July 6, 2025; Galatians 6:14-18; 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
The letters of Paul in the New Testament are real letters, actual correspondence to Christian communities in the ancient world. This makes parts of them difficult for us to understand. Paul, without giving any further explanation or description, will mention to his readers a particular event or detail with which they are familiar. Those to whom he writes know the background of his comments, but we do not. We are limited to only what he says in the letter.
We have an example of this in today’s second reading. Paul says, “I bear the marks of Jesus on my body.” What are these marks that Paul refers to? The Galatians know. We do not. They could be scars from various beatings that Paul underwent for the sake of the gospel. Or they might be tattoos. Tattooing was a common practice of the ancient world. It was especially used to mark slaves to indicate to whom they belonged. It is possible that after Paul’s baptism, he marked himself with a Christian tattoo to show that he belonged to Jesus. Now whatever we decide these marks might be, Paul’s point in using them is clear. He says to the Galatians, “Look, my very body testifies to my commitment to Jesus. My relationship with the Lord is visible to all who see me.”
We, like Paul, must make Christ visible to those we meet. How do we do this? One way would be a tattoo. You know that tattoos have become popular in our culture. We have all seen a lot of them: flowers, hearts, maybe a snake or an eagle. The other day I saw a man with a rather large tattoo of Bart Simpson on his leg. So, if we want to say to others that we belong to Christ, we might choose to have Jesus’s name tattooed on our arm.
But the point of this homily is not to encourage tattooing. The point is that each one of us must find ways to make Jesus visible in us. We can do this in hundreds of ways. Jesus becomes visible in the patience that we show when our teenage son begins to speak to us in anger. Jesus is present when we sit with a close friend who has lost her life partner in death or been betrayed by someone she trusted. Jesus’s voice can be heard when we object to corporate or governmental programs that denigrate the inherent value of immigrants or who dismiss the God-given dignity of those who are in prison. Jesus is made visible whenever we welcome a stranger or serve someone who is in need.
We do not need a Christian tattoo to testify that we belong to Jesus. But all of us must make Jesus visible in the way that we love, forgive, and serve others. Then, like Paul, we will be able to say, “I bear the marks of Jesus on my body.”