Friday of Week 27 of Ordinary Time – First Reading
Commentary on Galatians 3:7-14
Paul continues today explaining the concept of justification by faith. Tellingly, he goes right back to Abraham, who was understood to be the physical and spiritual father of the Jewish people (see also John 8:31-33,39,53). Hence, Jews are also referred to as the ‘seed’ or ‘descendants’ of Abraham. Everyone whose life is based on faith in God’s word is a child of Abraham. It is significant that Matthew, writing for Jews, traces Jesus’ genealogy back to Abraham, while Luke, writing for Gentiles, traces it back to Adam.
But now, Paul says that all believers—both Jews and Gentiles—are his spiritual children. The offspring of Abraham are all those whose lives are based on faith rather than external observance of the Law. And so Jesus can say that Zacchaeus, the sinful tax collector, after his change of heart following his meeting with Jesus, is truly a “son of Abraham” (Luke 19:9).
Paul sees this already foretold in the book of Genesis when God told Abram to leave his country and become a great nation. At that time God had said:
I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. (Gen 12:3)
Abraham is constantly presented as the archetype of the man of total faith in God. Several times, against all logic and reason, he trusted in God’s promises and was not disappointed. Now Paul says that all those who have a similar faith in God will receive the same blessings as Abraham. And it is faith, not observance of external laws, which brings this about.
On the contrary, Paul sees the keeping of the Law as a kind of curse. Some think that God can be won around, that they can ‘earn’ salvation, by their scrupulous keeping of rules. But the book of Deuteronomy (quoted here by Paul) says:
Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law.
Paul is clearly arguing that, as no one can possibly do that without failing in some degree, this curse cannot be avoided. The letter of James tells us that:
…whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. (James 2:10)
In the past, Catholics were also taught that committing just one mortal sin against just one commandment (e.g. deliberately missing Mass on Sunday) would earn eternal punishment.
Further, observance of the Law is not the means by which we are put right by God, because (and here Paul quotes from Habakkuk in the Old Testament):
…the one who is righteous will live by faith.
In fact, the original text from Habakkuk said by “faithfulness” (Hab 2:4). Paul is following the Greek Septuagint where the Hebrew ‘faithfulness’ is rendered by ‘faith’. Of course faithfulness is derived from faith.
Paul’s argument here and, at greater length in Romans, can be summarised as follows:
The Law gives information—it does not give spiritual strength. No law, whether Mosaic or otherwise, not even the primordial command given to Adam, can prevent sin; in fact law makes sin worse because:
- though law is not the source of sin, it becomes the instrument of sin by arousing concupiscence;
- by informing the mind it increases the fault, which becomes a conscious ‘transgression;’
- the only remedy the law can offer is punishment, curse, condemnation, death; hence it can be called the “law of sin and death”.
(from the Jerusalem Bible, commenting on Rom 7:7)
Paul then, in his usual dramatic way, turns the tables. Those who had become cursed by their constant failure to keep the Law can be rescued and liberated by Christ, who himself became an object of curse by dying for us on the tree of the cross. Paul clarifies this by quoting from Deuteronomy:
Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree…
In this way, the blessing of Abraham, promised to “all nations” in Genesis, is realised for all, Jew and Gentile alike. By bypassing the mere observance of the Law, we are all filled with the Spirit through faith, our unconditional throwing of ourselves into the loving arms of our God. What Paul tells the Galatians is true for us, too.
Of course, we Christians do not now follow the Jewish law—or do we? When asked what is specific to their religion, many Catholics will say “the Ten Commandments”. And a ‘good’ Catholic is one who keeps the Ten Commandments and the “commandments of the Church” (though they are often rather vague as to what these are). But Paul would strenuously deny that.
The Ten Commandments belong primarily to the Old Testament and to observe them, however faithfully, does not make one a Christian at all. We remember the rich man who was called to follow Jesus. He said he had kept the Commandments perfectly all his life. It was not enough. He had to reach out in love to those in need by sharing his wealth. This the man could not do, and:
When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving… (Mark 10:22)
As Paul emphasises, the essence of our Christianity is our faith in the Way of Christ; it is the only source of life. Keeping the Commandments is not the condition for our being saved. In fact, it is only when we are under the saving power of the Spirit of Jesus that we can begin to keep the Commandments. For the true Christian, the Commandments are almost irrelevant. The Christian is measured by one law only and that is the law of love (Greek, agape). When one keeps that commandment—to love others as Jesus has loved us—all other obligations (i.e. the Commandments) are taken care of. “Love and do what you like”, St Augustine is supposed to have said.
The power of love comes from faith in Jesus, and the exercise of that love is the measure of our closeness to him:
Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me. (Matt 25:40)
So, as Christians, we are to be measured not by how well we keep commandments and rules, but by the strength of the love that binds us to God and our brothers and sisters.
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Friday of Week 27 of Ordinary Time – Gospel
Commentary on Luke 11:15-26
As said by the prophet Jeremiah:
Hear this, O foolish and senseless people,
who have eyes but do not see,
who have ears but do not hear. (Jer 5:21)
In today’s passage, Jesus frees a person from enslavement to an evil power which had rendered him mute, so that he could not speak (in Matthew’s version of this story, the man is also blind). As Christians, many of us can suffer from the same evil influence when we refuse or are afraid to acknowledge openly our Christian faith. We hide and we remain silent, especially when the values we hold are attacked or ridiculed. Once liberated, the man could speak and he did so, much to the amazement of the crowd. Let us, too, pray for this gift of speech—to be able to say the right thing at the right time.
But there were those present who accused Jesus of using the demon’s power to drive out the evil spirit. At the same time, in spite of the extraordinary signs that Jesus was initiating on almost a daily basis—including the one they had just witnessed which caused such astonishment among the people—his enemies asked him for a sign from God.
There is a clear gap between the leaders and the people here. While the leaders keep asking Jesus for his credentials, the people are shown as constantly praising and thanking God for all that is being done among them through Jesus.
Jesus then shows the self-contradictions in his opponents’ charges. A kingdom that is split by internal rivalries cannot survive. Why would evil spirits attack each other and as such frustrate their goals? And, Jesus says to his accusers:
Now if I cast out the demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your exorcists cast them out?….But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
When people are liberated from the control of evil spirits, that is a sure sign that the loving power of God is at work. Any other interpretation does not make sense. And the ‘Kingdom of God’ is personified and embodied in Jesus himself. It will also become present in his disciples who do his work.
And Jesus goes on to give another image. A strong man guarding his house and possessions remains undisturbed until someone stronger comes and overthrows him. That is clearly what is happening. Jesus is the stronger one and the evil spirits are being driven away by him. They are helpless before him. This liberation of people and society from evil powers is one of the most dramatic proofs that the all-powerful reign of God is present in the person of Jesus. What further signs could be asked for?
Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
There can be no neutrality where Jesus is concerned. We have to make our choice—for him or against. Not to choose is itself a choice—against him. Compare this with the similar, but actually quite different saying we saw earlier:
…for whoever is not against you is for you. (Luke 9:50)
This was in the context of the Apostle John complaining that he saw a man cast out demons in Jesus’ name. In so far as that nameless person was doing Jesus’ work and doing it in Jesus’ name, he was with Jesus. That surely has implications for the many good things that non-Catholics and others who are not Christians at all are doing.
And this saying about the non-acceptance of neutrality leads to another warning. It is not enough to have been liberated from the power of an evil (“unclean”) spirit. Otherwise this “unclean spirit” may say:
I will return to my house from which I came.
But:
When it returns, it finds it swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself…
The end result is that the evil spirits:
…enter and live there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first.
No, instead, the emptiness left by the departure of the evil spirit has to be actively filled with the Spirit of Jesus.
Was Jesus referring to some of the people around him? Was he especially calling out his critics? These were people who by their meticulous observance of the Law saw themselves as morally blameless, but in whose lives the positive presence of the Spirit, as exemplified in Jesus himself, was totally absent.
It is easy to use the sacrament of reconciliation to get the forgiveness of our past sins and leave it at that, feeling comfortable with having a ‘clean slate’. Nature may abhor a vacuum, but the devil loves one!
The true reconciliation that the sacrament calls for, even demands, is a new and stronger commitment to the living of our Christian life. The sacrament is intended to be an experience of conversion and change. It is much more concerned with the future than with the past. The past is gone and there is nothing we can do about it. The present is in our hands and that is where we meet God.
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