The apostle Paul does not often speak about the Cross, and when he does, he tries to be brief. But his words make one feel that, for him, the manifestation of the Son of God's love on the Cross is the very thing that feeds his faith. There is nothing more important, nothing more worthwhile, nothing the apostle would rather share with people than his knowledge that God died for us. When he comes to people, the apostle brings them exactly this message: "Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ be made void. For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God... for I resolved to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified," he writes at the beginning of the First Letter to the Corinthians. Yet for the apostle the Cross is much more than a sign of love; for him it is an event both of history and of his own life.

At the end of the Letter to the Galatians, as we read today, the apostle speaks about what, in his view, people boast in. To boast means precisely to display something good that has a direct connection to you. The Judaizing preachers with whom the apostle Paul is arguing try to boast that they are turning people toward a proper life under the Law; other people boast in their talents or knowledge, in spiritual or material wealth, in strength of body or character. Modern psychology calls this the need for positive self-esteem. Each person seeks it in his own way; each person finds in his life something for which, as it seems to him, he ought to be loved. In essence, all of us are seeking justifications for our own existence in this way.

And here the apostle says that our being needs no other justifications or even explanations except the Cross, on which God gives us His life. This is the foundational fact in our relationship both to ourselves and to others.

Paul says directly that the teachers who demand mandatory circumcision from the Galatian Christians want, on the one hand, to avoid unnecessary problems and even persecutions, and on the other, to boast about those members of the church community who were circumcised at their urging, as though this were some achievement of their own. The first point was connected with the fact that circumcision was the sign of belonging to the Jewish community.

Circumcised meant Jewish. The synagogue existed quite legally throughout the Roman Empire, and although a certain antisemitism was present both in Roman society and in Roman authority, there was still no question of systematic persecution. The uncircumcised, however, automatically found themselves outside the Synagogue and therefore outside the Roman legal field: the communities that had separated from the Synagogue had no other basis for legal activity. Here one could expect problems, even direct conflict with the authorities.

In this sense, being circumcised was safer than remaining uncircumcised: then any Christian church gathering could pass for a synagogue gathering, especially since the authorities were usually not inclined to go into the subtleties of synagogue life. But there was something else as well: the desire to demonstrate one's own "achievements" as teachers and mentors. Indeed, spiritual work is not quick and often not especially visible; spiritual changes in a person usually happen slowly and cannot be seen from the outside. Moreover, genuine spiritual work is almost always, so to speak, individual work; there is usually no room here for mass scale, which so catches the eye and therefore is so beloved by many.

Religious propaganda and calls to observe one or another religious norm or prescription, even the same circumcision, are a completely different matter: the call is quite concrete, the response is also quite concrete, the result is visible to everyone at once, and it may even become massive if the preacher is active enough. This is probably why religious preaching in all communities and at all times has attracted preachers, especially beginners, far more than properly spiritual work has. But religion does not replace spiritual life, although sometimes it can substitute itself for it. And Paul speaks sharply against such substitution, because it cuts a person off from the Kingdom and from its life.

What do we see when we look at one another? What do we see when we look at ourselves? First of all, without question, outward things. It is exceedingly difficult even to understand the motives of our own actions, let alone the actions of our neighbors... And what can we rely on, what can guide us, if not outward, visible signs? "You and I are of one blood": we look for people like ourselves, or at least very similar to us. When we find a pronounced difference in someone, we become confused... and often try to reshape that person in our own image. How else can we communicate with them? How can we accept them if they are "not of our blood," not like us? The answer is simple. Before God, our human similarities and differences are nothing. In Christ only one Blood matters: the Blood of the Son of God that washes us clean. The only thing we can do is step outside the narrow bounds of our understanding and accept every other person as they are, for the sake of Christ who renews us.