Today Paul continues to speak to the Galatians about freedom, a freedom they cannot find by submitting themselves again to the Mosaic Law (Galatians 5:1-6). “When Christ freed us, he meant us to remain free.” If only those words were emblazoned in huge letters in all of our churches! Instead, we find there people that feel Christianity is restrictive of a ‘normal’ human life; or that it consists of living a restricted life now for the sake of some future salvation. But Paul tells the Galatians, and us, that taking on “requirements of the Law” are going backwards. They are giving up the freedom that came to them through the Gospel of Jesus. This freedom is a freedom from a life based on a law of external observances, many of them clearly of human origin and not part of being a totally fulfilled person. Paul tells them to: “Stand firm and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
To make the Law the rule of one’s life is to undergo a kind of slavery. By trying to live up to the rigorous demands of the Law, which few, if any, people can observe in its totality, the Galatians were taking on a heavy burden, a real yoke, which could only fill them with feelings of inadequacy and guilt.
Jesus in the Gospel invites us to carry a very different yoke, a yoke that he himself will help us to carry. It is a yoke that is “easy” and whose “burden is light”. It is a yoke of total surrender to his Way of truth, integrity and love. Because of our many weaknesses, to follow such a way can at times mean the denial of our lower appetites, but the bearing of this yoke can only be beneficial in the long run. It brings us to where we really belong. And it brings true peace.
Paul tells the Galatians not to submit to the requirement of circumcision which, of itself, has nothing whatsoever to do with the following Jesus. Anyone who accepts to be ritually circumcised is bound to the observance of the whole Law. The Law is a unit, and one cannot pick and choose which parts to follow. It is all or nothing. Ritual circumcision, as a kind of “sacrament”, expresses one’s total allegiance to the Law of the Old Testament. It has a similar meaning for Islam and other religions.
Paul tells the Galatians that those who look for fulfilment and salvation in the keeping of the Law have in effect separated themselves from Christ. They have “fallen away from grace”. They have put themselves outside the scope of divine favor, because gaining God’s favor by external observance and submitting in faith to love and service of Christ are mutually exclusive.
Those who follow the Law believe that, by keeping it perfectly, God ‘owes’ them salvation. Their model is the Pharisee in the Gospel who thanked God, that through his meticulous observance of the Law, he was not like others. He saw all his imagined virtue as emanating from him personally. God should be grateful to have people like him around. However, his contemptuous remarks about the tax collector behind him revealed that, while his external behavior was without fault, he was far from that inner love and compassion that the following of Christ expects.
Those who follow Jesus know that salvation comes as a “grace”, a freely given gift that none of us can earn, but which is given to those who surrender totally into the hands of the Lord. Ideally, that surrender takes place all during our lives as Christians, but Jesus tells us that even if our total surrender is not made until our last seconds, that salvation is still given. As we shall see in tomorrow’s reading, putting off the day of surrender is not a very smart thing to do, but the point is that the door is never closed until we close our eyes in death. God does not have an accountant’s ledger. He only looks at us in the here and now.
It is through faith in Christ and surrender in loving trust (itself a gift!), that we live in the firm hope of finding ourselves right with God. It does not matter whether one is circumcised or not. All that matters, says Paul in a lovely expression: “…the only thing that counts is faith working through love.” Faith is much more than intellectual assent to certain truths or dogmas which we are told to accept as true. It involves the total and unconditional surrender, in trust, to Jesus as Lord and as the Way to Truth and Life.
When this faith is active and strong, it results quite spontaneously in a life lived in love for God and in care and compassion for all those around us. The only really free person is the one who, in all circumstances, is able to respond in love, compassion, forgiveness and reconciliation to all the people and situations in our life.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!