Gal 1:6-12
I am astonished that you are so promptly turning away from the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are going over to a different gospel- not that it is another gospel; except that there are trouble-makers among you who are seeking to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we ourselves or an angel from heaven preaches to you a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let God’s curse be on him. I repeat again what we declared before: anyone who preaches to you a gospel other than the one you were first given is to be under God’s curse. Whom am I trying to convince now, human beings or God? Am I trying to please human beings? If I were still doing that I should not be a servant of Christ. Now I want to make it quite clear to you, brothers, about the gospel that was preached by me, that it was no human message. It was not from any human being that I received it, and I was not taught it, but it came to me through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Paul gives us a strong message today, and we must pay close attention to it and also apply it concretely to the present situation! The Gospel does not tolerate being adapted to people’s desires, nor can it be accommodated until it meets with the world’s approval. It is a mistake to believe that the demands that flow from the truth should be reduced on the grounds that the people of our time are no longer capable of fulfilling them. In the end, people would be deceived, because then they would no longer seek the truth that leads them to conversion, but would be left to their own devices. It is, therefore, a tremendous deception, which wants to rob people of what is most precious to them.
Unfortunately, this anti-Christian confusion has not only entered the world; it is also proliferating more and more in the Church. Unfortunately, it gives the impression that, especially in these years, “adapting to the world” has become almost a “gospel of the spirit of the times”. On a general level, the authentic, unadulterated message of the Gospel is no longer placed in the foreground of proclamation; instead, other themes, which in reality are of secondary or tertiary importance, are given first place….
We are confronted with a growing loss of faith and the influence of modernism, moral relativism and contempt for the doctrine of the Church. If we add to all this the many liturgical abuses, a picture emerges before our eyes that cries out for an authentic proclamation of the true Gospel.
Only the authentic Gospel, together with the intact doctrine and praxis of the Church and the struggle for holiness, constitute the “crystal-clear spring” (Rev 22:1) that is to purify this world. A false adaptation to the world, on the other hand, will bring nothing but confusion and, consequently, will relativize and tarnish the Church’s mission.
God has entrusted to the Church the message of the Gospel as the great treasure that she is to bring to humankind. But she cannot adapt it to a merely human way of thinking, thus extinguishing the light that emanates from the Gospel and distorting its salt (cf. Mt 5:13-14). Who will accept a Gospel adapted to the spirit of the world, when the Church’s pronouncements often sound very similar to the political declarations of a large NGO?
The Lord, who will return on the clouds of heaven, will not tolerate the lukewarmness that has spread among Christians (cf. Rev 3:15-16). The lamp of the Gospel must be placed on the lampstand, so that it may give light to all people and point them to the way of salvation (Mt 5:15). The Church is called to gather all people into “one flock under one Shepherd” (Jn 10:16), in whom they will find true unity.
The words of St. Paul are unequivocal: “But even if we ourselves or an angel from heaven preaches to you a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let God’s curse be on him. I repeat again what we declared before: anyone who preaches to you a gospel other than the one you were first given is to be under God’s curse!”
