Here is Zenit's translation of the papal general audience held this past Wednesday in St. Peter's Square. The topic was the vespers canticle from Colossians 1.
Here is an excerpt:
For the Apostle, Christ is the principle of cohesion ("in him all things hold together"), the mediator ("through him"), and the final destiny toward which the whole of creation converges. He is "the firstborn among many brethren" (Romans 8:29), namely, the Son par excellence in the great family of the children of God, in which baptism inserts us.
At this point our gaze moves from the world of creation to that of history: Christ is "the head of the body, the Church" (Colossians 1:18) and he is so already through his Incarnation. In fact, he entered the human community, to rule it and constitute it in one "body," namely in a harmonious and fruitful unity. The consistency and growth of humanity have their root in Christ, the vital pivot, "the principle."
Precisely with this primacy Christ can become the principle of the resurrection of all, the "firstborn from the dead," because "in Christ shall all be made alive ... Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:22-23).
