Main news for 8 November 2021

Paul tells us that this is not at all about the immutability of views and convictions, even such fundamental ones as religious convictions. He gives himself as an example: he had been a convinced opponent of Christians and Christianity until he himself met the risen Christ on the Damascus road. Only after that meeting did Paul become the one the Galatians came to know: an apostle of Christ. Yet Paul, paradoxical as it may sound, remained himself. But his situation looks paradoxical only at first glance.

The question is precisely what "we ourselves" are. What does it mean to be one's true self? Where should one look for one's true self? The simplest and quickest way is inwardly to set aside from oneself, at least for a time, everything we call our own, because if we feel something to be ours, then it is certainly not we ourselves. Clear away all the physiological, psychophysical, and psychic layers. Then one can find one's true self. At first it can seem that we do not exist at all, but that is understandable, since we are used to seeing not ourselves but our reflection in our own thoughts, feelings, and emotional states.

Of course, a person is not only spirit but also nature; nevertheless the core of the human person is spiritual, not natural. If we are used to experiencing ourselves as nature, whether outward bodily nature or inward psychic nature, if we are used to identifying ourselves with it, then when we first experience our existence as the life of the spiritual "I", we will most likely feel out of place. But only in this way can we understand who we really are and understand what we can become before God and people. For here the question of the truth or falsity of our ideas, concepts, views, and above all our actions and the choices we make, opens to us in a completely different way.

Here one can be transformed from a persecutor of Christians into a Christian oneself and still remain oneself, but only if something happens that touches this depth of the genuine, spiritual "I". So Paul urges the Galatians to remain at that depth, not orienting themselves by the outer, superficial manifestations of their own "I"s. They must not try to find on the surface what is found at that depth. Then it will become completely clear and obvious to them where the true gospel is and where the false one is. And no external views, habits, or models will be able to hinder this recognition.