Had yesterday not been the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, we would have begun reading Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. We will continue these readings until Wednesday of next week. Galatia was a province of the Roman Empire in what is now central Turkey. Its name implies that this area was originally settled by people of Celtic origin.
The letter has been called the Magna Carta of Christian liberty. It deals with the question whether a Gentile must first become a Jew before becoming a Christian. Some teachers had told Galatian Christians that, in addition to following Christ, they had to observe the Law of Moses. Paul counters this by saying that it is through faith in Jesus Christ that a person comes right with God and not by the observance of external laws and ritual observances. The Letter of James will complement this teaching by saying that works not inspired by faith are dead, but that a faith which does not express itself in loving works for others is also dead.
Galatians is a contentious letter in which Paul attacks unknown missionaries who have been telling the baptized gentiles that they must adopt some of the traditional Jewish customs, especially onerous ones like that of circumcision, as a mark of their Christian identity. Paul disagrees vigorously with this teaching. In the process, he says many other things of great significance for our Christian lives.
Yesterday’s reading (Galatians 1:6-12) consists of a warning expressed in rather strong language. It takes the place of the usual introductory thanksgiving for the graces experienced by the local church with which Paul’s letters typically begin. In fact, at no time in the letter does Paul have words of praise for the Galatian Christians.
Paul is deeply concerned with what he regards as a rather hasty and sudden change in the Galatians’ beliefs so soon after their conversion. They have, in fact, turned away from the One who called them. He accuses them of following a different gospel and in so doing are turning away from the Gospel that Jesus gave and from the call they received from Jesus Christ.
Paul asserts that there is only one Gospel of Christ and that is the one they heard from him. Anyone who preaches a different Gospel is “anathema” (“accursed” in some translations). Paul tells the Galatians that anyone preaching a different gospel from the one he originally proclaimed to them is to be condemned and rejected.
Finally, he emphasizes that the Gospel he preaches is not a human invention, but that he “received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” In so saying, he is not asserting that everything he knows about the Gospel of Christ comes through direct revelation to him. Much of what he believed came through the disciples of Jesus who instructed him. The key to salvation is faith and trust in the message of Jesus, and not in external observance of a Law.
In today’s reading (Galatians 1:13-24) Paul takes up where he left off yesterday. He continues to answer the charge that, by waiving the need for Gentiles to be circumcised after their conversion, he was being lenient. On the contrary, Paul reminds the Galatians, before his own conversion, he had been totally committed to the Jewish faith. As a devout Jew, and a Pharisee, Paul had been ruthless in trying to wipe out the “church of God”, the Christian community. So loyal was he to his Jewish traditions, that Paul stood out among his fellow Jews for the zeal with which he attacked the followers of Jesus. These traditions, also called in the Gospel the “tradition of the elders” (Matthew 15:2), refer to traditions orally transmitted from generation to generation and are to be distinguished from the written law that came through Moses. Paul, before his conversion, saw the ‘Christians’ as a dangerous deviation from the Jewish traditions and had to be stopped at all costs.
But then a great change came over Paul. Like some of the earlier prophets (Isaiah and Jeremiah), Paul had been chosen by God long before his birth for a very special mission. He was given the special grace and blessing of first having Jesus, the Son, revealed to him so that then he might share with Gentiles (non-Jews) the Good News that Jesus brings. As if to emphasize the direct nature of the revelation he received, he stresses that at this time, he did not discuss his experience with anyone, nor was he in contact with any of the Apostles still in Jerusalem. He wants to emphasize that his change of heart was the result of the direct intervention of God, and not due to persuasive arguments from human beings.
Instead, Paul went off to “Arabia”. This probably indicates the desert kingdom of the Nabataean Arabs on the east side of the Jordan River which stretched from Damascus to Suez. We do not know how long Paul stayed in the desert, but three years later he tells us that he was in Jerusalem and stayed with Peter (Cephas in Aramaic) for about two weeks. The word Cephas (or Kephas) comes from the Aramaic word for ‘stone’ or ‘rock’ (see Matthew 16:18). In the Greek, Peter is Petros and ‘rock’ is petra. The name designates a like quality in the bearer (see John 1:42). However, in the Gospels, Peter is anything but a rock; he is impulsive and unstable. But in Acts, he is a pillar of the early church and clearly its recognized leader. Jesus named him not for what he was, but for what, by God’s grace, he would become.
Except for James, who seems to have been the leading elder in the Jerusalem church at the time, Paul says he did not see anyone else. Clearly, the only effective influence on his new life at this time was Jesus himself.
For us, the same is true. It is possible for the Christian to get hung up on various external acts and obligations which are identified with Christianity (or Catholicism). We may never miss Sunday Mass, perhaps in the vernacular, perhaps in Greek or Latin. We may even keep observing abstinence on Fridays. Yet many things in our lives may be far removed from the spirit of the Gospel. We need to reflect on just what makes a ‘good Catholic’. Let us reflect today on our calling for we, too, were chosen before our birth to be followers of Jesus. Why us and not others remains a mystery we will never be able to answer. As we go through life, we may receive other callings, and I could ask myself today to what kind of service is Jesus calling me at this time in my life? Let us recall and give thanks to God also for the very many people who, directly or indirectly, have brought and continue to bring a deeper understanding of Christ into our lives.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!