It is I, Paul, who am telling you that if you have yourselves circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you.
Scholars have counted the Letter to the Galatians as one of Saint Paul's earliest letters. It followed the letter to the Thessalonians, and preceded his letter to the Romans. Galatians gives us Saint Paul as himself; it might be a first century version of a Zoom conference. If he's not there in the flesh, his impact is felt as if he were. "It is I, Paul, who am telling you..!" he shouts across the miles. Had there been a CAPITAL FONT in those days he might have used it.
The Church we meet in the New Testament is a church without a New Testament. There are scriptures, of course, but they are the Hebrew Scriptures, what we would call "old testament," And there is only broad agreement about what books comprise the Hebrew Scriptures. Jesus referred to them when he spoke of the the Law, Prophets, and Psalms.
Though he was familiar with their content, Saint Paul might have never seen the texts of our four gospels. They were written later. Some scholars suppose the Church faced a crisis as the eyewitnesses of Jesus's resurrection died. Someone had to make a hard copy! More critically, they faced a new crop of teachings, legends, and stories which resembled the Good News but lacked its Spirit.
But, as important as the New Testament is for preserving the Gospel and its Spirit, the Church's foundation is human, not paper. That is why we declare we are one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.
We hear the Lord praying that his disciples and the future Church will retain that integrity in John 17:
"As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth. I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. (18-21)
Over two millennia the Church has built a vast infrastructure of wood, stone, and steel; we have an astonishing intellectual infrastructure we call the Magisterium. We have built universities and libraries to preserve the deposit of faith. We have rituals, songs, gestures, customs, and traditions; many of them, like incense, genuflecting, and beating of the breast, are found in the New Testament.
But our faith is built on the integrity of our witnesses. That is why we celebrate the saints and martyrs of every century. They have kept the gospel intact and passed it on to us, earthen vessels that we are, to give to future generations.
Should we lose it, it is lost forever. It can no more be recreated from reading the Bible than dinosaurs can be duplicated from fossilized DNA. And so we pray daily that the LORD will give us that tenacious spirit which remains obedient to the Truth, in season and out.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.