Text in red (if any) represent my additions.
Gal 3:22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise, by the faith of Jesus Christ, might be given to them that believe.
This Scripture is cited in Rom 3:9.
Gal 3:23 But before the faith came, we were kept under the law shut up, unto that faith which was to be revealed.
Before the faith came. Like slaves under the stern discipline of the law, we were kept as though by walls and hedges from sin, and were held, and kept in, that we might be thereby prepared, and might learn to long for the righteousness which Christ should give.
Gal 3:24 Wherefore the law was our pedagogue in Christ: that we might be justified by faith.
The law was our pedagogue. A pædagogue, says S. Jerome, is one who looks after a boy. Among the Greeks he was a slave, whose duty it was to accompany his ward wherever he went, to keep him from loose conduct, to chastise him if need were, and in every way to form his character for good. Such was the office of the law with regard to the Hebrews.
In Christ. By a happy figure of speech, S. Paul compares the law to a pædagogue, and faith in Christ to a father, For we are born again by faith in Christ, and become sons of God, thereby passing from the state of pupilage under the law to that of men under Christ. Hence, St Paul writes:
Gal 3:25 But after the faith is come, we are no longer under a pedagogue.
Gal 3:26 For you are all the children of God, by faith in Christ Jesus.
For you are all the children of God. Both Jews, who were under the law, and Gentiles, who were not, are become, by faith in Christ, children of God. The conjunction for is causal, and indicates the reason why we are not under the law as a pædagogue, viz., because we are the sons of God. Children are like slaves, S. Paul says, in chap. iv. 1, nay, like the lower animals, in needing a pædagogue to enable them to resist the motions of sense. But those who by faith in Christ have left this state of childhood, and are become sons of God, have grown to man’s estate. It would be, therefore, absurd for them to be made subject to the law as their pædagogue, as though they were still children. This would be as absurd, says Theophylact, as for a man, when the day had dawned, to prefer a lamp to the sun. This is a rebuke to the Judaisers, which may be summarised thus: Christ is to us as a father to his grown-up sons. Why do you then go back to the pædagogy of the law? Why hold out your hand again like boys to the ferule?
By faith. Not faith alone, but by faith manifested in baptism and other acts.
Gal 3:27 For as many of you as have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ.
For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ. To be baptized into Christ is to receive His baptism as distinct from that of Moses or John Baptist. The change from the first person (we) of verse 25 to the second person (you) here denotes the change of subject from Jews to Gentiles.
Have put on Christ. You have received plenteously in your baptism the grace and gifts of Christ; you have put them round you like a garment (cf. Ps 109:18), so that you are made partakers of the Divine nature, and therefore of the workings of God’s power, by which Christ shines in your lives. “Your daily conversation,” says Anselm, “like a splendid robe, is Christ’s holiness and Christ’s religion.”
These words may be explained in a better way, thus: As matter takes its form, the body its soul as a substantial robe to hide its nakedness and ugliness; so you in baptism have put on Christ by grace, so that the Spirit of Christ is, as it were, your form and soul; consequently you have been brought into such close union with Christ that, as He is the Son of God by nature, so are you by adoption and grace. This is the explanation of Chrysostom and Theophylact. The conjunction for shows that Paul wishes to prove that we are the sons of God by the fact that we have put on Christ, who is the Son of God by nature, and hence are one with Him, and, as it were, are Christ Himself. Cf. notes to
1Cor 12:12.
Note: Here is the pertinent part of what Lapide wrote in 1 Cor 12:12~I say, then, with S. Augustine that the meaning of this passage is simply this. So also is Christ one body, i.e., the Church. For Christ is both head and body to the Church, inasmuch as He sustains all her members and works in them all, teaches by the doctor, baptizes by the minister, believes through faith, and repents in the penitent. For in this sense Christ is not locally but mystically, and by way of operation and effectually, the body, hypostasis, soul, and spirit of the whole Church. As the Church is the body of Christ, its head, so in turn is Christ the body of the Church, because, through the operation of His grace, He transfers Himself into all the members of the Church. So the Apostle often says that we are one in Christ, that through baptism we are incorporated into Christ and made one plant with Him. And Christ said to Paul, “Why persecutest thou Me?” that is, the Christians, My members (Acts ix. 4). So Paul says again: “To me to live is Christ, to die is gain.” Therefore S. Francis in his words, “My God, my Love, my All,” was but echoing S. Paul.
We should note from this the efficacy of baptism, which not only adorns us with graces and gifts, but with Christ Himself. What have the Protestants to say to this who make baptism to be a bare sign of righteousness already received by faith?
S. Ambrose (Serm. 90) gives some beautiful words of S. Agnes about the baptismal robe of Christ, both that which is within, and that material robe which formerly was given to adults at their baptism as a symbol of the first. “He adorned me,” she said, “with a glorious bracelet. Hie covered my hand and neck with precious stones. He put pearls in my ears, and loaded me with glistening gems. On my face He put his seal, that I might admit no lover save Him alone. He clad me in a robe of cloth of gold, and with glorious jewels did He beautify me.” And a little farther she continued: “Now have I drunken milk and honey from His mouth. Now have I been clasped in His most chaste embraces. Now has His body been united to mine, and His blood has bedewed my cheeks.” This last of course refers to the Eucharist, which used to be given to those newly baptized, that they might be wholly united to Christ. To them too used to be given milk and honey, as symbols of the sweetness of Christ, and of the law of Christ, of which they then become partakers.
Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek: there is neither bond nor free: there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.
There is neither Jew nor Greek.—i.e., in Christ. In the Church of Christ there is no distinction before God of birth, position, or sex. All, whether Jews or Greeks (= Gentiles), whether slaves or freemen, whether males or females, make one mystical body, the Church, of which the Head is Christ.
Or we may take it, and better, with S. Chrysostom, to mean that ye are one in the sense that ye have put on one form, or one soul, like the garment described above, and this not of any angel, but of Christ. This garment is the faith, charity, and holiness of Christ, and it makes you to seem like one man, to be one Christ. The Jews, therefore, have nothing of their Judaism to pride themselves on when they pass into Christ; therefore they have nothing of their own to invite you to, 0 Galatians, for you are equal sharers in Christ with them.
Gal 3:29 And if you be Christ’s, then are you the seed of Abraham, heirs according to the promise.
And if you be Christ’s. If you are members of the Head, and are the mystical body of its Spirit, then, as Christ is, so are ye Abraham’s seed, and hence inheritors of the righteousness promised to Abraham. Accordingly, Ambrose reads here: “If ye are one in Christ, then are you Abraham’s seed,” which gives the meaning very clearly.
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This Weeks Posts: Sunday Oct 10-Saturday Oct 16
Posted by Dim Bulb on October 9, 2010
Some posts are prepared in advance and will not become available until the time indicated. I hope to continue posting on 1 Corinthians, these will be listed below as I complete them.
SUNDAY, OCT 10: 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Resources for Sunday Mass, Oct 10. A weekly feature of this blog. Resources for next Sunday’s Mass, Oct 17, will be posted on Wednesday.
Last Weeks Posts: Oct 3-Oct 9.
Father Callan’s Commentary on 2 Tim 3:14-4:2 for Sunday Mass, Oct 17. Available 12:10 AM EST.
Bishop MacEvily’s Commentary on 2 Tim 3:14-4:2 for Sunday Mass, Oct 17. Available 12:15 AM EST.
Aquinas’ Catena Aurea on Luke 18:1-8 for Sunday Mass, Oct 17. Available 12:20 AM EST.
Father Callan’s Commentary on Ephesians 6:10-17 for the Extraordinary Rite of Sunday Mass, Oct 17. Available 12:25 AM EST.
Aquinas’ Catena Aurea on Matt 18:23-35 for the Extraordinary Rite of Sunday Mass, Oct 17. Available 12:30 AM EST.
Pope Benedict XVI on Psalm 121 for Sunday Mass, Oct 17.
Father Callan on 1 Corinthians 7:10-24.
MONDAY, OCT 11.
Mass Readings.
Cornelius a Lapide on Today’s First Reading. Available 12:05 AM EST.
Aquinas’ Catena Aurea on Today’s Gospel. Available 12:10 AM EST.
Father Boylan on Today’s Psalm (113). Available 12:25 AM EST.
Benedict XVI on Today’s Psalm (113).
St Augustine on Today’s Psalm (113).
The Temple in the Gospel of Mark.
TUESDAY, OCT 12
Mass Readings.
Cornelius a Lapide on Today’s First Reading (Gal 5:1-6). Available 12:05 AM EST.
Aquinas’ Catena Aurea on Today’s Gospel (Luke 11:37-41). Available 12:10 AM EST.
A Simple Summa: The Divine Names.
WEDNESDAY, OCT 13
Mass Readings.
Father Callan’s Commentary on Today’s First Reading (Gal 5:18-25). Available 12:05 AM EST.
THURSDAY, OCT 14
Mass Readings.
Aquinas’ Catena Aurea on Today’s Gospel (Luke 11:47-54). Available 12:05 AM EST.
FRIDAY, OCT 15: Memorial of St Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church.
Mass Readings.
Aquinas’ Catena Aurea on Today’s Gospel (Luke 12:1-7). Available 12:05 AM EST.
SATURDAY, OCT 16
Mass Readings.
Aquinas’ Catena Aurea on Today’s Gospel (Luke 12:8-12). Available 12:05 AM EST.
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