Episode Transcript
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Welcome to the Blessed Sacrament Homilies podcast, where our mission is to help everyone recognize and experience the presence of God. We hope you are nourished and encouraged by the Word. Thank you for joining us.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: The Lord be with you and with your spirit. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke Glory to you, O Lord.
At that time, The Lord appointed 72 others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit.
He said to them, the harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few.
So ask the Master of the harvest to send out laborers to his harvest.
Go on your way.
Behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves.
Carry no money, bag no sack, no sandals, and greet no one along the way into whatever house you enter. First say peace to this household.
If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him, but if not, it will return to you.
Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the laborer deserves his payment.
Do not move about from one house to another.
Whatever town you enter and they welcome you.
Eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it, and say to them, the kingdom of God is at hand for you.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
I am probably the farthest thing from an expert in sacred Scripture. I don't read or speak ancient Greek or Hebrew, but if there was one part of Scripture that I might know at least a little bit about, it's the letter to the Galatians, because that is the one in my Letters of St. Paul class that I wrote my paper on.
And in learning more about the letter to the Galatians, the one thing that came out crystal clear is that the translations we have hardly do it justice.
St. Paul was angry, and it doesn't come across as angry as he was.
And his anger wasn't really rooted in the fact that they were criticizing his authority as much as it is he couldn't break into their hearts and minds.
That where salvation is found isn't infidelity to rules and law, but it's rooted in trust in Christ and how that trust changes our hearts and minds and in turn changes the way we live.
And he was going up against a pretty strong group of people that said in order to be a Christian, it first required you to follow all of the Jewish laws.
And that was clearly a stumbling block for the Gentile world.
And many could not possibly fathom how in the world following these intricate laws could make them justified.
And Paul said they don't.
It's your faith in Christ.
And I think the opposition to Paul thought they had the answer when what they couldn't see is that God sees beyond our actions that are external, that is following laws and rules, looking good.
And God sees into the depths of our hearts, sees what's in our heads and in our soul.
And God can see when we are acting right even when others can't.
And God can also see when our hearts are hardened, even though we may look good to others.
And. And Paul wanted the people of Galatia, in fact wants all of us to understand that what should always be our motivation is to have hearts and minds that are turned Christlike.
Meaning, we give not because we look good, we give because that is what Christ does for us.
We are merciful not because others think highly of us, but because Christ is merciful to us.
We love as best we can unconditionally, not because we want the praise of others, but because that is what Christ does for us.
And that is what Paul is constantly butting heads with the people of Galatia about.
But those same struggles that Paul dealt with 2000 years ago are also sometimes the ones that we face because it's so much easier to do things that look good than to necessarily have the right motivation.
But let's always remember that no matter what we do with generous hearts, with loving hearts can't possibly compare to what Christ is already doing for each one of us.
