Today’s reading from Colossians contains several unique images and metaphors. In the text the author has a very fundamental message- he wants to let his audience know that they are fully experiencing a relationship with God because of what God has done for them in Jesus Christ. And in fact only because of Christ’s intersession. In same vein the author make clear that there are false teachings that are empty and deceitful and promote a philosophy whose standards are based in human tradition or elementary concepts rather than according to the standard of Christ. The emphasis is that Christ is either the reality in which we now dwell or Christ is the person in whom God is actively at work. The emphatic theological claim is made that all the fullness or entirety of God’s deity dwells in Christ. This means that we are  continuously made full in Christ.  

In this new reality, God eliminated our past reality in which we were dead because of sin and now made alive by forgiving our sinful conduct. God expunged the heavenly record of our sinfulness by “nailing it to the cross” where God also disarmed “principalities and powers”.

So we take comfort in knowing we are loved and lifted by God through Christ. We also know we must be on guard against being influenced by false teachers and deceitful philosophies. But how are we to discern, in today’s age of information overload, God’s path for us? In Luke’s Gospel we have the simple but profound example of Christ himself. In Luke’s Gospel we have the simple but profound example of Christ himself. Any big event in the life of Jesus was preceded by prayer. He faced the passion after prayer an since choosing his apostles would impact forever his Church on Earth he prayed before selecting them. Committing to time in prayer is joining Christ in prayer and can help us discern what is best and most loving in our daily lives. Prayer can give us the opportunity to put important decisions in our lives in the context of the love of God and his will for us