Homily for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, 2022

Not Bigger Barns, But Love Cultivated Here

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

St. Bridget Catholic Church, Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, July 31, 2022

Today’s three readings speak of that age-long spiritual truth about the need to detach oneself from the goods of this world. But this detachment does not call for hatred of the material world or hatred of the flesh. Platonic dualism which sees this world or flesh or matter as bad is not biblical. The right biblical attitude to the goods of this world is to lightly hold them even as we acknowledge and celebrate them. The first reading taken from the extraordinary book of Ecclesiastes or Qoheleth says, “Vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!” Vanity in Hebrew is “hebel,” which designates something that evaporates, something that comes and goes. It is like a vapor, a spray. It appears and then disappears. In his old age, King Solomon has experienced power, sensual pleasure, but in the passage for today, his attention is on another worldly good, namely economic advantage. He says, “Here is one who has labored with wisdom and knowledge and skill, and yet to another who has not labored over it, he must leave his property.” What’s he saying? The great American figure, Steve Jobs was a man of great skill, tech know-how, and rare intelligence. He put his whole life into inventing the best smartphone in the world called the iPhone. But on October 5, 2011, I was holding a parish council meeting in St. Gerard Majella Church, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, when my iPhone notified me of a breaking news, “Steve Jobs of Apple Dies at 56.” His passion for innovating the next big thing did not prevent him from dying and leaving his company to someone else. The business he co-founded will be passed on to other generations he did not even know. The next generation might actually decide to break it up or to sell it. The very thing he has given his whole life to is only for a short time. In my pastoral ministry, I have heard Qoheleth: “Father, all my life, I put all my heart and soul into that business. Now, it is in the hands of my children who are not even grateful.” So, whatever we have: homes, property, real estate etc. and are, CEO, director, etc. only last for a moment, and then fade. Should this depress and demoralize us? Not at all! Enjoy the goods you have, but don’t cling to them obsessively. Enjoy the money you made and appreciate the business you created. But don’t cling on them as if your entire life depends on them and as though they are the center of your life. 

In the context of Qoheleth, we look at today’s Gospel taken from Luke 12:13-21. Jesus was asked to do something very practical: “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” Something like this is being said in lawyers offices all over the country. Families fight all time about inheritance just as they did in Jesus’ time. In one particular case that I am aware of, a sister did not want to share the family inheritance with her other sister. She wanted the family house and other rented houses owned by their parents simply because when she was struggling financially, their elderly mom asked her to move in with her. After the death of their mom, she wanted everything for herself. Eventually, the case went to court and the two sisters became enemies. 

Responding to the request, Jesus used the opportunity to teach a pivotal spiritual lesson: “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” Honestly, I want those words of the Lord printed boldly on billboards and mounted on every major highway, on airports, on Wall street and main streets. I want them on banners and hanging in front of Churches. I want them on stickers and pasted on people’s refrigerators. Why? Because it is an enduring deep spiritual truth. Notice that Jesus is not denouncing possessions in themselves; he is not urging everyone to get rid of their possessions and property. He is telling everyone not to make possessions the foundation of life because life does  not consist of possessions. The great British scholar, C. S. Lewis admonished, “Don’t let your happiness depend on something you may lose.” Amazing! Isn’t it? Enjoy the goods of this world, but don’t live for them and don’t base your life upon them. When it comes to earthly possessions, don’t cling to them with a desperate grip. Hold them lightly by the finger-tips, not deep in the palm of your hand. Don’t become sad, depressed, and frustrated when you don’t have them. And if you have them and then lose them, consider not suicide. In 2014, Forbes published a study which was originally published in the British Journal of Psychiatry that shows that the 2008 recession across the U.S., Canada and Europe claimed more than 10,000 “economic suicides.”

After that Jesus narrates a very devastating parable of a man who wants to build bigger barns. He is like a hedge fund manager, a private equity investor, and a very successful businessman. He is rich, but wants to be richer. He is a millionaire, but wants to be a billionaire. He wants to tire down the old barns and build something bigger to accommodate and broaden his wealth. The man in this story is the symbol of obsessive greed. He has a lot but still wants more. To him the Lord addresses, “You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?” Life here is not just your life in the physical sense but the meaning of your life. What is your life all about? If your life is required of you today, what would you show the Lord? Your bigger barns? Your real estate? Your growing business? Your fat bank account? Is that all? Trust me, you don’t want to go there with simply bigger barns. Now, what’s the cure to obsessive greed? Don’t look too far for the answer. Look at the words of today’s second reading: “If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not what is on earth.” St. Paul is not asking us to solely love the spiritual and to hate the material world. Paul was a good Jew and has nothing against the material world. He is rather asking us to value God supremely. Once God is the supreme value of your life, you will know what to do with whatever worldly goods you may attain. C. S. Lewis said “Nothing you have not given away will ever really be yours.” Cardinal Francis George right before he died said, “The only thing you take with you in the life to come are the things you have given away on earth.” What you have in the heavenly realm is the love you cultivated here below. It is not bigger barns filled with stuff. It is not the wealth or power you acquired and procured. The only thing you have in the heavenly realm is the love you cultivated here below. That’s why Jesus says, “Do not store your treasure on earth where moth and decay destroy… But store up treasure in heaven” (Matt. 6:19-20).

Homily for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, 2022

The Meaning of The Lord’s Prayer

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C 

St. Bridget Catholic Church, Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, July 24, 2022

Today’s Gospel is St. Luke’s version of the most beloved and popular prayer in the Christian tradition, widely known as The Lord’s Prayer. It is a prayer offered millions of times everyday around the world. Luke says Jesus was praying in a certain place, and at the end of the exercise, one of his disciples approached him and said, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.” Replying Jesus says, “When you pray, say: Father…” We begin our prayer by calling God Father, not Boss, not King, not Governor even though he is all those things. We first call him Abba, which is Jesus’s unique way of addressing God. It’s like a child calling his father dad or daddy. So, in the recitation of Our Father, we acknowledge that we are being invited to partake in the same intimacy that exists between Jesus and his Father. We are not meant to simply memorize the prayer but to enter into it with the attitude of Jesus. The Father is Jesus’ Father, but he is inviting us in a lesser degree to share in that intimacy. So, the next time you say this prayer, don’t rush it. Think about its implications. 

Then we say “…hallowed be your name…” This means “may God’s name be held holy.” After calling God Father, the very first thing we ask is that we might honor God, make him first in our lives and set him apart from anything else. Actually in Hebrew context, “holy” means “set apart.” So, God is holy means God is set apart. Your job, family, friendship, money, success, respect of others etc. are all good, but none of it should be held holy in this sense. We should never say, my family, my job, my career, my success, my friendship etc hollowed be your name. Only Abba Father should be held holy. If God’s name is not held holy, we will get everything else wrong. If God’s name is not held holy, everything else becomes profane, and goes off-kilter. So, when you pray the Lord’s Prayer, part of what you are praying for is: “Lord, please help me to put you first in my life.” It is like saying, “Daddy, I have this intimacy with you, now help me to make you first in my life.” 

After that we ask, “…your kingdom come.” The first message of Jesus according to St. Mark is “The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the good news” (1:15). But what is the Kingdom? What are we praying for? It is the reign of God that Israel had longed for a thousand years. In the face of trials, injustices and sufferings of this world, Israel dreamed of the day God will reign as the righteous King of the world and set things right. As Israel suffer under corrupt kings, foreign kings, oppressive kings and terrible emperors, they dreamed and hoped for the day God himself will come, reign as a righteous King, set things right so that justice will ring and be obtained. So, when we pray for the coming of the God’s Kingdom, we are asking that God’s reign may be more and more powerful in this world, that we, the mystical body of Christ might contribute to the building up of peace, love, forgiveness, justice, non-violence. We are praying that Jesus who in person is the kingdom himself might reign supreme in the lives and hearts of many, that his manner of being may become more and more the manner of being of the world.

The next petition is “Give us each day our daily bread.” The term “daily” is a very rare and ambiguous Greek word. Scholars say it is only found in Luke’s and in Matthew’s version of Our Father. The term is “epiousion” in Greek. “Give us each day our epiousion bread.” “Ousion” means “substance,” “epi” means “above” or “over.” Literally, it means “hyper-substantial or super-substantial. While some scholars speculate “daily” in this prayer means “the great day of the Lord,” others say it means “hyper-substantial” or “super-substantial” bread. What is the Eucharist? It is not ordinary bread. It is not a symbolic representation. As Catholics, we say it is the Transubstantiated Presence of the Body and Blood of Jesus. During consecration, there is a change, not at the level of appearance, but at the level of substance. Before consecration, we say it is bread and wine, but after consecration we no longer say it is bread and wine. It is now the Body and Blood of Jesus. So, at the heart of Jesus’ prayer, we ask for the super-substantial bread. We ask for the Eucharist, which is the means by which we are Christified. 

As sinful people, the next thing we ask is, “…forgive us our sins.” Why did Jesus come? To teach us the way of love and how to be servants of the Lord. But first and foremost, he came to forgive our sins. To the paralyzed man he said, “My son, your sins are forgiven.” To the woman caught in the act of adultery he said, “Neither do I condemn you.” On the cross, the definitive act of sacrifice that reconciled humanity to divinity happened. The Lamb of God took away the sins of the world. When we pray the Our Father, we pray for the forgiveness of our sins. We pray that Christ may so reign in us that our sins are forgiven by him. Then right away we add, “as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Once we have been forgiven, we become agents of his forgiveness that bring about the spread of God’s kingdom. Finally, we pray, “…and do not subject us to the final test.” In the ancient time, people believed that the Messianic period will be preceded by a period of struggle, time of testing and purification for those who are resisting the arrival of the Messiah. So what are we asking for here? We are asking that during this trial, we might have the grace to accept Christ fully and wholeheartedly when he comes. We are asking that we may not be in the group that needs to be chastised and purified. 

Homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, 2022

The One Thing Necessary

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, July 17, 2022

If Jesus were to visit you and the rest of your family unannounced, what would you do? If the door bell rings, and upon opening the door, you realize it is Jesus, what would you do after welcoming him in and offering him a seat? As you think about that, let’s reflect on what the two sisters—Mary and Martha did when the Lord came to their house. Today’s Gospel (Luke 10:38-42) says that as Jesus enters a village, Martha invites and welcomes him to her home. After that, she hurries to the kitchen to prepare a meal for him. As she is slicing onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, other veggies, and getting every ingredients ready for the meal, her younger sister, Mary, is sitting at the feet of Jesus listening to him speak just like a true disciple would do. Martha is not pleased by her younger sister’s “idleness.” She comes to the sitting room and says, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.” Instead of ordering Mary to join Martha in the kitchen, Jesus smiles and in a friendly way says, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” 

Over the centuries, this story has been interpreted as an account of the play between the active life and the contemplative life, and as Jesus indicating his preference for the latter over the former. But I think that kind of interpretation does not get to the heart of the story. It is important to understand that none of the two sisters loved Jesus less. Each of their actions is their own way of demonstrating their love for the Lord. Martha wants to fix a meal for Jesus, and there is nothing wrong with it. Her sister Mary, like a first time lover, wants to spend every second with him. For Mary, sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to him and forming relationship with him is more important. For Martha, satisfying the Lord’s hunger for food is more important. It is wrong and unfair to present Martha in a bad light. She loves Jesus as intensely as Mary. Both sisters are interested in him, and both wanted to please him. The difference is the manner in which they went about trying to please him. Martha thought Jesus was hungry and wanted to feed him. Mary thought Jesus needs company and stayed behind in the sitting room.  Martha thought Jesus came to be fed; Mary thought Jesus came to feed them with God’s word. Jesus came to their home needing relationship. Martha did not get it. Mary did! The practical bottomline is that Christianity is about forming relationship Jesus Christ. 

This Gospel is not an invitation to choose between Mary and Martha. A disciple of Jesus needs to be both. This Gospel is not an endorsement to doing nothing. Jesus is not promoting idleness and laziness. He too was a hard worker. In John 5:17, he says, “My Father is always working and I too, am working.” Jesus is not going to reject Martha’s meal. He is only calling her attention to the worry and anxiety her busy schedule is costing her— that it is distracting her from what really matters most. Martha’s problem is not that she is engaging in the “active” life; her problem is that she is uncentered. She is obviously divided, drifting from one concern to another, from one anxiety to another; there are many things that preoccupy her mind. Mary on her own part has chosen not so much the contemplative life, rather the focused life. She is rooted in the unum necessarium (one thing necessary). The implication here is that even if Mary were preoccupied with household chores, she would not be “worried and anxious” like Martha. She would not be distracted or divided by them because her life is rooted in the one thing necessary. As for Martha, even if she were to sit at the feet of Jesus, she would still be distracted with impatience, because her mind is divided. The issue here is not so much what they are doing, but how they are doing it. The clearest sign that something is not right in Martha’s soul is that she even tells God what to do. 

Sisters and brothers, there are many voices calling out to you and urging you in different directions. There are scores of influences pulling you from one pole to the other. Amidst all of these, what’s the unum necessarium? (the one thing necessary). I will tell you! It is to listen to the voice of Jesus as he tells you of his love and as he tells you who you are. Make God the absolute priority of your lives. The great St. Augustine said, “love God and do what you want.” Is that a license to do whatever you feel like? No! “Love God” means fix the attention of your soul on the unum necessarium. Fix the eyes of your soul on unum necessarium, which is God. When you do that, your life will be ordered in such a way that whatever you want will be good, will be in accord with God’s deepest purposes and God’s deepest designs. Take this as a test, whatever you are doing, your duties and responsibilities, cares and preoccupations, as you are doing them, can you honestly say this is in accord with what God wants. That’s a tough test, but it is the test that St. Augustine gives. Is what you are doing right now connected to the designs and purposes of God? You know, God is not one being among the many, just like you, me, the church, the sky, the trees and then God. No! God is not one being among the many. He is not one of the things we see and don’t see. God is the sheer act of being itself that gives rise to all that exists. God is not one interest among the many. We can be interested in going to school, in listening to music, in cooking, or watching soccer. We can have many interests and God is not and should not be listed as one interest like other interests. Rather, God is the great, single interest of my life in terms of which all the other interests hang together and make sense. This is why the Lord praises Mary. But how do we cultivate this attitude of Mary? Prayer! Prayer! Prayer! Which means attending to God. People become unfocused and confused when they stop praying because they lost touch with the unum necessarium. Prayer keeps you ground in God. Secondly, wear the sign of your faith on your clothes and on your person to remind yourself of God who orders your life. Lastly, keep the name of God often on your lips. How do you do it? Don’t use his name as an exclamation. Say, “I thank God” when someone asks you how life is going with you. Keep the name of God in your ordinary conversation. Giving God credit for your success, family, peace, health, job, education etc is a good reminder of our rootedness in God. 

Homily for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, 2022

The Good Samaritan Is Jesus Christ

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, Minnesota

Sunday, July 10, 2022

Today’s Gospel is one of the most prominent of Jesus’ parables— the great story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). The parable can be seen as a morality tale that teaches us the kind of life we should lead. It is a godly thing to care for those in need even if we consider them outsiders. I am sure most people are familiar with that kind of reading and will most likely interpret the story of the Good Samaritan from that standpoint. But today, I want to offer a different reading that is more in line with the Church Fathers. They saw this story as the story of sin, fall, and redemption and as a great illustration of who Jesus Christ is.

Our Lord opens the parable this way: “A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.” What is Jerusalem? It is Mount Zion, the Holy City, God’s City. According to the Psalmist, it is where all the tribes go up (Psalm 122:4). Jerusalem is the symbol of the well ordered city, the well ordered life, and of spiritual perfection. What is Jericho? It is the city of sin. As Israelites prepared to enter the Promised Land, they had to deal with Jericho, an enemy city. Under the leadership of Joshua, they liturgically marched round the Walls of Jericho with the Ark of the Covenant. As they marched, they prayed and blew their trumpets. Eventually, Jericho’s Walls came down and Israel was able to conquer the dark power of the world. Jericho is the symbol of disordered city, of dysfunctional soul and anything that stands in contradistinction to God’s plan and purpose. Going down from Jerusalem to Jericho means the fall. It is the fall of all of us. The man is all of us who through sin have descended from the height of God’s friendship to the depth of sin. As the man descended from the height of righteousness to the depth of transgression, he got robbed. What does sin do to us? It robs us of God’s friendship! It robs us what is best in us. When we lose friendship with God, our minds become fuddled; we are robbed of the proper functioning of our minds, the proper functioning of our will, and the proper functioning of our passions and desires. Even if we know a lot of true things, we don’t know the deepest truth. It becomes far too easier to choose wrong things. Losing friendship with God in certain ways robs us of our human dignity. Most people who have been robbed will tell you that the worst part of the act is not the things they lose, rather their dignity that was violated and stripped. So in sin we are robbed of our human dignity. The glory, the proper functioning, the beauty we ought to have are lost.

After robbing and stripping the man, the robbers “beat him, and then went off leaving him half-dead.” That last phrase is brilliant. After sin has cost us our friendship with God, what else does it do to us? It leaves us half-dead. When you are living in sin, are you still alive? In the eyes of the world, you are still alive and functioning well. But you are half-dead. You are not fully alive. The great St. Irenaeus said that the glory of God is the human being fully alive. The indication is that when we are in sin we are not fully alive. We are not the people that God wants us to be. We have wandered from the heights of Jerusalem down to Jericho, got robbed of our dignity and left half-dead and helpless by the side of the road. This story of the Good Samaritan is a perfect portrait of us all. This man beaten and robbed is all of us beaten up by sin. Who will now save us? The story says a priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw the helpless man, he passed by on the opposite side. A Levite also came to the place. He saw him but went on. Notice something here. Jesus says they are going the same way as the man— from Jerusalem to Jericho. The priest and the Levite represent fallen religion that is affected by sin, a religion and religious practice that have become an avenue for the self-aggrandizement of the ego. Such religion won’t save. G.K. Chesterton said “We’re all in the same boat, and we’re all seasick.” If you are stuck in a boat, you are not going to be saved by someone who is also stuck in the same boat. Fallen religion is not going to save us. And this remains true today as it was two thousand years ago. 

But here now is the good news. When a Samaritan who was on a journey saw the helpless man, he “was moved with compassion at the sight.” There is so much in that line. We have been depicted in the story. We are the man beaten and left half-dead by robbers on the road. Religion has also been depicted. Now Jesus is being depicted. But why is he a Samaritan? The Samaritans were hated and considered as outsiders. Was Jesus loved universally? Not really! At the beginning, he was loved by some, but hatred for him progressively grew worse culminating in his death on the cross. Furthermore, who are the Samaritans? They were half-breeds, part-Jewish and part-pagans. The Church Fathers noted that Jesus himself is a kind of hybrid? He is both divine and human. What does the Samaritan do to the helpless man? He approached him, dressed his wounds, poured in oil and wine as means to heal. “He approached him” describes Jesus coming to us precisely in our misery and degradation. Jesus loves sinners. He lives with them. He stays with them. Jesus approaches us. The use of oil and wine as means to heal points to the sacramental life of the Church. Oil is used for baptism, confirmation, ordination of a priest, and the anointing of the sick. The wine is transformed into the Blood of Christ. What is symbolized here is Jesus Christ approaching us who are wounded and humiliated by sin and pouring his life into our wounds by means of the sacraments. What the Church does in its sacramental life is to pour into wounded souls the life of Jesus Christ. After that, the Good Samaritan took out two silver pieces and gave them to the innkeeper and said, “Take care of him.” He pays for him. The word redemption comes from the Latin word “redemptio,” which means “to pay for,” “to buy back.” By his death on the cross, Jesus has redeemed us. He has paid the price. He has bought us back. So in the life of the Church, we celebrate the fact that by the cross of Jesus, we have been saved. The next time you read this story or hear this story read to you, identify yourself with this man wounded and left half-dead by the side of the road, and then rejoice in Christ who has come to save and redeem you. 

Praise God! 

Homily for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, 2022

The Cross And The New Creation

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, July 3, 2022

St. Paul is not always an easy biblical author to understand. He is a densely complex writer. He is almost like a poet who packs a lot of meaning into a few short lines. Nevertheless, Paul’s writings help us understand what Christianity is all about. He is the first great theologian of our tradition, and in some ways, all Christian theologies are sort of footnotes to Paul. In our today’s second reading (Galatians 6:14-18), Paul says: “Brothers and sisters: May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…” To be frank with you, no first century Jew would have found Paul’s declaration appealing. In fact, nothing could be stranger and crazier than that for a first century person. I bet many of us upon hearing those lines read to us today thought that Paul is boasting with the cross. But when you hear those words, don’t think of the cross on top of a church’s steeple. Don’t think of the cross on the wall of your room. Don’t think of this cross that hangs above the space between the altar and the tabernacle. In Paul’s time, the cross was something unspeakable, the most excruciating instrument of torture ever invented by the minds of cruel people. For Jews and Gentiles, to die on the cross was entirely shameful. The most despicable thing to say to a person in Paul’s time was a curse to end their life on the cross. The cross was the last thing anyone in Paul’s day would boast about. If someone tells you today that you will be rejected by Church and state, that the legal establishment of the country will condemn you to death, that you will undergo a public ridicule, and thereafter you will be shot or electrocuted publicly, will you be in the mood of boasting about it? I certainly don’t think so. But Paul says, I boast in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

But what gave Paul this crazy idea of boasting with the cross? Resurrection! As Saul, he was part of the world of hatred, oppression, division, violence and injustice that killed Jesus. As Saul, he thought hatred, oppression, repression, violence, threat of violence and injustice were the supreme good. He persecuted the Body of Christ. He masterminded the death of Stephen, the first Christian martyr. He oversaw the seizure and confiscation of Christians lands, houses and other properties. He did not want to merely contain Christianity or to drive it out of Jerusalem; he wanted to rid the earth of Christianity and its followers. Having obtained letters from the high priest authorizing him to arrest any followers of Jesus in the city of Damascus, he and his companions proceeded to Damascus. On the road, the Risen Jesus appeared to him in his glorified Body and called him out, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ (Acts 9:4) At the end of that encounter, Saul realized two things: one, the crucified Jesus of Nazareth has been raised up by God; two, his resurrection can only mean everything that contributed to the death of Jesus is under God’s judgement. So when Paul later says “I have been crucified to the world and the world to me;” he is basically saying that the world of cruelty, of libido dominandi, of oppression, of violence, of hatred is not it. That world is passing away; that world means nothing; that world is under judgement. That world is finally powerless. Paul’s encounter with the Risen Jesus changed everything. The Resurrection of Jesus from the dead is so important to Paul, and we must never ignore or disregard it.  In the Risen Jesus, Paul saw that the world of division and stupidity is not absolute or final. All the negativity of sin, Jesus took it on and through the power of Resurrection, he took it away. That is why at every Mass, we say, “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” That is why John says “This faith of us conquered the world.”

The next shocking thing that Paul said is, “For neither does circumcision mean anything, nor does uncircumcision, but only a new creation.” Those are breathtaking words almost like the first declaration about boasting with the cross. For a Jew in Paul’s time, that’s an unnerving and problem seeking utterance. It is a crazy talk! How come? Circumcision is always important because it is what identified a person to be a Jew. It is the mark of the covenant that a person belong to this chosen people of God, this special tribe. What separated Jews from Gentiles, the circumcised and the uncircumcised was centrally crucial to any good Jew like Paul. So for him to say that circumcision and uncircumcision do not mean anything means that something radical happened to him that turned his world upside down. That which turned his world upside down is the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. 

What did Paul see in his life? He saw that the fallen world is marked by division, separation, stratification. He saw that we sinners are intensely interested in who is up and who is down, who is included and who is excluded, who is in and who is out. But Paul tells us that in Christ “there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians  3:28). Paul saw that the world of division, gratification, separation, oppression, racism, tribalism, the inside versus the outside, who is loved and who is not loved is under the judgement of God. He saw the meaninglessness of holding on to that world. Those things that divide us, that separate us from one another, Paul says belong to the world, the old universe of sin and death. Circumcision or uncircumcision does not matter. Only a new creation matters. So, Paul is urging us to stop living in that world that is under judgement, and to start living in this new world, this new creation, which is nothing other than the mystical body of Jesus. Finally, Paul says, “Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule and to the Israel of God.” What is Israel of God? Christ Body, the Church. Peace and mercy will come not to those who live stubbornly in that old world that is passing away, rather to those who live in this Israel of God, Christ the New Creation.