Thursday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
(Galatians 3:1-5; Luke 11:5-13)
Suppose your son had what he thought was a great way to make
money. He heard about a corporation that
was bending plastic tubes into what it called “hoola hoops” and selling them
for many times the cost of production.
Now he wants to invest all his savings in the corporation’s stock. He asks you what you think. Would you not say that he is making a foolish
mistake? Something similar is going on
in today’s first reading.
The Christian community of Galatia has been told that since
they believe in Christ, who was a Jew, they must become Jews themselves. That is, they must accept circumcision and eat
kosher. If they do not give themselves
body and soul in this way, they are told that they will not share in Christ’s
resurrection from the dead. Like the
father of the son wanting to invest in hoola hoops, St. Paul tells the
Galatians that they cannot possibly gain from such a deal. He goes beyond saying they are “foolish,” to
calling them “stupid” for thinking that the old idea has such possibility.
Paul’s lesson has value for us today. Few may want to become Jews, but some are
attracted by Gnostic ideas like salvation through more specialized knowledge and
not through repentance of sin and faith in Christ. Our minds want to know more and more, it is
true, and knowledge is not bad in itself, but it cannot bring us salvation.
