These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.
For through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to the promise. (Gal 3:22-29)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101224.cfm
Through our baptism in Christ we are descendants of Abraham and heirs to the promise. I remember the Immigrant March in Asheville when I proudly carried a sign that said: “Great Grandson of Immigrants.” Today is the birthday of my grandfather, Furman Nielsen Torp (1888-1967) and also of my father, Charles Elmer Boyd (1922-1968).
Christ ransomed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might be extended to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. (Gal 3:7-14)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101124.cfm
He became a curse for us. As the Church has always proclaimed: “He died for all!” And as the old hymn invites us to sing, “What Wondrous Love is This!”
And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (Lk 11:5-13)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101024.cfm
Sometimes folks just need permission—well, spiritually, the Lord gives us permission to ask, to seek and to knock. If we know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more our heavenly Father will give us the Holy Spirit if we ask.
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. 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?" (Gal 2:1-2, 7-14)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100924.cfm
In Paul’s famous confrontation with Peter, what exactly is the issue? The issue, of course, is the Gentiles (the non-Jewish converts). And of course, James in Jerusalem is stirring the pot in Antioquia. And as Paul points out, Peter is a hypocrite. Why would the kosher laws be an issue for the early church? Well, when eating with Gentiles becomes the problem, the Eucharist itself, sharing the meal that Jesus gave us, the unity of the community itself, is at risk.
You heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I persecuted the Church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. And I was unknown personally to the churches of Judea that are in Christ; they only kept hearing that “the one who once was persecuting us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” So they glorified God because of me. (Gal 1:13-24)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100824.cfm
As Oscar Wilde once observed, “Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.” Saint Paul recounts his past to the Galatians to remind them that there is hope for us yet, that everyone has a future, that there is nothing in our past that God can’t use to spread the Kingdom.
