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Office Of Readings | Week 5, Thursday, Ordinary Time | A Reading From Saint Augustine’s Explanation Of The Letter To The Galatians | Till Christ Shall Be Fully Formed In You
‘Let Christ be formed in you.’
In this reflection on Saint Paul’s letter to the Galatians, Saint Augustine explores the Apostle’s pastoral concern and the meaning of the phrase ‘until Christ be formed in you’. His focus is on spiritual growth, imitation of Christ, and the role of patient guidance within the Church.
Augustine begins by explaining Paul’s appeal, ‘Be like me, for I am as you are.’ Paul, though born a Jew, no longer places his confidence in outward observances. By spiritual discernment he recognises that such things are secondary to the freedom given by grace. At the same time, he identifies himself with the Galatians in their shared humanity. This balanced appeal combines authority and solidarity.
Paul’s tone, Augustine notes, is careful and affectionate. By calling the Galatians ‘brothers’ and insisting that they have done him no wrong, Paul removes any suspicion of hostility. When he addresses them as ‘my little children’ he adopts the voice not only of a teacher but of a parent. Augustine suggests that here Paul speaks in the person of Mother Church, labouring for the spiritual growth of her children. The image shifts from instruction to childbirth.
The central idea is that Christ must be ‘formed’ in the believer. Augustine understands this as the inward shaping of the soul by faith and grace. Christ is formed when the believer clings to him in love, imitates his humility, and lives in the freedom that grace confers. This formation is not a claim to personal merit, but the beginning of transformation brought about by God’s gift.
Augustine explains the image of labour in detail. Just as a child is first conceived and then gradually formed before birth, so faith begins and must mature. Paul’s anxiety for the Galatians is like the pain of childbirth, not because they lack faith entirely, but because their faith is endangered and incomplete. He longs for them to reach maturity, stable in doctrine and not carried away by changing teachings.
The labour, therefore, concerns not the first moment of belief but the growth into strong and perfected faith. Augustine connects this with Paul’s wider concern for all the churches, expressed in his daily anxiety for their wellbeing. Spiritual fatherhood or motherhood involves vigilance, patience, and willingness to suffer for the growth of others.
In Augustine’s reading, the passage reveals both the tenderness and the seriousness of Christian formation. Christ must be shaped within believers through faith and love, and this process requires perseverance until maturity is reached.
A Reading From Saint Augustine’s Explanation Of The Letter To The Galatians | Till Christ Shall Be Fully Formed In You
The Apostle says, Be like me, for though born a Jew, by reason of spiritual discernment I now consider carnal things of small importance. And he adds, For I am as you are, that is to say: For I, like you, am a man. Then he tactfully reminds them of his love so that they will not look on him as an enemy: Brothers, I beseech you, he says, you did me no wrong, as if to say, ‘Do not imagine that I want to wrong you.’ And to have them imitate him as they would a parent, he addresses them as little children: My little children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ be formed in you. Actually he is here speaking more in the person of Mother Church that his own. So too he says elsewhere: I was gentle among you like a nurse fondling her little ones.
Christ is formed in the believer by faith of the inner man, called to the freedom that grace bestows, meek and gentle, not boasting of nonexistent merits, but through grace making some beginning of merit. Hence he can be called ‘my least one’ by him who said: Inasmuch as you did it to the least of my brethren you did it to me.
Christ is formed in him who receives Christ’s mold, who clings to him in spiritual love. By imitating him he becomes, as far as is possible to his condition, what Christ is. John says: He who remains in Christ should walk as he did.
Children are conceived in order to be formed in their mother’s womb, and when they have been so formed, mothers are in travail to give them birth. We can thus understand Paul’s words: With whom I am in labor until Christ be formed in you. By labor we understand his anxiety for those with whom he is in travail, that they be born unto Christ. And he is again in labor when he sees them in danger of being led astray. These anxieties, which can be likened to the pangs of childbirth, will continue until they come to full age in Christ, so as not to be moved by every wind of doctrine.
He is not therefore talking about the beginnings of faith by which they were born, but of strong and perfect faith when he says: With whom I am again in labor until Christ be formed in you. He also refers elsewhere in different words to his being in labor, when he says: There is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?
Christian Prayer With Jesus
Lord Jesus Christ,
form your image within us
through the gift of faith and the power of your grace.
Guard us from error and instability,
and lead us to maturity in understanding and love.
Keep us from pride in our own merits,
and teach us to cling to you in humility.
Bless all who labour for the growth of your Church,
and strengthen them in patience and hope.
May we grow steadily
until your life is clearly reflected in ours.
You who live and reign for ever and ever.
Amen
Glossary Of Christian Terms
Spiritual discernment | The ability to judge according to the Spirit rather than external observance
Grace | God’s free gift that brings freedom and transformation
Christ formed in you | The inward shaping of the believer’s life according to Christ
Inner man | The spiritual dimension of the person
Freedom of grace | Liberation from reliance on the law through God’s gift
Imitation of Christ | Living according to Christ’s example
Mother Church | The Church as the spiritual mother of believers
Labour in childbirth | A metaphor for pastoral concern and spiritual formation
Maturity in Christ | Stable and perfected faith
Wind of doctrine | Changing or misleading teachings
Anxiety for the churches | Paul’s pastoral care and concern for believers
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