Father Noël Alexandre's Literal an Moral Commentary on Colossians 3:1-7
LITERAL COMMENTARY
Col 3:1-2
"Therefore, if you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are upon the earth."
Since you have risen with Christ—as members with their Head—to a new life through Baptism (both sacramentally, through the signification of the mystery, and efficaciously, through the operation of the Holy Spirit), seek heavenly and divine things with all your zeal and strength; direct all your thoughts, affections, and desires to where Christ, our Mediator, is seated—that is, where He enjoys the highest and ineffable beatitude, glory, and power according to His human nature, nearest to the Father. "Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are upon the earth": that is, care for heavenly and divine things in such a way that you cling to them alone, delight in them alone, and disdain earthly things.
Col 3:3-4
"For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory."
You are dead to the present life through Baptism, buried with Christ, and you live with Him a spiritual and heavenly life, although your life is hidden from the eyes and senses of this world, together with God—just as the glorious life by which Christ lives and reigns in heaven is hidden. When Christ, the efficient, meritorious, and exemplary cause of your life, shall appear a second time on the Day of Judgment, then you also shall be manifested with Him in great glory, having attained immortal and blessed life. For we hold the promises of good things in hope; then what is now unknown shall be made manifest.
Col 3:5-7
"Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience, among whom you also once walked, when you lived in them."
Therefore, restrain, weaken as much as possible, and extinguish the disordered affections of the old man that is in you, by generously resisting them, subduing the flesh lest it become insolent and wanton against the spirit. Mortify, I say, and put to death in yourselves fornication—every kind of impurity, the abominable frenzies of lust, whether toward persons of the same sex, toward one's own body, or libidinous movements—and covetousness, which is a kind of idolatry. For the Lord, saying "No one can serve two masters... You cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24), openly declared that he who serves the vice of covetousness worships riches as a god. "On account of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience": that is, on account of these sins, grave vengeance from God—namely, eternal damnation—is about to come upon unbelieving and obstinate men on the Day of Judgment. "Among whom you also once walked, when you lived in them": that is, which sins you also once committed when, entangled in wicked habits of those vices, you lived in unbelief. (Compare with Ephesians 5:5-6.)
MORAL COMMENTARY
Col 3:1-2
"Therefore, if you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are upon the earth."
It is the vanity of the gentile philosopher to consecrate his time and studies to the contemplation of earthly things. It is Jewish superstition to constitute his religion in them. It is the desire of the carnal man to enjoy and delight in them for their own sake. But to direct one's thoughts and studies solely to things above—heavenly and divine things—to live for God alone, to delight in Him alone, to disdain the pleasures of the world, to taste how sweet the Lord is, to dwell in mind and affection in heaven where Christ is seated at the right hand of God: this is the mark of the true Christian who has risen with Christ to new life. Therefore, Christ, our foundation, after His resurrection sits at the right hand of the Father so that we may be built upward. For just as, in constructing earthly buildings—whose heavy bodies naturally sink downward unless held up—the foundation is placed at the bottom, so for us, on the contrary, that foundational Stone is placed so that He may draw us upward, even by the force of charity. Let us therefore so live that, when we hear the priest in the Preface of the holy, unbloody Sacrifice saying "Lift up your hearts" (Sursum corda), we may truly, with the weight of our affection, be able to answer: "We lift them up unto the Lord." Let our conversation be in heaven. Where our treasure is, there let our heart be also. Let us not fix our mind on any part of this world, from which altogether we ought to be stripped. "Set your minds on things that are above."
Col 3:3-4
"For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God."
It is necessary that the true Christian be dead to the world, and no more be moved, affected, or delighted by the world's riches, honors, or pleasures than dead men are. Like a corpse, let him be considered useless by the world; let him love to be hidden, prefer to lie concealed in Christ rather than to shine in the age. [The saints] await death as those digging for treasure, and rejoice greatly when they find a tomb. For just as a tomb is the place where the body is hidden, so divine contemplation is a kind of tomb of the mind, wherein the soul is hidden. We seem, as it were, still to live for this world when our mind wanders abroad upon it; but we are dead and hidden in a tomb when, mortified externally, we are concealed in the secret of interior contemplation. Holy men, therefore, cease not to mortify themselves with the sword of the sacred Word against the importunity of temporal desires, the tumult of useless cares, and the clamor of disturbing troubles; and they hide themselves within, before the face of God, in the bosom of the mind. Hence it is well said through the Psalmist: "You will hide them in the secret of Your face from the disturbance of men" (Psalm 31:20). Although this is done perfectly afterward, even now it is accomplished in great part when, withdrawn from the tumults of temporal things by delight, they are carried into interior things, so that their mind, while it stretches wholly toward the love of God, may be torn by no useless disturbance. Hence it is that Paul, through contemplation, saw the disciples as dead and, as it were, hidden in a tomb, to whom he said: "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." Therefore, he who seeks death rejoices when he finds a tomb, because he who desires to mortify himself greatly rejoices at finding the rest of contemplation, so that, extinguished to the world, he may lie hidden and conceal himself within the bosom of intimate love, away from all disturbances of external things.
"When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." Let us therefore await the glorious appearing of Christ, so that He may manifest our life, now hidden with Him in God. Let us not lend our ears to vanity whispering to us: "Manifest yourself to the world." If we seek glory outside the future age and outside God, our glory is nothing. Our inheritance in this life is the Cross of Christ; our portion in the land of the living is His glory. If therefore we shall appear then, let us not grieve now when we do not obtain honor. If this life is not life but hidden—as for the dead—we ought to live this life as dead men. "Then you also will appear with Him in glory." Not without reason did the Apostle say "in glory." For a pearl is hidden as long as it remains in the oyster. Whether therefore we are afflicted with contempt and reproach, let us not grieve; or whatever we may suffer—this present life is not our true life. For we are strangers and pilgrims. "For you have died." Who is so foolish as to buy slaves, build houses, or acquire precious garments for a dead and buried body? No one. Neither therefore should we. Our old man has been buried—not in earth, but in water; not by a death that dissolves him, but by Him who dissolves death burying him; not by the law of nature, but by a command stronger than nature. Nothing is more blessed than this burial, at which both angels and men and the Lord of angels rejoice. This burial works the life of grace in the present and promises the life of glory in the future; it is the pledge thereof and makes the hope of it most certain. "You have died; your life is hidden with Christ in God." Behold where our root is! But when our honor shall appear—as in leaves and fruits—it follows and says: "When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory."
Col 3:5-6
"Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry."
All of us who have been baptized into Christ are bound to mortify the members of the old man—wicked desires, sinful affections—and we are solemnly obliged by sacrament to restrain and suppress them. In Baptism, sins are put to death, but the root of sins remains: concupiscence lives, is fertilized by the manifold allurements of sensible objects, and when it has conceived, brings forth sin. Let us complete the mystical death in ourselves if we wish to live eternally. Virtues are the members of the new creature; vices and desires are the members of the old man. The members of the new and interior man are formed in us only to the extent that the members of the old man are mortified. "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth." What does he mean by mortifying them? By the work of continence, namely—unless the very movements themselves, still living in a certain importunity of their own, without the consent of our mind, without the operation of the bodily members? And how are these mortified by the work of continence unless consent is not given to them in the mind, nor are the weapons of the body—its members—offered to them? And what is greater and must be cared for with more vigilant continence: even our very thought, although it may be touched, as it were, by their suggestion and quasi-whispering, is nevertheless turned away from them lest it be delighted by them, and is converted to more delightfully contemplating heavenly things. For this reason he names them in his discourse, not that we dwell in them, but that we flee from them. This is accomplished if we efficaciously hear, with His help who commands this through His Apostle: "Seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God; set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are upon the earth."
Moreover, there is a threefold root of sins, three heads, as it were, of the old man: lust, pride/ambition, and covetousness. Through lust, man is likened to brute animals; through pride and ambition, to demons; through covetousness, to idolaters—doing all things for money which he ought to do for God, dedicating the materials of gold and silver as his principles, devoting his heart to them, and consecrating all his studies to them. "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry."
This endeavor of mortification comprises three things:
A serious and constant purpose of resisting sin and dashing the little ones of Babylon against the Rock, which is Christ (Psalm 137:9);
Flight from occasions that are accustomed to lead and move one to sin;
The assiduous use of all means that conduce to destroying the body of sin—namely: prayer, fasting, almsgiving, honest labor, frequentation of the Sacraments, reading of pious books, and especially of Sacred Scripture.
By these means vices are destroyed. "On account of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience." The wrath of God is kindled like a fire by the sins of men. Under a just God, no one is wretched unless guilty. Take away sins, and the wrath of God ceases. Act according to faith, and you will not sin. Every virtue is founded and rooted in faith. Every sin has some admixture of unbelief. Those who distrust God's words and promises appear rebellious and obstinate—whoever mortally offends God. "On account of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience."
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