I opposed Cephas to his face because he clearly was wrong
In today’s first reading, we hear Paul say to the Galatians: “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.” The first time I read this statement, I was appalled. How could Paul so embarrass the leader of the apostles in public and then brag instead of apologizing for it? In fact, the entire reading sounds like Paul is bragging about his achievements and his equality with the other apostles, until you try to understand him in context.
Paul was addressing an issue in the Church in Galatia about which he was very passionate. After his evangelization of that Church, some people had created confusion among the believers, teaching that to be followers of Christ, believers had also to embrace the Jewish Law, including circumcision. As a result, many would find it too burdensome to follow the demands of both religions and consequently leave the Church. At the same time, “Judaisers” threatened to reduce Christianity to another Jewish sect. In his Introduction to the Letter to the Hebrews, William Barclays writes: “It is strange to think that, if Paul’s opponents had had their way, the gospel might have been kept for Jews and we might never have had the chance to know the love of Christ.”
Paul knew from experience, what Jesus taught to his followers, that new wine requires fresh wineskins (cf. Mark 2:22). This was the answer Jesus had given to those who challenged him as to why his followers did not follow Jewish practices. Paul had been a strict observer of Jewish Law, to the extent of being ready to kill for it, until he was converted by Jesus himself. From then on, he learnt not to follow his old values, learning and experience, but the transforming gospel of Christ. Anything contrary to the gospel, however attractive, was a drawback, and he was ready to fight it vehemently, in himself as well as in others. In today’s passage he is building his argument to show to the Galatians, that the gospel of Christ must not be watered down by human considerations, at any cost.
Paul teaches us, that to experience the full force of the transforming power of the gospel, we must be ready to submit to it entirely.
