Dear Brothers and Sisters:
Last week we heard that Paul was called by God before he was born for a mission of service to the Church and especially to the gentiles. The gospel Paul preached was not from man, but from God and God’s call is always something outside of us; it is not something that I decide. It is God who acts in my life; and hopefully I respond. Paul could not stop from giving his experience of how God changed him from one who was arresting Christians to an apostle.
Today we continue to hear from Paul’s letter to the Galatians. He is responding urgently because they have fallen away so quickly to the gospel he preached to them. Your righteousness, or holiness, he tells them, does not come from obeying the Law; it doesn’t come from being good, we could say today. It comes from faith in Jesus Christ. By faith Paul means a person accepts what Jesus Christ has shown him and he/she responds with their whole life. Christ’s death shows that salvation comes from God; the Law cannot save a person. Faith in Christ reshapes a man internally and gives him a new principal of action. So Paul can say it is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me. He loved me, and died for me, Paul says. He did not die for us, but for me. He is completely overwhelmed with this fact of his life. If justification comes from the Law what use is Jesus Christ? He died for nothing. So why do you always lean on your own strength?
The gospel also can help on with this idea that salvation comes from God. What struck me in Sunday’s gospel (Luke 7:36-8:3) is what did Jesus Christ do or say to this woman that she came to him with so much love? Even that she was able to enter the house of Simon and make it to the dining room. They were reclining so it was easy to get to his feet. What had happened that she was so carried away with love for him?
She anoints his feet with an expensive perfume, a scandal to the Jews since it was part of her trade. And while she is anointing his feet tears gush forth from her eyes. She wipes his feet with her hair—something a woman would never do; she would never uncover her hair in public, never! This shows her marginal status. She kisses his feet again, and again. And Jesus pronounces forgiveness and without restitution, without making any sacrifice. This gospel can help you to see what Pope Francis is doing; showing others the compassion of Christ: those who are gay, or migrants who are dying by the thousands, or hugging someone who is extremely disfigured, etc. He is being like Christ to those who are shunned by the world.
It is not what you do that is important; it is what Christ has done for you, and what is your response? The first thing is to see and experience his love for you, and to remember how he has saved you.
