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From: Galatians 3:7-14

Justification By Faith (Continuation)

[7] So you see that it is men of faith who are the sons of Abraham. [8] And the
scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the
gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”
[9] So then, those who are men of faith are blessed with Abraham who had faith.
[10] For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cur-
sed be every one who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law,
and do them.” [11] Now it is evident that no man is justified before God by the
law; for “He who through faith is righteous shall live” ; [12] but the law does not
rest on faith, for “He who does them shall live by them.” [13] Christ redeemed
us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us — for it is written,
“Cursed be every one who hangs on a tree” — [14] that in Christ Jesus the bles-
sing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, that we might receive the pro-
mise of the Spirit through faith.

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Commentary:

6-9. The Apostle recalls the figure of Abraham in order to show that man’s jus-
tification is not the result of the material works prescribed by the Mosaic Law,
but rather the result of faith in God’s word. According to Gen 15:6, when God
promised Abraham that he would have a son even though he was already an old
man and his wife Sarah was barren, Abraham immediately took God at his word.
It was this faith that justified Abraham: God had not yet established circumcision
or given the Law. Therefore, St Paul argues, “it is men of faith who are the sons
of Abraham”.

God had given the Patriarch a promise whose implications were universal: “In
you shall all the nations be blessed.” That promise is now being kept through
the entry of the Gentiles, through faith, into the new people of God. Abraham is
in effect the father of those who believe, for in him all those who would believe
in Jesus Christ were already blessed.

In the same way as he justified Abraham, God justifies every man — through
faith (cf. Gen 15:6; Rom 4:2ff; Jas 2:21ff). Thus, people do not become sons of
the Kingdom simply because they are descendants of Abraham according to
the flesh: no, they must become like him by being men of faith like him. There-
fore, man’s greatness in God’s eyes is not a matter of blood or descent, as the
Jews believed, but of divine grace, which makes us children of the blessing,
children of God (cf. Jn 1:12-13).

God grants the gift of justification by faith to all who believe in his word, as Ab-
raham did. The true imitators of Abraham, St John of Avila says, are “those who
believe with loving faith, with firm and constant faith, who are so well grounded
in faith that nothing, no adversity, no temptation, no ill-treatment can disconsole
them or dismay them” (”Lecciones Sobre Gal, ad loc.”).

10-12. In what is called the Council of Jerusalem, St Peter had said, “Why do
you make trial of God by putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which nei-
ther our fathers nor we have been able to bear?” (Acts 15: 10): the Jews could not,
despite their efforts, keep the Mosaic Law — the Law which they thought justified
them in God’s sight. Therefore, those who place their hope of salvation in the Law
are subject to the curse which the Law itself places on those who infringe it: “Cur-
sed be he who does not confirm the words of the Law by doing them” (Deut 27:
26).

The curse of the Law falls on anyone who fails to keep it, given that every com-
mandment involves a penalty for its transgressor. That is why the Apostle argues
that those who rely only on the Law are subject to the risk of being cursed, of
being punished — “are under a curse”. He then goes on to recall once more the
passage in Habakkuk which says that “the righteous shall live by his faith” (2:4;
cf. note on Rom 1: 17). If the righteous or justified man lives by faith, the Apostle
concludes, he does not live by the Law, for the Law does not call for faith but for
fulfillment of its precepts.

13-14. Christ, who was innocent, wished to offer the Father perfect atonement
and thereby blot out our sin. To this end he voluntarily turned upon himself the
curse which the Law laid on its transgressors. He bore the curse of the Law on
our behalf and thereby set us free from the curse. What was for our Lord punish-
ment was for men salvation. As St Jerome puts it, “the injury suffered by the
Lord is our glory. He died so that we might live; he descended into hell so that
we might ascend into heaven. He became folly so that we might be reaffirmed in
wisdom. He emptied himself of the fullness and form of God, taking the form of
a slave, so that this divine fullness might dwell in us and we might be changed
from slaves into lords. He was nailed on the Cross so that the sin committed at
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil might be blotted out, once he was
hung on the tree of the Cross” (”Comm. in Gal, ad loc.”).

With our Lord’s death, the world’s redemption is achieved, God’s promise is ful-
filled and the blessing he gave to Abraham multiplies his posterity, making them
more numerous than the stars of heaven or the sand of the seashore (cf. Gen
15:5-6; 22:17).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: Luke 11:15-26:

The Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Satan

(Now Jesus was casting out a demon that was dumb; when the demon had gone
out, the man spoke, and the people marvelled.) [15] But some of them said, “He
casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons”; [16] while others, to test
Him, sought from Him a sign from Heaven. [17] But He, knowing their thoughts,
said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and house falls
upon house. [18] And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his king-
dom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. [19] And if I cast
out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they
shall be your judges. [20] But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons,
then the Kingdom of God has come upon you. [21] When a strong man, fully
armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace; [22] but when one stron-
ger than he assails him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which
he trusted, and divides his spoil. [23] He who is not with Me is against Me, and
He who does not gather with Me scatters.”

[24] “When an unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through water-
less places seeking rest; and finding none he says, ‘I will return to my house
from which I came.’ [25] And when he comes he finds it swept and put in order.
[26] Then he goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they
enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the
first.”

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Commentary:

14-23. Jesus’ enemies remain obstinate despite the evidence of the miracle.
Since they cannot deny that He has done something quite extraordinary, they
attribute it to the power of the devil, rather than admit that Jesus is the Messiah.

Our Lord answers them with a clinching argument: the fact that He expels de-
mons is proof that He has brought the Kingdom of God. The Second Vatican
Council reminds us of this truth: The Lord Jesus inaugurated His Church by prea-
ching the Good News, that is, the coming of the Kingdom of God, promised over
the ages in the Scriptures [...]. The miracles of Jesus also demonstrate that the
Kingdom has already come on earth: “If it is by the finger of God that I cast out
demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you (Luke 11:20); cf. Mat-
thew 12:28). But principally the Kingdom is revealed in the person of Christ Him-
self, Son of God and Son of Man, who came ‘to serve and to give His life as a
ransom for many’ (Mark 10:45)” (Vatican II, “Lumen Gentium”, 5).

The strong man well armed is the devil, who has enslaved man; but Jesus Christ,
one stronger than he, has come and conquered him and is despoiling him. St.
Paul will say that Christ “disarmed the principalities and powers and made a pub-
lic example of them, triumphing over them” (Colossians 2:15).

After the victory of Christ the “stronger one”, the words of verse 23 are addressed
to mankind at large; even if people do not want to recognize it, Jesus Christ has
conquered and from now on no one can adopt an attitude of neutrality towards
Him: he who is not with Him is against Him.

18. Christ’s argument is very clear. One of the worst evils that can overtake the
Church is disunity among Christians, disunity among believers. We must make
Jesus’ prayer our own: “That they may be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me,
and I in Thee, that they may also be one in us, so that the world may believe
that Thou hast sent Me” (John 17:21).

24-26. Our Lord shows us that the devil is relentless in his struggle against man;
despite man rejecting him with the help of grace, he still lays his traps, still tries
to overpower him. Knowing all this, St. Peter advises us to be sober and vigilant,
because “your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking
someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith” (1 Peter 5:8-9).

Jesus also forewarns us about the danger of being once more defeated by Satan
— which would leave us worse off than were before. The Latin proverb puts it very
well: “corruptio optimi, pessima” (the corruption of the best is the worst.) And St.
Peter, in his inspired text, inveighs against corrupt Christians, whom he com-
pares in a graphic and frightening way to “the dog turning back to his own vomit
and the sow being washed and then wallowing in the mire” (cf. 2 Peter 2:22).

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.