XIV SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Galatians 6:14-18
Time and again, in his letters, Paul pours out his heart with his emotions and deep feelings, brought about by a personal experience of Jesus Christ. Jesus became the centre of his life and the reason of his being. Moved by Christ, he embraced the cross. He showed this same attitude, when he wrote to the Corinthians: “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (1 Cor 2:2).
Then and now, there are people who are ashamed of the cross of Jesus Christ and who preach a gospel without the cross. However, a gospel of wealth or of material wellbeing that rejects the cross, is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is not possible to be a disciple of Jesus without embracing the cross.
Nowadays, it is common to find in the social media or to watch on tv a new language used by Christian preachers, which has no resemblance to the word of Jesus Christ. There are messages in Facebook asking you to share and to assent by writing Amen, with promises of overcoming all kinds of difficulties and achieving all kinds of worldly goals. Such language is an insult to the Gospel and to God. We cannot manipulate God in such way. And when we try to do so, we are cheating people and serving ourselves instead of serving God.
During Paul’s time, the Jews and specially the group of the Pharisees, to which he had belonged, felt proud of their circumcision, seen as an external sign and guarantee of their belonging to God’s people. They were the chosen ones, and therefore the blessed and the saved. Paul considered that to be pursue of vainglory, saying: “It does not matter if a person is circumcised or not; what matters is for him to become an altogether new creature.” (Gal 6:15). It is in Christ that we become a new creation (2 Cor 5:17).
Paul wrote to the Galatians, because they had abandoned his approach to the Gospel - that we are saved only by our faith in Jesus Christ, who redeems us and sets us free. Due to a strong influence of the Christian Jews, they became convinced that the faith in Jesus was not enough and that being circumcised and accepting Jewish customs and laws were essential to be saved. Paul would not have any of that, and he proclaimed:
“The only thing I can boast about is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal 6:14).
Theses words sound totally insane. How can someone boast about the cross? Is suffering something to be proud of? And should we eagerly look for it? Certainly not, and Paul was not a masochist. The Church always considered ill advised to present oneself forward in times of persecution in order to be martyred. Christ asked the Father to take away the chalice of suffering, if that was possible. And Paul also asked the Lord three times to deliver him from a “thorn in the flesh” that was tormenting him (2 Cor 12:7-8).
However, we can boast that we are saved by the cross of Christ, that is by his death on the cross, offered in sacrifice for our sins. And we can feel blessed when called to shared in Christ’s passion. The Cross - our weakness, our shortcomings, our failures and our sufferings - are a proof that we cannot save ourselves, and that only Jesus can save us. It is by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross that we are rescued from slavery and made into a new creation.
Paul found reason for boasting in the cross of Christ, because he was found worthy of carrying on his body the marks of Jesus Christ. Without further explanation, we may speculate about those marks. Many think of the stigmata, meaning that he had on his own body the wounds of Jesus’ body, like Francis of Assisi and Padre Pio would have in later centuries. Others think that he refers to the scars that he had on his body from the beatings and the scourging to which he had been subject because of Jesus Christ. In his own body, Paul had a share in the cross of Christ, thus becoming a true witness of Jesus Christ.
As we reflect upon the cross of Christ, we must remember and pray for our brothers and sisters in faith, who suffer persecution and martyrdom, thus experiencing the cross and sharing in the passion of Jesus Christ.
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