Very frequently, St. Paul includes a hymn at the beginning of his letters. This is the case in the Letter to the Colossians, and it is that hymn that we proclaim as the first reading for today's liturgy.
This particular hymn sings of the preeminence of Jesus Christ, who, St. Paul declares, came or comes before all others. St. Paul calls him "the firstborn of all creation." (Colossians 1:15b) To understand how Jesus comes before all else in the universe, we have to get a little philosophical. Simply put, St. Paul is operating under the principle that says that the final product was the first thought.
To illustrate this principle, consider what one does to celebrate a birthday. Your first thought might be that you should provide a cake with candles. Perhaps you decide to provide the "celebrant" with his/her favorite meal. You might possibly consider going to the jewelry store to buy a beautiful ring to commemorate the occasion. Each of these would qualify as your first thought. However, in order to bring that thought to fruition or into being, you must then back up and prepare or plan how to accomplish your thought. If you decide bake a cake, you must assemble the ingredients, set aside the time to bake the cake, do the necessary mixing, pre-heat the oven, and then wait while the oven works its magic on the mixture. Finally, you must frost or decorate the cake and festoon it with candles. Then your "first thought" will have been accomplished. The same process is necessary for preparing a favorite meal or even for buying a special gift. Several different steps must be accomplished to bring the first thought to completion.
Now apply this notion to the "idea" in God's creative intellect to establish Jesus as the preeminent head of the universe. God's plan was set in motion with the decision to create. Through several millennia, that plan unfolded and matured until Jesus himself came upon the scene and through his death was established as the preeminent head of the body which we call the Church. That plan included all of salvation history. St. Paul recognizes in the Hebrew Scriptures that the goal toward which all of creation is moving is the acceptance of Jesus as the crowning glory of God's created universe. In other words, Jesus cannot be the head of the universe until the universe has been created.
The next time that any of us works through a plan to accomplish a goal, we would do well to stop and consider the marvelous providence of God which has won for us so great a redeemer and advocate.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator