Do you remember this scenario? Sister Margaret catches little Matt breaking a school rule. When he justifies himself by saying that all the other kids are doing it, what does Sister Margaret say? You guessed it. “If all the other kids jump off a cliff, would you jump off too?”
We live in sobering and confusing times. We need Sister Margaret to have a talk with us about jumping off the cliff. St. Paul speaks this truth to the Colossians (Colossians 2:6-15).
“See to it that no one captivates you with an empty, seductive philosophy according to the tradition of men, according to the elemental powers of the world and not according to Christ.”
What is this “empty, seductive philosophy” that the world is buying into? Briefly, we can call it the “secularist worldview.” It proposes that religion is an outdated practice of unenlightened humanity. That God, heaven, and fear of the Lord are completely irrelevant. It proposes that Jesus was an admirable teacher and did good on the earth, but he certainly is not the Messiah and the only Way to heaven—if such a thing even exists. This way of thinking saturates our culture, is the substance of much television programming, and is ingrained in the fabric of western culture. It provides what seems to be an easier approach to life than the way of the cross; that is why even Christians find it so appealing.
St. Paul puts the focus back on the truth.
“As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him, rooted in him, and built upon him and established in the faith as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”
In a word we are told to stay close to Jesus—walk in him, be rooted in him, build our lives on him. And Paul adds the extra note: “abounding in thanksgiving.” But how can we be thankful carrying the cross and trying to live the challenges of the Christian life? Because we’ve found the only solution to life…or, rather, the solution to life, Jesus Christ, has found us. At the end of his road is the magnificent glory of heaven. What is at the end of the secularist’s road? Sister Margaret’s cliff!
When the topic of Jesus comes up, Paul never runs out of words.
“For in him dwells the whole fullness of the deity bodily, and you share in this fullness in him, who is the head of every principality and power…You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God.”
Jesus is more than an excellent religion teacher. He is the fullness of God. When we allow him to take over our lives, we, too, participate in the fullness of God. What secularism has to offer is as nothing compared to what we have in Christ Jesus.
St. Paul reminds the community of the miracle that has happened in their lives.
“…he brought you to life along with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions; obliterating the bond against us, with its legal claims, which was opposed to us, he also removed it from our midst, nailing it to the cross…”
In baptism we became a new creation, no longer victims of the “elemental powers of the world.” When we devote ourselves to growing in the new life of the Holy Spirit, we protect ourselves from the empty, seductive lure of the philosophies of this world.
“I chose you from the world, that you may go and bear fruit that will last” (John 1 5:16).
