Galatians 5:1, 13
Brothers and sisters:
For freedom Christ set us free;
so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.
For you were called for freedom, brothers and sisters.
Today’s powerful reading from St. Paul’s Letters to the Galatians is a ringing endorsement of Thursday’s Brexit referendum to free the UK from the EU, as well as an affirmation of all who resist tyranny, whether in the form of one-party totalitarianism, or America’s “soft” guileful tyranny of cultural Marxism and the ever-expanding unelected administrative state.
But St. Paul’s exhortation to freedom is not the licentious, satanic “Do as thou will” which permeates our popular culture today, nor is it the amoral selfishness of political libertarianism. Rather, it is a freedom informed by our understanding that we are to use well God’s most precious and selfless gift to us — the gift of free will — not for self-indulgence, but to choose to be good.
Galatians 5:13-17
But do not use this freedom
as an opportunity for the flesh;
rather, serve one another through love.
For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement,
namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
But if you go on biting and devouring one another,
beware that you are not consumed by one another.
I say, then: live by the Spirit
and you will certainly not gratify the desire of the flesh.
For the flesh has desires against the Spirit,
and the Spirit against the flesh;
these are opposed to each other,
so that you may not do what you want.
Then St. Paul spells out what true freedom means.
Galatians 5:19-23, 25
Now the works of the flesh are obvious:
immorality, impurity, licentiousness,
idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy,
outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness,
dissensions, factions, occasions of envy,
drinking bouts, orgies, and the like.
I warn you, as I warned you before,
that those who do such things
will not inherit the kingdom of God.
In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit
is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control….
If we live in the Spirit,
let us also follow the Spirit.
May the Joy and Peace and Love of Jesus Christ our Lord be with you this glorious Sunday! For by His grace, we have lived to see the sun rise on another magnificent day.
~Eowyn
