NOTES for Gal 3:8-12
Today the Apostle Paul speaks to us about the faith that alone can serve for our justification. He quotes the prophet Habakkuk, emphasizing that faith alone, and nothing else, can become the source of life for us. On Christmas night we will witness a strange and inexplicable miracle: the God whom nothing can contain will appear in this world as a helpless Infant. He Himself becomes like the tiny mustard seed from His parable that we read today in the Evangelist Luke. He does not come amid a blare of trumpets as a Warrior and Ruler. He Himself is forced to become a refugee and flee to Egypt from the very human evil whose defeat we expect from Him. And therefore an effort of faith is required of us in order to worship Him together with the shepherds and the Magi. It is precisely of this effort that the Lord speaks in today’s Gospel: strive to enter through the narrow gate.