“O stupid Galatians! Who has bewitched you…Are you so stupid?” It seems that St. Paul has never learned the lesson that the students of St. Francis School know so well: “You never call anyone stupid!” Paul is writing this letter to the churches that he established in the region of Galatia. The region was occupied by Celtic immigrants of European origin. While Paul’s words are harsh and would be inappropriate today Paul was writing in a different time and culture.
What has Paul so upset with these Christian communities? He feels that are being “bewitched” by fellow Christian missionaries who are perverting the Gospel. This “other Gospel” that they preach demands not only faith in Jesus Christ but also circumcision and the observance of other Jewish ritual prescriptions. Paul is trying to convince the Galatians that this is a false Gospel propagated by false brothers whom he opposed at the Council of Jerusalem:
“but because of the false brothers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy on our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, that they might enslave us— to them we did not submit even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain intact for you.” (Galatians 2:4-5)
The truth of the Gospel is that we are saved through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul asks the Galatians to reflect on their own experience: “did you receive the Spirit from works of the law, or from faith?” Through their baptism they already have the gift of the Spirit. What else could they hope to get by circumcision and other “works of the law?” God is already at work among them: “Does, then, the one who supplies the Spirit to you and works mighty deeds among you do so from works of the law or from faith in what you heard?” Paul’s key teaching is that we are saved and reborn through faith in Jesus Christ not by observance of the Torah or Law. Faith is putting our trust in God who loves us and forgives us. In turn we are called upon to live as gifted people by showing this love and forgiveness to one another.
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Image: “Saint Paul, detail. El Greco Museum, Toledo. Spain.jpg – Wikimedia Commons is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.