17 September 2022
Saturday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Coins in the ancient world were imprinted with the seal of the emperor to indicate ownership and dominion. To be imprinted with the image of the emperor indicated that the object was sealed as his own and bears his approval and mark. St. Paul picks up on this notion in the first reading today, but applies it to Christ and our salvation. St. Paul writes: “just as we have borne the image of the earthly man (Adam), we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man (Christ).” For Paul, Christians are stamped, sealed, marked with the image of Christ through our Baptism. This image of Christ is the image of the Christ who conquered death and is drawing out within us his image through our spiritual lives. We have been sealed by Christ and we are also being conformed ever more into images of Christ through our lives. The ancient emperors marked money as their valuables, our God has marked his children as his valuables. God marks us with the image of himself through the Sacraments, and he missions us to live as children sealed with Christ’s image.
Today, let us pray for the grace to live within the conviction and reality that we are stamped with the image of the “man from heaven” and we are called to live out lives as those who are marked by Christ in how we live.