Clothed in Christ

"...all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ" (cf. Gal 3: 22-29).  This clothing is not exterior to the person each of us is.  No, it is an interior clothing of the mind and heart and will of Christ.  We are being transformed into Christ each day, each year of our lives.  We are becoming the handmaid par excellence of God, as Mary was, and the obedient son of the Father as Jesus was.  Being clothed in grace is to be clothed in the radiance of the Son’s obedience and the brilliance of Mary's fiat.  We are in the process of becoming one with Christ as Jesus and the Father and the Spirit are one.  To be clothed in this way is far beyond what we can imagine of beauty.  No piece of clothing that we admire here on earth matches it.  The price we pay for this "clothing" has been paid for us by the blood of Christ outpoured on Calvary--it was not paid for in cash but in the very life of Jesus.  We, too, are empowered to give our lives in love to one another because we are clothed in grace. We are capable of doing great things in this life to make the world and all in it one with its Creator because we have put on Christ in baptism. We died with Him and rose with Him to new life in which, as Paul says, there is neither Greek nor Jew, male nor female: all are one in the Lord working for the greater good, building the Kingdom of God on earth.  This union of minds and hearts and wills  will happen in the world, in the Church, in every nation, in every family, in all cultures and between all of the diversity of peoples throughout the world.  Barriers to this transformation will be overcome in Christ Jesus.  This is our hope. This is our faith in Christ Jesus.