Many of us, especially as we age, are in a constant search for our humanity. It seems that as we get older we equate what it means to be human to that which we once did when we were young. The time and money in advertisements offering the qualities of life that once had been ours in our youth, whether it be eliminating the sagging of skin on one’s body, or revitalize former sexual functions is enormous.
At the typical viewing of an NFL football game one cannot begin to count the number of erectile dysfunction commercials, whether it be Viagara or Ciales, on both hands … we run out of fingers (if only our hands were larger). Then there are those manufacturers that market everything from skin lotions and creams to smooth out the wrinkles on one’s face and body, to hair replacement clinics, and plastic surgery to eliminate the scars and stretch marks and other sagging tissue from pregnancy to over eating. How will this constant human pursuit of the fountain of youth in the form of chemicals and plastic surgery ever measure up to the quality of being truly human? Will any of these pursuits increase our humanness? I think not.
In the second reading today, Paul tells the Collosian community to NOT put on their old self, but rather to put on their NEW self. Fr. Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, in his masterpiece, “Becoming Human Together”, speaks of St. Paul’s idea of anthropology. In the cosmic schema of St. Paul, there is the epic of Adam and the epic of Jesus, the New Adam. The epic of Adam is that of humanity of the first creation cursed and tainted by Sin prior to Jesus. This is human life marked by self-centeredness, greed, hate, and violence. Paul calls this kind of human existence “sub-human.”
The Epic of Jesus is the new creation, one in which humanity is recreated into what God meant humanity to be before the Sin of the first parents. Jesus is the new Adam free from sin. To truly be Human, life is lived for others in love and compassion. We look to Jesus to see and experience what it means to be really human.
Paul is telling the Collosian community that to put on their old self is to slip back into living a sub-human state of life. They have been baptized, it is time now to live truly “Human lives.”
The same is addressed in the gospel. It is not the things of the “old self” that are ultimately the most important. Wealth, security, power are not treasures that are long lasting but are fleeting. As this is expressed very well in the first reading, “Vanity of Vanities. All things are vanity. “If our entire life is focused on on these pursuits, we spend our lives chasing after emptiness.
Rather Jesus is telling us to focus on the treasures that are everlasting, the things of heaven. It is love and compassion, the focusing our efforts and attentions on God and on others that is the true treasure of heaven. Everything that we have in life, including the graces we have received, are to be shared with others. It is there where true happiness will be found.
Like it or not, we all eventually realize that to attempt to go back to the bodies, and the libidos of what we once had in our youth, is a waste of time and effort. As we get older, let us put aside all that marks our “old selves” and focus on putting on our “new selves”, that which will last forever.
