Word to the Wise
Thursday, October 7, 2010 - Our Lady of the Rosary
[Galatians 3:1-5 and Luke 11:5-13]O stupid Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? I want to learn only this from you: did you receive the Spirit from the words of the law, or from faith in what you heard? Are you so stupid? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?
I can't say that I would try St. Paul's language in my preaching! He is clearly exasperated and angry with the Galatian community because they seem to have abandoned the message he preached and accepted one that focused on the Mosaic code as a source of spiritual significance! The Letter to the Galatians doesn't even begin with blessings and nice greetings. It starts in anger and is filled with strong words the whole way through! Every pastor knows the experience of having worked hard to evangelize a community only to discover that there are some folks in the parish who are working behind his back to derail the whole message with something considerably more dubious but perhaps cloaked in a piety that is attractive! This gives rise to an urge to grab the whole group and shake it till their teeth rattle! No wonder we see the words,O stupid Galatians! Nowadays we might just shake our heads and say that Paul ought to be more tactful and "sensitive" in his presentation! We might even write to the bishop and complain that the pastor is trying to stifle the devotional and religious customs of the ordinary believer! All the pastor (and the bishop, too!) can do is call attention to the main message which St. Paul has preached and show how the attractive but dubious message is in tension with or even in outright conflict with it! Staying "on message" in this day and age (and in St. Paul's day and age) can be difficult in a culture that can find subtle and not so subtle ways of undermining the truth about Jesus Christ! If we wander from it, we shouldn't be surprised to hear some equivalent words like O stupid Galatians!! AMEN
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