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Tuesday of the Twenty-eight Week in Ordinary Time
Galatians 5:1–6
Saint Paul says something very strong to the Galatians:
If you let yourselves be circumcised,
Christ will be of no benefit to you.
For us, this may sound strange.
Circumcision is not our problem.
But the deeper problem is still ours.
The Galatians thought that circumcision could make them right before God.
They were tempted to place their trust in something other than Christ.
So we can ask:
What do I use to justify myself before God?
My good image?
My religious duties?
My devotions?
My hard work?
My knowledge?
My sacrifices?
All these things can be good.
But none of them can take the place of Christ.
Saint Paul knew this from experience.
He himself had been circumcised.
He belonged to the people of Israel.
He was a Pharisee.
He was zealous for the law.
He had many reasons to be proud.
But after meeting Christ,
everything changed.
What once made him proud,
he now counted as loss.
Only Christ mattered.
Only faith in Christ mattered.
And then Paul gives us one of the shortest and deepest summaries of Christian life:
In Christ Jesus,
neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything,
but only faith working through love.
This is the heart of the Gospel.
Faith is not just believing ideas.
Faith is not just belonging to a religion.
Faith is not just performing duties.
True faith becomes love.
Faith sees the wounded person on the road
and stops.
Faith feeds the hungry.
Faith forgives.
Faith serves.
Faith gives itself.
Saint James says that faith without works is dead.
Saint Paul says that even faith that moves mountains
is nothing without love.
There is no contradiction.
Real faith must become love.
Saint John of the Cross said that, at the evening of life,
we shall be judged on love.
So today we can ask:
Does my faith make me more loving?
Does my prayer open my heart?
Do my devotions lead me to serve?
Christ has set us free.
Free from fear.
Free from self-justification.
Free to love.
For in Christ Jesus,
the only thing that counts
is faith working through love.
Biblical Reflections on the Gospel of Matthew
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition,
copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council
of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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© 2025 Krakus.
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(Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial).