Praise be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.   In our reflection the other day, we mentioned how St. Paul, in his letters, presents profound theological reflections, moral instructions, and also practical, concrete advice for living the Christian life. Today's first reading, taken from his letter to the Colossians, chapter 1, offers us possibly the most profound theological reflection that we will find in St. Paul's epistles. It's the truth that everything was created through, by, and for Jesus Christ. This first reading is a canticle; it's a song of praise to the supremacy of Christ. Sometimes you'll see that title in your Bibles if you read this section.
 The whole context of what St. Paul is speaking about tells us that the subject of this passage is Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word, so not the eternal Word. Incarnate Word means the second person of the Blessed Trinity become man. Eternal Word is the second person of the Blessed Trinity apart from His sacred humanity, just to clarify that a bit. First, St. Paul says that Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God, Colossians 1:15. The word image there in the Greek text is the word icon. The Eastern Church is famous for its icons. St. Paul says that Christ Himself is the icon of God, meaning that in His humanity He presents or He re-presents to us the divine nature, God's nature.
 A little later on in Colossians, St. Paul says that in Him, in Christ, dwells all the fullness of Godhead bodily, Colossians 2:9. So an icon represents what is divine, and that's what Jesus does in His humanity. At the same time, an icon manifests; it makes known what is divine. The humanity of Christ then, is the icon that visibly manifests God in the created universe. In Jesus, we see the face of God. Our Lord said in John 12:45, "He who sees me sees Him who sent me," meaning God the Father. We see Him when we see Jesus because He is the icon of the Father. He repeated this to Philip at the Last Supper. He said, "He who sees me, Jesus, has seen the Father," John 14:9.
 When God says in Genesis 1:26, "Let us make man in our image and likeness," Franciscans say that God is saying there, "Let us make man in the image and likeness of Jesus Christ. Let us make man an icon with a little 'i' of the Icon with a big 'I.'" The one whom St. Paul says in Colossians 1:15 is called the firstborn of all creation. So what's the blueprint that God used when He formed you? The blueprint was Jesus. When God created you, He had in mind both Jesus and Mary because they are the prototypes of all humanity. Believe it or not, you look a lot more like your spiritual parents than you realize because God made you to look like them. He made you with them in mind, with Jesus and Mary in mind.
 God's plan for creation was this. God first willed the best. He first willed the creature that would give Him the greatest love and the greatest glory outside of Himself. So the first creature He had in mind was Jesus Christ and His glorified humanity. The second creature willed by God was Our Lady because, as Pius IX said in his apostolic letter 'Ineffabilis Deus,' God, "by one and the same decree has established or preordained the origin of Mary and the incarnation of divine wisdom." The two go together. Just be aware we say that Jesus Christ is a creature according to His humanity, that He was and is fully human. So Jesus Christ, the divine person with two natures, human and divine, is willed by God before all other things. And He's willed for Himself too. God doesn't will Jesus primarily for a function, for what He can do for us, meaning redeem and save us. Now God first wills Jesus Christ for who He is. He's God incarnate, the masterpiece of creation. Yes, He's also our Redeemer, but that's not where His primary value comes from. Your value is first and foremost in who you are, not in what you do. It's the same with our Savior. Jesus is of infinite value in God's eyes, whether He redeems us or not.
 And St. Paul says that Jesus Christ is the firstborn of all creation because He is the head of the human family. He's firstborn, not chronologically, why? Because Adam and Eve were first, and then came a bunch of people after them before Jesus came. No, Christ is firstborn hierarchically in the plan of God. This is also why St. Paul says that Christ came, "born of a woman in the fullness of time," Galatians 4:4. The fullness of time is when time itself welcomed the one who created it and the one for whom time was created, namely Jesus Christ.
 St. Paul continues in the first reading saying that in Him, in Jesus Christ, were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, Colossians 1:16. Essentially, that means that Jesus Christ is the exemplary cause of all creatures. Simply, He is the model of all creation. All the goodness and perfections of creation reside in Him as in their prototype. All things were created through Him, says St. Paul, meaning that Jesus Christ is also the meritorious cause of creation. Yes, God in Himself, God Father, Son, Holy Spirit, made all things before Christ was born in Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago, but God willed creation through Christ. In view of Jesus' merits, God created all of us. So not just our redemption, but our very existence comes from our Savior, Jesus Christ. We are fully indebted to Him in every way possible.  And St. Paul adds, "All things were created for Him," again Colossians 1:16. You were created for Jesus Christ, not vice versa. He wasn't created for us; we were created for Him. Yes, God became man to redeem us, but it wasn't the only reason He became man; it wasn't even the primary reason. The primary reason was because all of creation is centered on Him and geared towards Him. Without the incarnation, there's no creation. Without the incarnation, there's no creation. I doubt you'd hear the Dominicans say that across the street, but that's the truth.
 This is why the Apostle adds in Colossians 1:17, "He, Christ, is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." In the eternal mind of God, Jesus Christ is the first creature. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end, as He says in Revelation 22:13. And St. Paul continues in the first reading, saying, "He, Jesus Christ, is the head of the body, the Church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He Himself might be preeminent," or so that all things might come to have first place in everything. That's another translation of Colossians 1:18. So the Church is not just composed of people whom Jesus has redeemed; it's composed of the whole heavenly court, meaning all the angels as well, too. Jesus is head of every principality and power, St. Paul says in Colossians 2:10. And thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, of which he speaks in Colossians 1:16, those are all parts of the choirs of angels in heaven.
 So before any consideration of sin, God predestines or He predetermines His heavenly court. So angels, saints, and Our Lady, and Jesus at the head of it all. And if someone says that Jesus Christ is the head only of those who are redeemed and not of the angels, that's actually denying His primacy in all things. It's contradicting what St. Paul actually clearly spells out.  Franciscans say that there's only one economy; there's only one plan of grace, which is mediated through Jesus Christ. God has no plan B. So there's no original plan for Adam and Eve of grace, and then there's a second plan because of the fall. No, the reason that even the angels bend the knee at the name of Jesus, as St. Paul says in Philippians 2:10-11, is not just because He's God, but also because they themselves are part of that one plan of grace. That plan A of God's creation, which puts Jesus Christ at the head of the line of everything.
 So with all that being said, which is probably too much to be said at this time of the morning or maybe at any time of the day, but with all that actually being said, why do we usually think that Jesus only came to save us from our sins? That's because that understanding, the Thomistic thesis, the opinion of St. Thomas Aquinas of the relative primacy of Christ, it tends to be the one that's most often taught, that the incarnation hinges on our sin. As with the Protestants, I think pretty much all you hear is that Jesus came to die for our sins. That's pretty much all you hear from them. So the Franciscan thesis is not as well known, not as taught as much, but you can believe it, yes, and still be fully Catholic. Plus, I'm confident that it's the correct understanding of why Jesus Christ exists. I think it's one of the graces of actually being a Franciscan. You're confident that that's true.
 Lastly, Fr. Gabriel Amorth, some of you probably have heard of Him, the famous exorcist of the Diocese of Rome. He passed away not too long ago. In His book, 'An Exorcist Tells His Story,' He begins by sharing what He calls some basic facts about God's plan for creation. Fr. Amorth writes this; I'll share these couple of paragraphs with you. He says, "All too often we have the wrong conception of creation, and we take for granted that following the wrong sequence of events as well. We believe that one day God created the angels, that He put them to the test, although we're not sure which test, and that as a result we have the division among angels and demons. The angels were rewarded with heaven; the demons were punished with hell. Then we believe that on another day God created the universe, the minerals, the plants, the animals, and in the end, man. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve obeyed Satan and disobeyed God; thus they sinned. At this point, to save mankind, God decided to send His Son. This is not what the Bible teaches," says Fr. Amorth, "and it's not the teaching of the Fathers. If this were so, the angels and creation would remain strangers to the mystery of Christ."  "If we read the prologue of the Gospel of John and the two Christological hymns that open the letter to the Ephesians and Colossians, we see that Christ is, 'the firstborn of all creatures,' Colossians 1:15. Everything was created for Him and in expectation of Him. There is no theological discussion that makes any sense if it asks whether Christ would have been born without the sin of Adam. Christ is the center of creation. All creatures, both heavenly, the angels, and earthly, men, find in Him their summation. On the other hand, we can affirm that, given the sin of our forebearers, Christ's coming assured a particular role. He came as Savior. The core of His action is contained within the paschal mystery. Through the blood of Christ, of His cross, He reconciles all things in the heaven, angels, and on earth, men, to God. The role of every creature is dependent on this Christocentric understanding," unquote says Father Amorth. So if you can pick up what He's saying, in His heart, Father Amorth was Franciscan. He knew the Franciscan thesis, the absolute primacy of Christ.
 Let's ask Our Lady for a greater understanding of the centrality of her and her Son in God's plan of creation. And let's also ask her for the grace to truly make her and her Son the center of our lives and of our hearts, which is actually God's plan for all eternity.  Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.