I sometimes, even oftentimes, OK most times, will skip over scripture passages that make me feel uncomfortable. Maybe it was violent, or just endlessly whiny, or repetitive, complicated, or uncomfortable, like maybe the ouch! imagery of an 1^st century male Christian convert being circumcised as a condition of becoming a Christian – as if the looming cross was not daunting enough.

So, my desire to skip over this passage may signal that it would be worth seeking its deeper meaning. Saint Paul actually explains it with beautiful clarity: that the Christian “law” of faith in Jesus Christ is a path of freedom; freedom from the Jewish “yoke” of the law, including mandatory circumcision. In Saint Paul’s example, the Jewish law and the action of circumcision establishes and sustains the old covenant with God. A Christian’s faith in Christ alone establishes and sustains our new relationship with God.

While there are rules and commitments to expressing my faith in Christ and to worship as a member of the Catholic Church, no human construct or impediment ought to get between me and my relationship with Jesus Christ. A worthwhile question to ask and ponder upon is: what human constructs, what human impediments – especially those I have myself made – can get between my direct relationship of faith in Jesus Christ? Like we did as a child with the petals of a poor flower…let me count the ways!

—Fr. Glen Chun, SJ, a priest of the Midwest Province, is community minister of Bellarmine House of Studies in St. Louis.

My Lord God,

How is it that you have called me, allowed me, welcomed me, sustained me, into faith in you alone?

How is it that I turned from unbelief to belief, not from my own construct, but from your grace and love alone?

How can I trust more that faith in you alone is sufficient for your love and your grace?

May I find peace and sustenance that these questions are sufficient, and that the equally sufficient answer is you alone

in you

through you

with you…

…and you alone.

—Fr. Glen Chun, SJ