St. Paul's Letter to the Galatians, part 1

I've begun reading St. Paul's letter to the Galatians over the past week or so.  I first read it through, and I'm now consulting some trusted commentaries.  I'm thankful for the commentaries, as I found the epistle to be complex.  I had to laugh, this epistle kind of fits in one of the more surprising lines in the Bible: "So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking from hthis as he does in all his letters.  There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction."  (2 Peter 3:15-16).  Ha!  I'm in good company if I find some of Paul's writings hard to understand.  May God keep me from the ignorant/unstable lot...

It's interesting to me that such an intense issue of the Judaizers is now a distant memory.  I'd think most western Catholics would need the help of a commentary to further understand the 1st century Jewish world.  Besides that, I think it's a great commentary on the truth of the Christian faith.  That which is the truth has a remarkable endurance; heresies and false teaching, perhaps taking from the truth but not being of  the truth, don't have deep enough roots to endure through the ages.  The Navarre Bible commentary cited St. Jerome on this:

"These people wanted to change the Gospel, to twist it; bout that is something they cannot succeed in doing, for this Gospel is suck that it cannot be true if it is tampered with."  (Pg. 171)

St. Paul's talk of the works of the law impacted me, first for the vehemence behind it.  His words are strong and pointed.  And it occurred to me: that tone is coming from a former Pharisee.  The Mosaic Law was his life!  He studied it, loved it, devoted himself to its practices, and celebrated its feasts.  He was present at the stoning of Stephen.   If we ever doubt God's ability to turn the hearts of man, look no further than Paul.

The reason for St. Paul's passion on this issue was the logical conclusion of the Judaizers' teaching.  The false teaching being that Gentiles entering the Church had to become Jews first before getting baptized as Christians.     If that were true, then justification (=getting right with God) depended on how well Christians kept the Mosaic Law.  And how is that any different than before Jesus came?  Why did Jesus bother with His Passion if it didn't change anything?

Things did change--drastically.  In St. John's vision of Revelation, Jesus tells him, "Behold, I make all things new." (Rev 21:5)  That was the second thing that impacted me about St. Paul's treatment of the works of the Law.  The sacraments are the fulfillment of the old practices!  God's chosen people is not limited to a ethic group; membership is offered to every nation and every people.  Grace was given before, but God now recklessly pours out His grace on humanity.

Those are a few points from Ch. 1-2 that struck me.  It's somewhat comforting to look at the internal conflict within the Church today, and to see the very same thing in the Bible.  Jesus transformed the Church, but human nature is still human nature.