New and ancient

Paul teaches the Colossians about the Divine nature of Jesus in one of the texts today from the Roman Catholic Church. Often our reaction to the declarations of Paul concerning Jesus is muted by our familiarity with the phrases. The words clearly identify the Jewish man who taught, prophesized and was executed in the Roman occupied territory around Jerusalem as somehow also existing as Creator of the universe and the head of a Body on earth which is to fulfill the promise of God that the relationship of Covenant with God would be extended to all people. The Promise to the Jews of this relationship is praised by the psalmist as the steadfast Love of the shepherd for his people. The Divine Shepherd with the history of steadfast love is much more compatible with human understanding, then and now, when this is a heavenly Being, not of our flesh, not resurrected and not existing eternally in the Body of humanity which includes the Church. The tension between “old” and “new” is addressed by Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. The Gentiles, the new wineskins, will perhaps need to let this revelation mature in their lives. The ‘old” is good. The resolution of the “Word made flesh” in our intimacy with the Divine is the reward of struggling with the tension.