Saturday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Mass Readings
Today’s First Reading begins with the mysterious statement that “scripture confined all things under the power of sin.” This remark, at least at first glance, implies a particularly bleak view of the world in which we live. Contextually, however, St. Paul is simply arguing that the Law of Moses is without power to save. Despite what his readers may have been led to believe, St. Paul insists that the whole narrative of salvation history that is recorded in scripture teaches that the Promise made to Abraham was not fulfilled in the Law, and so it is not the following of that Law that makes someone an heir to the Promise. According to St. Paul, the true heirs to the Promise that God made to Abraham are those “who have faith in Jesus Christ” and not those who attempt to follow the Law of Moses. (Galatians 3:22) In recognizing the inadequacy of the Law to save, St. Paul explains, sacred scripture itself acknowledges the pervasive power of sin in a world without Christ. Furthermore, St. Paul proclaims that the Law was only ever intended as a kind of parental guardian, perpetually grounding those who followed it, but never giving them what they truly needed. This confinement was not without purpose, of course, for the Law was in place to keep the Chosen People ready for the time of true fulfillment, to teach them how to live holy lives in obedience to God, until that time when we all could finally be freed from the pervasive power of sin. St. Paul contends that this time of fulfillment has come through Jesus Christ.
In other words, the world may be a bleak place without Christ- but the entrance of Christ into the world has brought about a radical change in what it means to live in the world, particularly for those of us who recognize this change and seek to live our own lives in union with Him.
The heart of St. Paul’s message today has to do with how our faith in Christ has changed us. He tells us that our faith has made us “Children of God in Christ Jesus.” We are “clothed” with His own glory through the grace imparted to us at our baptisms, through our whole community’s faith in Him, regardless of our own ancestry. This grace is so powerful that we are transformed- we are all saved through the strength of God’s love, such that it pushes aside previous notions of race, freedom, and gender.
The short Gospel message has a similar tone. Although this passage has sometimes been read as the Lord Jesus dismissing the honor due to His Blessed Mother, the true meaning of the passage resonates strongly with St. Paul’s own emphasis on our being “Children of God.” For clearly the Blessed Virgin Mary, who accepted God’s announcement of His Incarnation (as well as her own remarkable role in it) with such remarkable faith, remains always first among those who have “heard the word of God” and have kept it. She is forever a “Child of God” even as she is “Mother of God.” Nevertheless, the emphasis on this passage is on the whole Church. According to the Lord Jesus, it is in hearing and accepting the word of God that we all become “blessed.” This applies to His Blessed Mother, and it applies to all of us.
Before we can accept, we must hear what God is saying to us. After we listen, we can begin to understand. After we understand what God is saying, we can truly accept His word and observe it. This is what we ought to concentrate on today. Listening to what God is saying in our lives. Trying to understand what He is saying to each of us. And, when we finally understand, we need to try to put it into practice. And, if we are willing to try do what He is asking of us, we have shown that we truly are “heirs to the promise,” and so, are Children of God.
- Matthew Minix