Wednesday in the 27th Week of Ordinary Time, October 5, 2022

Galatians 2, 1-2; 7-14

Brothers and sisters: After fourteen years I again went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also. I went up in accord with a revelation, and I presented to them the Gospel that I preach to the Gentiles– but privately to those of repute– so that I might not be running, or have run, in vain. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the Gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter to the circumcised, for the one who worked in Peter for an apostolate to the circumcised worked also in me for the Gentiles, and when they recognized the grace bestowed upon me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas their right hands in partnership, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Only, we were to be mindful of the poor, which is the very thing I was eager to do.

And when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he clearly was wrong. For, until some people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to draw back and separated himself, because he was afraid of the circumcised. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not on the right road in line with the truth of the Gospel, I said to Cephas in front of all, “If you, though a Jew, are living like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

St. Paul continues to relate the early years of his conversion and his ministry to the Gentiles, which he emphasizes almost to the exclusion of his prior ministry to the Jews.  He does this to underline his care for the Gentile Christians and also to set up his argument that they are not to follow the rules some Jewish Christians want to impose on them.  That is, if he, Paul the Pharisee, had turned away from the need for circumcision and following the .Jewish holy days, then how much more reason the Gentile Christians had to turn from them when told that they needed to follow them.  “After fourteen years I again went up to Jerusalem , , , I went up in accord with a revelation.”  That is, he was not summoned.  Paul acts in accord with what God reveals to him.  “I presented to them the Gospel that I preach to the Gentiles– but privately to those of repute– so that I might not be running, or have run, in vain.”  That is, he has already determined what he is to preach according to the revelation he received from Jesus Christ himself.  He presented to the Apostles there — certainly Peter, James, and John, if not the others too — his Gospel and he does this away from those who had no authority or were not eyewitnesses of the Lord in order to coordinate his preaching with theirs.  Early catechetical sermons such as those by Cyprian of Jerusalem show us that the Church has had a particular order in teaching the Faith to those who wanted to become Christians.  We see this today in our CCD and RCIA programs.  But in the days of the Apostles, this order was still being worked out.  From the sermons of St. Peter as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles we see the traces of the order as it would be set down, but early on each missionary felt that he was on his own.  As an example, in Acts 17, St. Paul addresses the people in the great forum of Athens.  He begins well by speaking of that which the Athenians already understood, that the world was full of the divine.  But then he started talking about the Death and Resurrection of Christ without any real preparation, and the crowd dismissed him as a crank.  Even Paul had to learn how to follow a certain order to introduce the teachings of the Faith.  This is what he does with the Apostles in Jerusalem.  

“When they saw that I had been entrusted with the Gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter to the circumcised . . . James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas their right hands in partnership.”  After going over the order of the teachings, the Apostles discussed the matter of Paul’s mission.  It is interesting to see that at this time Paul was unaware of St. Peter’s previous work with the Gentiles.  Perhaps years later Peter was concentrating on preaching to the Jews while leaving the Gentiles to others, such as Thomas.  Paul makes clear that Peter and the others acknowledged him and Barnabas as “partners”.  In this way he could claim that while he had received his revelation of the mysteries of the Faith from Jesus directly, he was acting in concert with the Lord’s Church and not on his own.  Later in his Letter, he will teach the Galatians the importance of belonging to the Church.  “Only, we were to be mindful of the poor, which is the very thing I was eager to do.”  Paul means the poor Christians of Galilee and Judea whose homes had been confiscated by the Jewish authorities and who had lost their means of making a living by being expelled from their synagogues.  Paul, as Saul of Tarsus, had been instrumental in causing their poverty.

“And when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he clearly was wrong.”  Now Paul tells of a curious incident involving St. Peter.  In reading his account, we ought to keep in mind that we only know Paul’s side of the story, but even so we can piece together what must have happened from what he tells us.  Peter visited Antioch on a number of occasions and became its first bishop before moving to Rome and appointing another to take his place.  He preached to the Gentiles there, as we know from the Acts of the Apostles.  Here, Paul comes upon him eating with the Gentile Christians of the city, some thing no proper Jew would have done, but which Peter did in imitation of Jesus, who ate with tax collectors and sinners.  While he was eating with them,   “some people came from James”, in Jerusalem.  Peter evidently recognized these as strict Jewish Christians who were more Jewish than Christian, still.  In order to avoid scandalizing them by his eating with the Gentiles, he got up and “separated himself” from them, possibly even leaving the house where they were eating.  Paul says that he did this “because he was afraid of the circumcised”, but we can see that he was acting out of prudence.  Later, Paul would write about the need to be sensitive to the piety of other Christians in order to avoid driving them away.  Speaking of food offered to idols, Paul says it does not matter if a Christian ate it or not because idols were statues of gods that did not exist, though some Christians — Jewish Christians — would be scandalized by this.  But “if food is a cause of my brother’s falling, I will never eat meat, lest I cause my brother to fall” (1 Corinthians 8, 13).  Why does Paul mention this?  To strengthen his argument that they ought not to listen to the Jewish Christian missionaries who were disturbing their peace.

Throughout this Letter, St. Paul shows his deep love and concern for the salvation of these Gentiles.  His zeal for their salvation comes out of his passionate love for Jesus Christ.  He wants them to love Jesus as he does, and for them to know the Lord’s love as he does.  The love of Jesus is the sole motivation of the true missionary.  We do all things for him, no matter how demanding they may be, for “the love of Christ compels us” (2 Corinthians 5, 14).