Can we just admit it? Christians tend to create their own ‘christs’

A Reflection for the Memorial of St. Peter Claver, priest

Find today’s readings here.

I typically write my reflections on the Gospel of the day, but not today. There’s something about this first reading from Paul’s letter to the Colossians that’s worth reflecting on: Christ is everything.

You can practically see Paul banging his head against the wall of his prison cell while writing to his community in Colossae, who, having converted to Christianity only recently, was already moving on to the next trending philosophy.

And we shouldn’t be surprised by his exhortation. Of course, Christ is everything. That’s the perspective of any Christian, right? But, I wonder, do we really believe it?

In following the news of our church, listening to Catholics and reflecting on my own fragile belief, I’ve come to the conclusion that, practically speaking, we tend to believe in much smaller, more exclusive christs. It’s very convenient, actually. My christ tends to agree with my assessments of others and about what’s right and wrong with the church and the world. My christ reinforces for me that I belong to the right community and interpret the truth in the fullest way, or, at least fuller than others. Honestly, my christ simply looks a lot like me. Am I everything?

When you stop and think about it, it’s amazing how this tendency to create smaller, more exclusive christs continuously reasserts itself. It likely affects the way we read scripture and interpret Paul’s letters. He guides his—and our—Christian communities in very important practical ways, sure, and we like to isolate and stress those particular instructions, especially when they align with our christ.

But are we able to see and begin to process the overarching proclamation that runs through his letters, that Christ is everything? That, “Christ is all, and in all?” (Col 3:11) That, “He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together?” (Col 1:17) That, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus?” (Gal 3:28) That, “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord?” (Rom 8:38-39) I wonder.

A more honest reading of Paul might suggest that the primary challenge to every Christian is a spiritual and psychological one: to be humble in the face of so great a mystery. To continuously purge ourselves of small, exclusive, manufactured christs. I think that’s what Pope Francis meant when he said at the Synod on Synodality in October 2024, “Humility lets us look at the world and admit we are no better than anyone else.” At the same time, we are challenged to see the real Christ in an expansive way, always including more and more people, creatures, the whole of creation, all reality and existence. It’s true whether we see it or not; the Christian is on a contemplative journey to discover it. St. Paul discovered it, and it changed his life.

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