Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Galatians 3, 15-29

To put it in human terms, my brothers: even when a will is only a human one, once it has been ratified nobody can cancel it or add more provisions to it.

Now the promises were addressed to Abraham and to his progeny. The words were not and to his progenies in the plural, but in the singular; and to your progeny, which means Christ.

What I am saying is this: once a will had been long ago ratified by God, the Law, coming four hundred and thirty years later, could not abolish it and so nullify its promise.

You see, if the inheritance comes by the Law, it no longer comes through a promise; but it was by a promise that God made his gift to Abraham.

Then what is the purpose of the Law? It was added to deal with crimes until the 'progeny' to whom the promise had been made should come; and it was promulgated through angels, by the agency of an intermediary.

Now there can be an intermediary only between two parties, yet God is one.

Is the Law contrary, then, to God's promises? Out of the question! If the Law that was given had been capable of giving life, then certainly saving justice would have come from the Law.

As it is, scripture makes no exception when it says that sin is master everywhere; so the promise can be given only by faith in Jesus Christ to those who have this faith.

But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the Law, locked up to wait for the faith which would eventually be revealed to us.

So the Law was serving as a slave to look after us, to lead us to Christ, so that we could be justified by faith.

But now that faith has come we are no longer under a slave looking after us;

for all of you are the children of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus,

since every one of you that has been baptised has been clothed in Christ.

There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither slave nor freeman, there can be neither male nor female -- for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

And simply by being Christ's, you are that progeny of Abraham, the heirs named in the promise.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Paul affirms that the inheritance promised to Abraham by God now belongs to Jesus. Even before the pact with Israel on Mount Sinai, the Lord had already made a pact with Abraham. And that pact applies especially to the "offspring" (cf. Gen 17:7), which should not be taken to refer to blood offspring as much as to the "one" offspring: Jesus Christ. He is the one and universal heir to the promises made to Abraham. The example of a will, an act which is always valid and cannot be annulled, even by the law (which moreover came four hundred and thirty years later), inspires Paul to write that there cannot be two ways to reach Abraham’s inheritance: the law and the promise. Only the promise inherits the pact with Abraham. Even though the law was given, it only had a pedagogical function, that is, to prepare for the coming of the "offspring," Christ (3:16). Jesus’ disciples receive the inheritance promised to Abraham. They are no longer under the "disciplinarian," that is, under surveillance; rather they live in liberty because they have become "one in Christ Jesus" (3:28). "Clothed with Christ," Christians are a new creation, a new people that know no external laws, but only love, which should guide the entire life of the believer. Paul writes to the Romans that we are free from everything to be slaves to one thing alone, love: "Owe no one anything, except to love one another" (Rom 13:8).