Faith Working Through Love: The True Measure of Christian Life

October 15, 2024 - Tuesday, Memorial of Saint Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

Galatians 5:1-6

I think that most of us fail to grasp Paul's powerful statement, "It is I, Paul, who am telling you that if you have yourselves circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you" (Gal. 5:2), because we do not have this problem. But if we realize that the Galatians viewed circumcision as a means to be justified before God, then we might ask whether we also look for different means to be justified before God. The fatal consequence of circumcision would be the tragic reality that "Christ will be of no benefit to" the Galatians. Moreover, by embracing circumcision, they would be "bound to observe the entire law" (Gal. 5:3).

It is worth noting that the one who speaks against circumcision as a means to be justified before God was himself circumcised (see Phil. 3:5). Moreover, Paul seemed to indicate that he was able to observe the entire law (see Phil. 3:6). But the encounter with Christ changed everything. What had previously made him proud, he willingly parted with. It was not the fact that he was circumcised, belonged to the tribe of Benjamin like the first king of Israel, or that he was a zealous Pharisee that mattered. What mattered was faith in Christ and its consequences.

In one of the shortest possible statements, the apostle to the Gentiles captured the essence of Christianity: "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love" (Gal. 5:6). Since the Protestant Reformation, Paul is often set against James, who said that "faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead" (James 2:17). But in reality, there is no contradiction between the two apostles. In the letter to the Corinthians, Paul wrote: "if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing" (1 Cor. 13:2).

Paul's statement about "faith working through love" as the only thing that counts reminds me of Jesus' parable about the Good Samaritan. Two religious Jews—a priest and a Levite—passed by a half-dead person, most likely a fellow Jew, but a Samaritan stopped and offered help. Paul's statement also reminds me of the famous line from St. John of the Cross that "in the evening of our life, we will be judged on love alone." A genuine faith in Christ leads to the imitation of Christ, who loved us and gave His life for us. Drawing a conclusion from this statement, St. John wrote that we should do the same for others (see 1 John 3:16).

In his encyclical letter Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict XVI wrote this line: "If in my life I fail completely to heed others, solely out of a desire to be ‘devout’ and to perform my ‘religious duties’, then my relationship with God will also grow arid. It becomes merely ‘proper’, but loveless" (Deus Caritas Est, 18). We can replace circumcision with "devotions" or "religious duties" and end up in a situation similar to the Galatians. The only way to avoid such a pitfall is to draw and renew our capacity to love from the Fountain of Love, Jesus Christ, through our prayerful relationship with Him. Only by being in Christ Jesus and filled with His Spirit of Love can we realize Paul's statement "faith working through love" in our lives.