How can the King of the Universe be my “personal Savior”? If we think of the
universe, we may feel very insignificant, less than a piece of dust. If we look at
today’s second reading from the Letter to the Colossians (Col 1:12-20), we
realize we are very significant to him.
“Give thanks to the Father for having made us worthy to share the lot of the
saints in light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and brought us into
the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Col 1:13).
The Father helps us in many steps along the way each day by bringing us from
the power of darkness into the kingdom of His Son is the greatest for which could
ever hope.
How did this happen? Thomas Aquinas explains that people make a mistake in
thinking that “… the gifts of grace are given because of a person’s merit, and that
God gives grace to those who are worthy, and does not give grace to those who
are unworthy” (Commentary on the Letter to the Colossians, 24).
Instead, Thomas assures us: “Whatever worth and grace we have is given to us
by God, and so also are the effects of grace” (Commentary on the Letter to the
Colossians, 24).
The Latin word for “grace,” gratia, is also “gift.” God’s graces to us and the effects
of those graces are gifts. Thomas recalls Paul’s words to the Corinthians: “Not
that we are sufficient of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our
sufficiency is from God” (2 Cor. 3:5).
Because Christians believe in original sin and in personal responsibility for sins,
people might expect that Christians take a dim view of human nature. Are people
intrinsically good or intrinsically inclined to sin?
Thomas insists on the basic goodness of human nature: “All people are good in
their very nature; consequently, they somehow partake of God” (Commentary on
the Letter to the Colossians, 2
Along with good nature, we have the capacity to choose other things than God,
as Thomas acknowledges, “… it is done by choosing, as when a person selects
this and another one that” (Commentary on the Letter to the Colossians, 25).
If we make God a priority of our lives, God is our choice. Even then, grace helps
us to choose, as Jesus tells His disciples, “You did not choose me, but I chose
you” (Jn 15:16).
When we chose sin, we see it as freedom. We don’t realize right away that sin
entangles us. Thomas believes that without grace, we can become “slaves of
sin.” Jesus declared, “Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin” (Jn. 8:34).
When “sin” has a power over us, we live “in the power of darkness.” We are
caught in the web of our negative habits.

According to Isaiah, we blame God for disregarding us. In fact, our sins block us
from seeing or hearing God: “Your iniquities have made a separation between
you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you so that He does not
hear” (Is 59:2). Rather than God hiding His face from us: we block it.
If we think about our sins, we can recognize our own “darkness.” God takes us
out of our personal darkness “into the lot of the saints in light” (Col 1:13). Thomas
observes: “From it there follows the effect of grace, i.e., our transference from
darkness to light” (Commentary on the Letter to the Colossians, 25).
This transformation is possible because Jesus is the “beloved Son”: “The Father
loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand” (Jn 3:35).
If sin is selfishness, Christ, even though He is the Son, breaks the power of
selfishness by giving Himself for us. Thomas asserts that the Son, in His
humanity, offered Himself for us to the Father and in His divinity brought us
forgiveness.
Thomas says, “As man, He became a sacrifice for us and redeemed us in His
blood; and so Paul says: ‘You were bought with a price’ (1 Cor. 6:20); and from
Christ, as God, we have the forgiveness of sins, because He took away our debt
of punishment” (Commentary on the Letter to the Colossians, 28).
We don’t see God directly but we see the Son, as Colossians declares, the Son
is “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15).
The Son is called the “Word of God” and the “Image of God.” The Letter to the
Hebrews declares: “He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of His
nature, upholding the universe by His word of power. When He had made
purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb
1:3).
The Letter to the Colossians states: “In Him, all things were created, in heaven
and on earth, visible or invisible – all things were created through Him and for
Him” (Col 1:16).
Thomas recognizes the Son’s role in creation as the “Word”: “The Son is seen as
a word representing every creature, and He is the principle of every creature”
(Commentary on the Letter to the Colossians, 35).
Thomas explains that an artisan creates a thing according to the idea that he has
in his mind, which is his/her “wisdom”: “This is the way God is said to make all
things in His wisdom, because the wisdom of God is related to His created works
just as the art of the builder is to the house he has made. Now this form and
wisdom is the Word; and thus, in Him all things were created, as in an exemplar”
(Commentary on the Letter to the Colossians, 37).
Genesis announces: “He spoke and they were made” (Gen 1). Thomas reflects:
“He created all things to come into existence in His eternal Word” (Commentary
on the Letter to the Colossians, 37). The Letter to the Hebrews states: “By faith

we understand that the world was framed by the word of God; that from invisible
things visible things might be made” (Heb 11:3).
The Gospel of John affirms: “All things were made through Him, and without Him
was not anything made that was made” (Jn 1:3). Thomas understands that the
Son is the “efficient cause” by which creation came into being and the “exemplary
cause,” the model of created things (Commentary on the Letter to the
Colossians, 42).
The Letter to the Colossians asserts: “He is before all things, and in Him all
things hold together” (Col 1:17). Thomas comments: “For God is to things as the
sun is to the moon, which loses its light when the sun leaves. And so, if God took
His power away from us, all things would immediately cease to exist”
(Commentary on the Letter to the Colossians, 44). Thomas recalls the Letter to
the Hebrews, which said that God was, “Upholding the universe by His word of
power” (Heb 1:3).
Colossians declares: “He is the head of the body, the Church” (Col 1:18).
Thomas explains that the Church is like a human body because it has distinct
members: “And His gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets,
some evangelists, some pastors and teachers” (Eph 4:11). The members care
for each other in different ways: “The members may have the same care for one
another” (1 Cor. 12:25); “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of
Christ” (Gal 6:2).
The body has a soul, which is the Spirit: “The Church is one because the Spirit is
one: “There is one body and one Spirit” (Eph 4:4); “Because there is one bread,
we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Cor.
10:17).
Christ is the “head”: “He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead” Thomas
teaches that the Church exists in the “state of grace in the present time, and the
state of glory in the future.” Thomas adds: “It is the same Church, and Christ is its
head in both states, because He is the first in grace and the first in glory”
(Commentary on the Letter to the Colossians, 48).
Christ is not only the first in grace in His humanity but others are justified by faith
in Him: “By one man’s obedience many will be made righteous” (Rom 5:19).
Christ is “pre-eminent in the gifts of grace, because He is the beginning; and pre-
eminent in the gifts of glory, because He is the first-born” (Commentary on the
Letter to the Colossians, 49).
Colossians states: “In Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Col
1:19). Thomas comments: “Christ had all graces; and so he says, that in Him all
the fullness was pleased to dwell” (Commentary on the Letter to the Colossians,
50). John says that Christ was “full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:14),
Colossians announces: “And through Him to reconcile to Himself all things,
whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His Cross” (Col

1:20). Thomas reflects that “Christ is the head of the Church because of an inflow
from Him… It pleased God not only that this fullness exist in Christ, but that it
also flow from Christ to us; and so he says, and through Him to reconcile to
Himself all things: ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself’ (2 Cor.
5:19) (Commentary on the Letter to the Colossians, 51-52).
Thomas explains that people are reconciled when they agree after having
conflicting wills: “Wills that were before in conflict are made to harmonize in
Christ. This harmony was accomplished by the blood of His cross… Christ
destroyed sin by His cross and fulfilled the law; and thus, He took away the
causes of discord” (Commentary on the Letter to the Colossians, 53).
Thomas recalls that when Christ was born the angels sang: “Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peace among men” (Lk 2:14). After His Resurrection,
Christ announced to His disciples: “Peace be with you” (Jn 20:19). The Letter to
the Ephesians declares: “For He is our peace, who has made us both one” (Eph
2:14).
Denis Vincent Wiseman, O.P.

The quotations from St. Thomas’ Commentary on the Letter to the Colossians is can be
found in The Works of St. Thomas Aquinas, volume 40, translated by F.R. Larcher,
O.P., edited by J. Mortensen and E. Alarcón, available through the Aquinas Institute,
Lander Wyoming.