Wednesday of Week 28 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on Galatians 5:18-25

In our final reading from Galatians today we have a magnificent passage where Paul once again touches on the Spirit-given freedom which is the characteristic of the true Christian.

He begins with a statement which we Catholics should have engraved on our hearts:

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law.

In the Letter to the Romans Paul had also said:

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.(Rom 8:14)

And just prior to these verses, he had said to the Galatians:

Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. (Gal 5:16)

By putting oneself under the Spirit, one is not under the bondage of trying to please God by minute observance of the law for salvation or sanctification.

The sign of the Spirit’s presence is love (agape). If we are genuinely filled with the Spirit of truth and love, then we really have no need of law. As we read in the First Letter of John:

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. (1 John 4:16)

And as St Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) once said:

Where there is (agape) love, there is God.

St Augustine put it:

Love and do what you like.

If we were able to be truly loving, we could not commit sin, even though in certain circumstances we might violate the letter of a particular law. On the other hand, a person who meticulously carries out the smallest detail of a law may be a very unloving person, an intolerant bigot or a person full of hate.

In practice, of course, every institution or organisation needs some kinds of rules which help members to live according to the spirit of the group. Ignatius of Loyola realised this when he wrote his detailed Constitutions for the Society of Jesus. But the principle enunciated by Paul here must remain paramount. The rules are to help advance the spirit and goals of the group; any rule or any application of a rule that frustrates that spirit or goal is to be set aside.

Paul illustrates the difference between a life which is purely self-directed (lived according to the “flesh”) and one lived in the Spirit by describing two kinds of people. These are diametrically opposed to each other and mutually exclusive.

One kind consists of those who act in a spirit of total self-indulgence, those who do what they like whenever they feel like it. It is a description of the self-centred hedonistic, individualistic, person.

He gives a partial list of 15 kinds of behaviour:

Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.

These emerge from our lower instincts and are destructive both of others and oneself. Such lists of vices and virtues were common in the ancient world, and others can be found in the New Testament. This type of behaviour is clearly at odds with what one expects in a world where God’s way is paramount.

On the other hand, those who live in the Spirit of the Father and Christ behave in a very different way. The presence and power of the Spirit in such people results in very different characteristics. Paul says:

By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.

Christian character is produced by the Holy Spirit, not by the mere moral discipline of trying to live by following the laws. Paul makes it clear that justification by faith does not result in a law-less life. The indwelling Holy Spirit produces Christian virtues in the believer’s life. These are not just ‘virtues’ which I can acquire by constant practice. Much more they are the natural outcome of a life lived in close relationship with Jesus through his Spirit, and allowing the Way of Jesus to guide one’s life. It is not a question of self-discipline or self-control, but rather of having a vision of where the good life really is and following that path.

We might notice that Paul contrasts “works of the flesh” with the “fruit” (not ‘works’) of the Spirit. It is the Spirit, not the following of laws, which lead to such qualities in a person. And, as Paul points out, there is no law covering such characteristics. They are above and beyond any law and, when they are operative, the keeping of the law is more than adequately looked after.

The only way, then, to belong to Christ is by letting go of all—for us to:

…have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

The Spirit of Jesus directs such lives. As stated in the NIV Bible:

“Christian character is produced by the Holy Spirit, not by the mere moral discipline of trying to live by law.”

On the other hand, absence of law does not mean lawlessness or spiritual anarchy. On the contrary, our deepening relationship with Jesus, our prayerful reflection on his teaching and our acceptance of that teaching, points us firmly in the direction of truth, love and freedom.

The Letter to the Galatians, although it seems to be dealing with a very specific problem of a very specific group of people, in fact has a great deal of relevance for Christians of every age and every place. The lesson about the freedom of the Christian is of the greatest importance. It is very sad if we see our being Christian as a restricted form of being human, with limitations set as a condition for ‘salvation’ in a future existence. It is not a means of ‘numbing’ the lower classes to accepting an unjust existence as the price for a future happiness.

To the contrary, it is the person who is a world unto himself, with no thought of the needs of others, who becomes the slave of his own passions and fantasies. And when society is full of such people, then we see the kind of behaviour that Paul deplores in today’s passage. Paradoxically, it is the loving person, the one who lives for the genuine well-being of others, who becomes the most enriched. The best society is one where, when everyone gives, then everyone gets.

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Wednesday of Week 28 of Ordinary Time – Gospel

Commentary on Luke 11:42-46

Jesus today continues to attack the attitudes of Pharisees. These remarks are not to be thought of as applying to all Pharisees, many of whom were good people. Paul himself was once a Pharisee as was Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night, and Gamaliel, who, in the Acts of the Apostles (5:34), urged caution in persecuting the disciples of Jesus. Jesus is to be seen rather attacking a certain mentality which can all too easily be among us Christians and, if we are honest, sometimes in ourselves.

Here Jesus attacks the Pharisees for their scrupulous observance of even the tiniest of regulations, not because that is wrong, but because they by-pass the love of God, which is what really matters. He attacks them for their status-seeking. The Pharisees expect people to look up to them and give them special honours because of their supposed higher level of religious observance. They expect to be given front seats in the synagogue and for people to greet them obsequiously in the streets.

Usually graves were whitewashed so that people would not walk over them by mistake. The Pharisees are like unmarked graves which people unwittingly come in contact with and thus become tainted with ritual uncleanness. In other words, people coming in contact with them are not aware that under the veneer of piety inside, they are really containers of rottenness and corruption. Elsewhere, Jesus also describes the Pharisees as whitewashed graves where the outer cleanliness conceals inner corruption.

In the past (and perhaps in some places it is still the case), the clergy have often expected similar honours to be paid to them. Very often, people willingly did so because they genuinely respected their bishop or their priest. Sometimes, however, the honours were demanded or expected, rather than graciously and humbly received. But as the saying goes, “the clerical habit does not make the monk, nor the Roman collar the priest, nor the mitre the bishop”.

At this point, “one of the experts in the law” (a scribe) objected because, in speaking like that about the Pharisees, Jesus was attacking them too, as some of the scribes were also Pharisees. But they are equally deserving of criticism because their narrow-minded interpretations about insignificant details of the law make it difficult for ordinary people to keep the law, while they themselves do nothing to help. Moreover, they add rules and regulations to the Mosaic Law, do nothing to support people in keeping them and find ways for themselves to get around them.

The Church itself over the centuries has not been above criticism in this area either. And perhaps it is still true today. Bishops and priests have often laid heavy burdens on the faithful and not given much help in carrying them. Sometimes church leaders have been more anxious to preserve traditional practices than lead people to a deeper love of Christ and each other.

But the clergy have no monopoly on this. Parents too can be guilty when they follow double standards, making one rule for themselves and another for their children. Similarly teachers with students or employers with employees may exhibit the approach: “Do as I say; don’t do as I do.” Pharisaism is indeed alive and well in our society, but the first person I need to fix is me.

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