

Fr Warner D’Souza

With a lot of help from the Jerome’s Biblical Commentary (page 880)