Homily | October 13, 2026 | Freedom In Christ (Episode 306)

There's a mistake that many Christians can make, and without even realizing it, we begin to believe that if we pray enough, attend mass enough, do enough good works, and avoid enough sins, then perhaps God will finally love us.

As though Christianity were some kind of spiritual examination, and if we score high enough, God will reward us with heaven.

I want you to listen carefully to what St.

Paul tells us in today's first reading.

For freedom Christ set us free.

That one sentence contains an extraordinary truth about Christianity, and yet the rest of the reading can sound rather confusing.

Paul starts talking about circumcision, the law, slavery, and falling from grace.

What in the world is he talking about?

Well, to understand Paul, we need a little history.

Remember that Christianity began within Judaism.

Jesus was Jewish, Mary was Jewish, the apostles were Jewish, and the earliest Christians, Jews who recognized Jesus as the promised Messiah.

But something remarkable began to happen.

The gospel spread beyond Israel.

Gentiles, people who were not Jewish, began accepting Jesus Christ and entering the church.

And then suddenly the early Christian faced a very serious question.

Did a Gentile have to become Jewish before becoming Christian?

In other words, did someone have to observe the entire law of Moses, including circumcision, in order to belong to Christ and to be saved?

Well, some insisted that yes, you had to.

They believed that faith in Jesus was important, but it was not enough.

Gentile converts also needed to accept the obligation of the Mosaic law.

And this is where Saint Paul draws the line.

He says, Well, absolutely not.

Why?

Well, because if salvation depends upon observing the law of Moses, then what exactly did Jesus accomplish on the cross?

If we could make ourselves righteous before God simply by fulfilling religious regulations, why would we need a Savior?

Now we have to be careful here.

Paul is not saying that the law of Moses was evil, he was saying it's a gift from God to Israel.

Nor is he saying that obedience, morality, and good works no longer matter.

He's saying something much more profound.

The law could reveal what righteousness required, but it could not by itself give us the grace that heals the human heart.

Think about that.

Imagine someone who is seriously ill.

A doctor can explain what is wrong, he can identify the disease, he can even describe what a healthy person should look like.

But simply knowing what health requires does not cure the illness.

The patient needs treatment.

In a similar way, the law reveals God's holiness and taught his people how to live.

But the law itself was not the source of the saving grace that comes through Jesus Christ.

That's what Paul is talking about.

That's why Paul's so passionate.

He tells the Galatians that if they accept circumcision as something necessary for justification, they're placing themselves under the obligation to observe the entire Mosaic law.

They're acting as though Christ were not sufficient.

And then he says something startling.

You have fallen from grace.

Now what does that mean?

Well, it doesn't mean that someone who sins is automatically beyond God's mercy.

And it certainly does not mean that the Jewish people were somehow abandoned by God.

Paul is warning Christians against abandoning their own reliance upon Christ and returning to the belief that they can establish their righteousness before God through the observance of the Mosaic Law.

In other words, they are in danger of exchanging a relationship of grace for a system in which they believe they must earn their salvation.

Here's where this reading becomes very personal.

Because although most of us are not struggling with the question of circumcision or the ceremonial requirements of the Mosaic Law, we can fall into similar spiritual traps.

We can begin treating our relationship with God as a transaction.

I go to Mass, so God owes me something.

I pray the rosary, so God should answer my prayers.

I do good works, I behave.

I surely do deserve these blessings.

When these things go wrong, we become frustrated.

Lord, after everything that I've done for you, why is this happening to me?

I've been good, I've been faithful, I've been going to mass, I've been saying my prayers.

But Christianity is not transactional.

It is a relationship made possible by grace.

We do not initiate our salvation.

God does.

We do not purchase his love, we receive it.

And the good that we do is not an attempt to buy God's favor, it is a response to the grace he has already given us.

This is why Paul ends today's reading with one of the most beautiful descriptions of Christian life in all of his letters.

He says, In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

Notice those final words, faith working through love.

Paul does not say faith without love.

He does not say that how we live is irrelevant.

He tells us that genuine faith becomes visible in love.

And this is essential to our Catholic understanding of salvation.

We are saved by the grace of Jesus Christ, a gift we could never earn, but that grace is not meant to leave us unchanged.

It should transform us.

It should teach us how to love, makes us capable of living the life to which God calls us to.

A person who truly encounters Christ cannot simply say, I believe, and then remain indifferent to the sufferings of others, refuse to forgive, or deliberately continue to live in sin.

Because faith, when it is alive, works through love.

And this brings us back to Paul's opening words, for freedom Christ set us free.

Freedom does not mean that I can do whatever I want.

It means that through Christ I am no longer condemned to remain a slave to sin, fear, or the impossible burden of trying to save myself.

I am free to become the person God created me to be.

So here's a question I want to start this week with.

Are you living your faith as someone who has been loved or someone who is still trying to earn that love?

There's an enormous difference.

One produces anxiety, fear, and spiritual exhaustion.

The other produces gratitude, humility, and a genuine desire to grow in holiness.

And perhaps that's the most beautiful lesson in St.

Paul wants us to understand.

We do not become holy so that God will love us.

We become holy because God has loved us and his grace has transformed our lives.

That's the freedom Christ came to give us, and that is a freedom we must never surrender.

Amen.