Monday in the 28th Week of Ordinary Time, October 10, 2022

Galatians 4:22-24, 26-27, 31–5:1

Brothers and sisters: It is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the freeborn woman. The son of the slave woman was born naturally, the son of the freeborn through a promise. Now this is an allegory. These women represent two covenants. One was from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; this is Hagar. [For Sinai is a mountain in Arabia, which hath affinity to that Jerusalem which now is: and is in bondage with her children.]. But the Jerusalem above is freeborn, and she is our mother. For it is written: Rejoice, you barren one who bore no children; break forth and shout, you who were not in labor; for more numerous are the children of the deserted one than of her who has a husband.  [Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born according to the flesh persecuted him that was after the spirit: so also it is now.  But what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman.]. Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are children not of the slave woman but of the freeborn woman. For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. 

This continuation of the Letter of St. Paul to the Galatians, as used in the Lectionary for the First Reading of today’s Mass, omits several verses, all of which are necessary for us to understand Paul’s meaning.  It is not clear why those who remade the Lectionary after Vatican II decided to chop up the Reading in this way.  The principle of brevity seems not to have played a part here as the omitted verses add very little to its length.  And it is not as though leaving out Paul’s words is going to aid our comprehension.  It is difficult enough to study Paul when we have his entire text before us.  Be that as it may, I have replaced the missing verses and marked their place in brackets, leaving them unitalicized.  These are from the Douay Rheims translation.

Now, this section of Paul’s argument properly begins with the verse preceding this Reading: “Tell me, you that desire to be under the law, have you not read the law?” (Galatians 4, 21).  Paul has presented his argument to these newly baptized Gentile Christians that they do not need to be circumcised and bound to the Jewish Law, as recent Jewish Christian missionaries had insisted, and whom many of these new Christians had believed.  Now he proves this to them from the Jewish Scriptures.  Paul’s question to them is direct.  He knows that they have not read carefully the whole of these Scriptures.  But if they have not read it, how can they know that they were supposed to follow the Jewish Law?  Paul shows great cleverness here.  If the Galatians say they have read it, Paul is prepared to show that they have read it wrongly (and how could they not, since they were not Jews?), and if they say they have not read it, Paul can say, Well, let us read it together and see what it says.  And then what he does is to explain it to them in very simple terms, however they might respond.

“It is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the freeborn woman. The son of the slave woman was born naturally, the son of the freeborn through a promise.”  We have little knowledge of what the Apostles taught the Gentiles about what today we call the “Old Testament”.  From Paul’s Letters, directed mainly to Gentile Christians, there seems a certain familiarity with the basic stories of Genesis and Exodus.  From an examination of the Gospels addressed to the Gentile Christians, those of St. Mark and St. Luke, we see few references to the earlier Scriptures, while these abound in those, such as those of St. Matthew and St. John, written for the Jewish Christians.  The Galatian Christians would have learned what was necessary for them from the Jewish Scriptures from St. Paul and other appointed Christian missionaries and also some things, though twisted, from the Jewish Christians who came to them after Paul had moved on to other towns.  In this verse, Paul shows that he is aware of their basic familiarity with the outline of the story about Sarah and Hagar.  He proceeds from there, at the very beginning of the history of the Israel, to explain to them the story’s meaning, which would have surprised them, but which would have made sense to them.  

“These women represent two covenants. One was from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; this is Hagar.”  Now, we should keep in mind the critical fact that Abraham, our father in faith, is the father of both of these sons: Isaac by Sarah, and Ishmael by Hagar.  Paul declares that Ishmael is “from Mount Sinai”.  The first omitted verse explains, “For Sinai is a mountain in Arabia, which hath affinity to that Jerusalem which now is: and is in bondage with her children.”  That is, Sinai, where God gave the Law to Moses, corresponds to present-day Jerusalem in Israel.  Since Hagar was a slave-woman,  Jerusalem is a slave. The Jews, then, are slaves.  “But the Jerusalem above is freeborn, and she is our mother.”  Isaac, begotten of the free-born woman Sarah, signifies the heavenly Jerusalem, populated by those who are likewise free-born (by baptism) and whose King is Jesus Christ.  “Rejoice, you barren one who bore no children; break forth and shout, you who were not in labor; for more numerous are the children of the deserted one than of her who has a husband.”  Paul quotes Isaiah 54, 1, reminding the Galatians that they are of a miraculous birth just as Isaac was, for they were born of the waters of the grace won by Christ.  

“Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born according to the flesh persecuted him that was after the spirit: so also it is now.  But what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman.”  In this last of the omissions, Paul claims that “he that was born according to the flesh”, Ishmael, persecuted Isaac.  He refers to Genesis 21, 9: “And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had born unto Abraham, mocking.”  The context of this verse is the feast given in honor of Isaac’s weaning, when Ishmael was fourteen years old.  Ishmael was “mocking” Isaac, in other words.  Some modern translations have Ishmael and Isaac playing together, which then somehow aroused the wrath of Sarah against Ishmael, as is read in the following verse. But the word really means “mocking”, and so Paul speaks of Ishmael’s persecution of Isaac.  Thus, the persecution of the Christians by the Jews is signified by the persecution of Isaac, the free-born, by Ishmael, the slave.  “But what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman.”  Paul now quotes Genesis 21, 10, in which God tells Abraham to send forth Hagar and Ishmael so that there will be no question of Isaac being Abraham’s heir.  Allegorically, the point Paul is making here is that the Jews who had rejected Jesus, could no longer be of God’s household.  By inference, he is telling the Galatians that it would be the height of folly to follow “Ishmael”, the Jews, when Abraham had cast him out, for they would be “cast out” too.  He concludes, saying, “Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are children not of the slave woman but of the freeborn woman. For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.”  Christ set us free in order to live freely, that is, free from sin and free of Jewish practices that bind us as slaves to a Law that has been superseded.

For us, Paul is urging that we not be held back or enslaved by other people’s ideas of Christianity, or of Christians, or of Jesus himself.  Pagans try to use our Lord against us, as when they tell us not “to judge”, either being ignorant or malicious concerning what our Lord actually commands his followers.  Lately, I have seen people who oppose those who appeal to the teaching of the Scriptures on morality by maligning them as filled with incest, adultery, and murder, while failing to note that the Scriptures condemn these things.  The teaching of the Scriptures is so well-known on these points that one can only assume the critic speaks out of malice.  They mock us as Ishmael mocked Isaac, and they will suffer the same fate, to be driven out by Abraham into the wilderness.