Monday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
(Galatians 1:6-12; Luke 10:25-37)
A few years ago, the distinguished New York Times columnist,
David Brooks, startled his readers with a confession. Raised a Jew, Brooks wrote that he has come
to believe in Jesus Christ as the way of life.
His Jewish friends told him that he must choose between Judaism and
Christianity. They were presenting Brooks
with a similar option that St. Paul makes to the Galatians in today’s first
reading.
Although Paul taught the Galatians that salvation comes
through Christ, some have accepted an added requirement. Other Christian preachers have insisted that
circumcision is necessary. They likely
preached that since Jesus was a Jew, to follow him means to become a Jew as
well. In terms as blunt as a hammer,
Paul refutes this idea. All that is
necessary – he says toward the end of the letter -- is “faith working through love.”
No Christian preacher today recommends circumcision as
necessary for salvation. However, people ceaselessly promote other extraneous practices. The rosaries and other devotions serve good purposes, but none is necessarily a prerequisite for salvation. It
will always be “faith working through love,” sacramentalized in Baptism, that
saves us.
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