FROM THE SERVANT GENERAL
OUR THEME FOR 2023
(Part 6)
STUPID CHRISTIANS
October 6, 2022
Today’s reading: Galatians 3:1-5
Paul’s rebuke of the Galatians on the issue of justification by faith could very well be the proper rebuke for many of today’s Catholics, especially clerics and hierarchs, who have lapsed into liberalism and modernism.
“O stupid Galatians!” (v.1a). Today’s liberals and modernists, who ought to know the faith and live it, are the very ones falling into apostasy, heterodoxy and heresy. Church hierarchs are overturning centuries of Church teaching, based on the teachings of Jesus and his apostles, and making their own human interpretations, and passing these on to the faithful as authentic Christian teaching, when in fact they come from the evil one. How stupid indeed.
“Who has bewitched you” (v.1b). Modernists have been bewitched by the zeitgeist, the culture of the age. They are conforming to the world and focusing on man rather than on God. They want to do good to man but in the process deny the righteousness of God. Ultimately, this is the work of the evil one. The serpent bewitched Eve and Adam in the garden of Eden, and today so many in the Church have been likewise bewitched.
“…. before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?” (v.1c). Christians are witness to the suffering, death on a cross, and resurrection of Jesus. This is what brings salvation. But despite the centrality of the cross to the faith, many are failing to take hold of that salvation, as they remain in their sin rather than repent and put their faith in Jesus, and thus be saved. And this posture is because Church pastors hardly speak of the cross, preferring to look to the comfort and well-being of man. Thus there is the incessant call to accompaniment, acceptance and embrace of sinners, but not to turning away from their sin.
“did you receive the Spirit from works of the law, or from faith in what you heard?” (v.2). Faith is central to our walking the path of Jesus. And while faith without good works is dead, good works and the focus on social justice issues, if without faith or if with distorted faith, is deadly for the Christian.
“Are you so stupid? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?” (v.3). Jesus has given his Spirit to his people, and the Church was established on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came down upon his disciples. The Holy Spirit is God bringing and enabling His people to grow in righteousness and holiness, to become like Jesus himself. The Church started that way, but today has been neglecting the righteousness of God in order to satisfy the desires of man’s fallen flesh. So continue to indulge in gay sex and abortion, but receive holy Communion. This is utter stupidity.
“Did you experience so many things in vain?—if indeed it was in vain.” (v.4). Through two millennia, the Church has experience so many good things, founded on the salvation of Jesus. These blessings certainly are not in vain. But in liberalism and modernism, the Church has been turning away from authentic faith. Will it then be all in vain? For many, yes, but for those who are firm in faith, they will be the remnant that makes it all the way, to heaven.
“Does, then, the one who supplies the Spirit to you and works mighty deeds among you do so from works of the law or from faith in what you heard?” (v.5). Paul’s rhetorical question is supposed to be given the obvious answer, that God doing His mighty deeds come from authentic faith, with teachings heard from Christ and the apostles, and not from the law or from man-made designs. But many Catholics today, misled by hierarchs, have been abandoning the faith, and embracing the spirit of the age, focused on man and not on God.
We must remain firm in faith. Otherwise, we are stupid!
