Thursday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

Let’s pick up the Church’s lectio continua (continuous reading) of Galatians. Today’s passage, scholars say, is the nutshell of Paul’s argument against the addition of the Mosaic Law to the Gospel of the Crucified Christ. It consists of five rhetorical questions—the first two cover the basic point—with an attention grabber at the beginning:

“O stupid Galatians!”

Other translations render “O foolish Galatians!” as though to soften the bite. However, name calling and strong language was not uncommon in first-century rhetoric. Yet, the Galatians were foolish in the sense of being illogical. They were going backward in the progression of God’s design—from the Spirit to the flesh.

1) “Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?”

The Greek word can mean either “bewitched” or fooled.” Either way, they must not have been in their right mind, because Paul had preached to them the meaning of the Crucifixion: by his death (and resurrection), Jesus Christ freed them from the Law. They believed this once, but now they believed they had to observe the Law as well.

2) “I want to learn only this from you: did you receive the Spirit from works of the law, or from faith in what you heard?”

Paul is playing with them here. If they answer honestly, they will have contradicted themselves and have to admit that observance of the Law is futile, now that they have received the Spirit—unless, of course, they did not. But the way Paul phrases the question implies that they did receive the Spirit, which is the primary sign of a Christian: the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit. (see Rom 8:9-11)

Paul uses rhetorical questions a lot because he knows their effectiveness in drawing out the truth. The Galatians know, deep down, that they did not become Christians by observing the Law. They just became entranced by “a different gospel.”

For Christians today, there are still many “gospels” that can “bewitch” us and convince us to add something to the bare Gospel of Christ Crucified. As for the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the Catholic Church has instituted the Sacraments of Baptism and of Confirmation, but sometimes the graces received need to be actuated. It takes a personal experience of conversion or a time of spiritual seeking to enliven the grace to live in the freedom of God’s love.

Source used:
McKnight, Scot. Galatians: from Biblical text—to contemporary life. Zondervan, 1995.

Reflection by Br. Luke Kral, OSB