Alienation

“Those people have nothing to do with me!”

“I’m not a part of that.”

“We’re just doing our own thing.”

The voices of alienation sometimes seem to be growing in the world today.

To be sure, there are moments when the curse of alienation and social compartmentalization seems lifted, such as when millions join together to help victims of disasters like Hurricane Katrina.

Yet even in these days, the voices of alienation grate loudly in our ears: “It’s THEIR fault for staying.” “Those politicians and bureaucrats are to blame.” “Did you notice the race of those people?” “I can’t do anything about that.”

Today’s first reading (Col. 1:21-23) speaks of people who “were alienated and hostile in mind.” From where does this alienation come? St. Paul associates it with the doing of evil deeds.

Sin's ever-present selfishness not only alienates us from God, it inescapably alienates us from everyone else. Moreover, the intrinsic disorder of evil words and deeds – intended or not – works against the original unity and order of God’s creation, driving the wedges of alienation deeper into the fabric of our lives.

The ultimate and perfect answer to all alienation is, of course, Christ.

You who once were alienated and hostile in mind
because of evil deeds
he has now reconciled in his fleshly body
through his death,
to present you holy, without blemish,
and irreproachable before him...

Thus we find in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ the remedy to the alienation, the brokenness, the "out-of-place" feeling we experience within ourselves.

But Christ does not heal only the alienation within or only our alienation with God. In the verse right before today’s passage, St. Paul makes clear that in Christ the work of reconciliation and ending alienation is universal and even cosmic.

For in him
all the fulness of God was pleased
to dwell,
and through him
to reconcile to himself all things,
whether on earth or in heaven,
making peace by the blood of his cross.

Christ then is the ultimate power for reconciliation in the universe, reconciliation among nations, and even reconciliation in our relationships, for if we are all reconciled to God, we are reconciled with each other.

This work of reconciliation has been done by Christ’s death on the cross, a work that is to continue to unfold in our lives, as St. Paul indicates.

God has now reconciled you...
to present you holy, without blemish,
and irreproachable before him,
provided that you persevere in the faith,
firmly grounded, stable,
and not shifting
from the hope of the Gospel that you heard...

We cannot go back to our old ways, but must persevere in the life of reconciliation we enjoy in Christ, participating by Christ’s grace in the unfolding of that reconciliation and the end of alienation within ourselves and with others.

...the Gospel that you heard,
which has been preached to every creature under heaven,
of which I, Paul, am a minister.

Likewise, although in different ways, God calls us to be ministers of the Gospel of reconciliation in Christ.

Given the troubles and alienation in our world and in our lives,
this may sometimes seem a futile task,
but the real work of reconciliation has already been done in Christ:
our task is but to be faithful
and to participate in whatever way we can
in the unfolding of that reconciliation,
reconciliation through the Cross,
within ourselves and with all people.