Word to the Wise
Thursday, October 9, 2014 - Thursday in the 27th Week in Ordinary Time
[Gal 3:1-5 and Luke 11:5-13]O stupid Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus was publicly portrayed as crucified? I want to learn only this from you: did you receive the Spirit from works 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?
OCTOBER 9 - ST. LOUIS BERTRAND, O.P.
In all of St. Paul's letters, it would be hard to find a more impassioned plea than the one he issues to the Galatians! I, for one, wouldn't want to be called "stupid!" I know that scripture scholars and theologians write large books about the problem that St. Paul is addressing, but I'll try to outline it in a nutshell.
St. Paul had preached in Galatia and got a Christian community going there. However, in his footsteps came other Christian preachers who insisted that even after conversion to Christianity, a person had to follow the Mosaic Laws. This was completely contrary to what Paul had taught. He taught that a person's relationship to God is established through faith in Jesus Christ and not determined by dedication to the observance of the Mosaic Law. It appears that the later preachers had managed to convince some or all of the community, which in turn provokes Paul's impassioned letter.
This issue raised its head in the Protestant reformation nearly 1500 years later, and is still something that hangs around Catholic consciousness. Without trying to read modern things back into the biblical text, we Catholics have often had the attitude that what mattered was following the rules and earning "points" for getting into heaven. This is a form of an ancient heresy called Pelagianism, which held that we could indeed earn salvation by our own efforts. This is not possible. It is a free gift of God that becomes available through our faith in Christ. Paul had to know his congregation, but I don't think I'll call anyone in the pews "stupid!" I might challenge them to think about this carefully, however! AMEN
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