(Please read this Scripture passage first, before the homily.)
I would not want to debate St Paul if he were upset. I would not survive a fact check on him. I would find him fair and his arguments unbeatable. I would know I had lost even without the news media’s broadcasting it.
Paul’s critics had accused Paul of being soft on his Gentile converts. They were saying that he should have had them circumcised and subjected to Jewish law. They were teaching that the pagan had to become Jewish in order to become Christian.
Paul did no put up with this. He argued that we had become Christians through faith in Christ Jesus. He brought up Abraham because Scripture says that Abraham was justified by faith and in Abraham’s faith all nations would be blessed. Therefore, Paul argued that we have become children of Abraham and heirs to the promise, not by the Law, but by believing as Abraham had believed.
Paul’s argument is that the Law came after Abraham and brought with it a curse on those who do not keep the Law. This curse Christ broke by accepting the curse of dying on the tree of the cross. By breaking the curse, Christ freed us from the curse of the Law and brought us back to the faith of Abraham. Now, since we share the faith of Abraham, we have the Spirit promised to Abraham.
Paul’s experience reminds me of our day. Many think that the Second Vatican Council made things too easy for us and that we ought to go back to the “good old days” when all we had to do was obey blindly everything without question. The Council, however, did not water down our beliefs. Rather it taught that each of us has the Spirit of God and God wants us to make and integrate good decisions in our lives by listening to God’s Spirit in the Church. I think that St Paul would defend the work and the results of the Council as firmly as he defended his own position to the Galatians.
With the freedom and faith of Abraham, I see that we have a challenge, each in her or his life, to live faithfully according to the Spirit. I would not say that the freedom we have is a license to do whatever we want, but a power to do what God calls us to do.
We do not live in a yes-and-no world, but in a world of many nuances between these two opposites. We need the faithfulness of Abraham and the freedom he enjoyed so that we can accomplish the work God has set for each of us to do.