Please read the Scripture passage before the homily.
Imagine a town hall meeting in Galatia with the local church officials. The assembly is to hear complaints about church doctrine and practice. Some question the dying and the rising of Jesus, others the divine nature of Jesus, others the meaning and usefulness of the Holy Spirit. Others hold other views and opinions. I imagine some of the leaders expressing the view that some of these items are negotiable.
Imagine also that Paul receives a report of the meeting. This forms a basis for this letter to the Galatians. Paul teaches that propositions such as those mentioned above represent a new gospel other than the one Paul preached. He says that those who accept a “New Gospel” have put themselves under a curse.
The word gospel means good news. It is not good news that we can invent own ways to believe in God. It is, rather, good news that God has revealed the reality of God to us. In other words, we have received the good news; we cannot invent it.
It is our task, as custodians of God’s word here, to proclaim the good news that God has revealed to us in what we say and in what we do. When we preach our own idea of God, we run the risk of proclaiming a false god. False gods give us false ideas for human conduct and human interactions. False ideas about God are as reliable as a compass pointing east is for the sailor or hiker. False gods put us under the curse of not knowing our appropriate direction, whereas the truth about God sets us free to enjoy God’s blessings.
Needless to say, when Paul heard about what was going on among the Galatians, he was very much upset. In fact, he was so upset that he skipped his usual prayer of blessing and praise for God for God’s work with the Galatians. Let us not imitate the Galatians.