The first reading for today’s Mass is from St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians. In it, Paul tells the Galatians that having all been baptized into Christ, they have become “clothed” with Christ. As a result, “[t]here is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
There are no distinctions among the children of God in terms of God’s love for us and in terms of our need for Jesus. In the words of one commentator, we are all both “coheirs in God’s kingdom” and “codebtors in need of God’s grace.”
We are often much better at seeing our differences, differences that sometimes serve to create hierarchies in our affections, our respect and our value of other persons. Paul reminds us that what matters is not our gender, our social status, our genealogy, or any of the other external forms that serve to create distinctions, but rather our common rebirth into Christ. We are all one in the Body of Christ.
Creo en Dios! 