[4,1-3] To the above he adds: For I say: While the heir is a minor, he is not at all different from a slave, though he is master of everything; but is under guardians and administrators until the time set by the father. In the same way we also, when we were minors, lived as slaves under the elements of this world. It can be investigated in what way, according to the terms of resemblance, were the Jews under the elements of this world, considering that, by means of the law they received, they were entrusted with the worship of the one God, who made heaven and the earth. But the meaning of the present passage may be another. Since previously he presented the law as the pedagogue (Cf Ga 3,24), under which the Jewish people were found, he may now designate as tutors and administrators the elements of the world under which the Gentiles served as slaves. In this way, that youngest son, the people who, by the unity of faith, belong to the only offspring of Abraham, since he has been formed of both Jews and Gentiles, on one hand, that which came from the Jews, he was under the law having her as his pedagogue, and in another, that which came from the Gentiles, under the elements of this world that he served, as if they were his tutors and administrators. Although the Apostle includes his own person, since he does not say: "When you were underage, you were under the elements of this world", but: when we were minors we lived as slaves under the elements of this world, it does not These words refer to the Jews, from whom he proceeds, but rather to the Gentiles, at least in this passage. With full right can be included among them who was sent to evangelize them.

[4,4-5] He then says that, when the fullness of time came, God sent his son to free the minor heir, subject in one of its components to the Law, as a pedagogue , and in another to the elements of this world, as tutors and administrators. It says: God sent his only Son made of woman. By using the term "woman" is referring to the female person, according to the mode of expression of the Hebrew language. In fact, from the fact that it has been said of Eva: God created her a woman (Gn 2,22), it does not follow that she had had sexual relations with her husband. According to the Scripture, such relationships were only maintained once they were both expelled from Paradise. Use the verb do in attention to have assumed a creature. When one is born of a woman, one is not born in that moment of God and, nevertheless, it is God who makes them so that they can be born in that way, just as it does to every creature. He affirmed that it was made under the law, since he was also circumcised and by him the victim prescribed by law was offered (Cf Lc 2,21-24). And it should not cause strangeness that he should also submit to those practices of the law from which he was going to deliver those who were subject to them as slaves, who also suffered death to rid them of those who were subjected to mortality. So that we recover, he says, adoption as children. Talk about adoption, so that we notice the distinction regarding the only Son of God. We are children of God thanks to the favor and condescension of his mercy, he is Son by nature, since it is the same as the Father. And he did not say, "let us receive," but rather recover, to signify that we had lost that condition in Adam, to whom we must be mortal. The words to rescue those who were under the law refer to the liberation of the people who, being underage, were subject to the pedagogue, and are in relation to what was said before: done under the law. On the other hand, these others to recover the adoption as children, refer to the fact of a woman. Indeed, we recovered the adoption because that unique Son, made of a woman, did not disdain to participate in our nature. In this way, he is not only one, having no brothers, but also a firstborn among many brothers (Cf Rm 8,29). Made of a woman, made under the law: in the response she changed the order of the two things she had affirmed.

[4,6] He already associates those people who, in their minority, were subject to tutors and administrators, the elements of this world. So that those belonging to that people would not think that they were not children, because they were not under the pedagogue, he said: But as you are children, God sent your hearts to the Spirit of his Son who cries: Abba, Father! He used two terms to interpret the first from the second, because Abba is the same as Father. Not in vain and, in addition, with good literary taste resorted to two names that mean the same, with the mind set on the whole of the people who were called to the unity of faith, composed of Jews and Gentiles: the Hebrew term refers to the Jews, the Greek to the Gentiles, and the one that mean the same term and another, to the unity in the faith and in the Spirit. Also in the Letter to the Romans, which deals with the same question of the peace that Jews and Gentiles encounter in Christ, he says the following: For you have not received a spirit of servitude to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adopted children in which we cry: Abba, Father! (Rm 8,15) He rightly wanted to show the Gentiles that they are included in the promised inheritance by departing from the presence and gift of the Holy Spirit. The evangelization of the Gentiles only took place after the ascension of the Lord and the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Jews had already begun to believe when the Son of God was still on earth as a mortal man, as it is written in the gospel. Although it is recorded in him that he praised the faith of the Canaanite woman, (Cf Mt 15,28) and that of the centurion of whom he said that he had not found such great faith in Israel, (Cf Mt 8,10) properly speaking the gospel was only then announced to the Jews. This is clear enough from the words of the Lord Himself. Responding to the supplication of that Canaanite woman, she said that she had not been sent except for the sheep that had perished from the house of Israel (Cf Mt 15,24). And when he sent his disciples, he said to them, "Do not take the way of the Gentiles or enter the cities of the Samaritans; Go before the sheep that perished from the house of Israel. Referring to the Gentiles he spoke of another fold when he said: I have other sheep that are not of this fold; sheep that, he added, had to lead, so that there would be only one flock and one shepherd (Cf Jn 10,16). When, but after his glorification? After the resurrection he sent his disciples also to the Gentiles, when he commanded them to remain for the time being in Jerusalem until he sent them the Holy Spirit as promised. The Apostle had said: God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, in order to rescue those who were under the law, so that we may recover adoption as sons. It remained to show that also the Gentiles, who were not under the law, fell into the same adoption as children. This shows him from the gift of the Holy Spirit, which was granted to all (Cf Acts 10,47). Hence, Peter also defended himself before the Jewish believers of having baptized the uncircumcised centurion Cornelius, affirming that he could not deny the water to those about whom it was clear that they had already received the Holy Spirit. To the same very solid test Paul used before, when he said: Only this I want to know from you: Did you receive the Spirit because you practiced the works prescribed by the law or because you listened to the announcement of the faith? (Ga 3,2) And a little later: Who gave you the Spirit and worked wonders among you, does he do it because you practice the law or because you have listened to the proclamation of the faith? (Ga 3,5) In the same way he said here: Since you are children of God, God sent the Spirit to your hearts of his Son who cries: Abba, Father!

[4,7-8] The following shows with the utmost clarity that it speaks of those who had come to the faith from the Gentiles and to those who also direct the Letter. He says: Therefore, he is no longer a servant, but a son, taking into account what he had said before: While the heir is a minor, he is not at all different from a slave (Ga 4,1). Then, if he is a son, he says, he is also an heir for God, that is, by the mercy of God, not because of the promises made to the parents, of whom he has not been born according to the flesh like the Jews. But, nevertheless, he is the son of Abraham for imitating his faith, whose grace of faith he deserved for the mercy of the Lord. But then, keep saying, ignoring God, you served gods that are not by nature. It is sure that he is not addressing Jews, but Gentiles. And it does not say: "we serve", but you served. It is very probable that he referred to Gentiles before, when he said that they served the elements of this world, as well as their tutors and administrators (Cf Ga 4,2-3). Certainly, such elements are not by nature gods that are already in heaven, already on earth, as if there were many gods and many lords. But for us there is only one God the Father, from whom all things come-and in whom we are-and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom all things were made-and through him we were made (1Co 8,5-6). When he says: Servisteis gods that are not by nature, shows clearly that God by nature is only the only true God, name under which the Trinity understands the heart that accepts the integrity and Catholic faith. On the other hand, to those who are not gods by nature he called them before tutors and administrators, because there is no creature whatsoever, whether he remains in the truth glorifying God, whether he has not remained in the truth, in seeking his glory; There is no creature, I repeat, who, whether they like it or not, is not at the service of divine providence. But in a different way: with the one who wants it, providence does good; about who does not want it, does justice. If it were not correct to consider the same angels as transgressors, with their chief the devil, as tutors and administrators at the service of divine providence, the Lord would not have called the devil magistrate of this world. And neither the Apostle, by virtue of his power, would have used him in a passage to correct men. It is the same Paul who says in a text: To those I gave to Satan so that they learn not to blaspheme (1Tm 1,20), and in another to save them, because he says: I, for my part, corporally absent, but present in spirit, I have already judged, as if I were present, to him who thus worked: in the name of the Lord Jesus, gathered together with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, (I have decreed) to surrender that individual to Satan, to the destruction of the flesh, in order May the spirit be saved on the day of the Lord Jesus. But even the magistrate, submitted to the legitimate emperor, does not do anything outside of what is allowed; In the same way, the tutors and administrators of this world do nothing but what the Lord allows them to do. Unlike what happens to man, nothing is hidden from him; nor is there any area in which it has less power, as is the case of tutors and administrators who are under its jurisdiction, who do nothing in matters that, according to their rank, are entrusted to them, without their permission or knowledge. But they are not paid for what is duly done through them, but for the intention with which they do it. God did not deny his rational creature free will, but he retained for himself the power to order even the unjust according to justice. We have examined this topic with greater breadth and profusion. Therefore, whether the sun, the moon, the stars, the sky, the earth or other similar creatures, and the demons what the Gentiles worshiped, it is correct to understand that they were under tutors and administrators.

[4,10-11] It may seem that what has been said is well confirmed by what he adds: You observe the days, the months, the years and the seasons; I fear for you; (I fear) that perhaps I have fatigued in vain among you. Very well known is this error of gentility. Either when they transact their affairs, and when they are in the expectation of events related to their life or business, they stick to the days, months, years and seasons indicated by astrologers and Chaldeans. However, it may not be necessary to understand those words referring to the error of the Gentiles, so as not to leave the impression that, in a sudden and daring way (the Apostle), he wanted to separate his intention from the theme assumed at the beginning and carried to the end. It can be understood referring rather to the errors that there is no doubt that the Letter deals with from beginning to end in order to guard against them. For the Jews also observe as slaves the days, the months, the years and the seasons when they give themselves to the carnal observance of the Sabbath, of the New Moon, of the month of the new fruits and also of each seventh year, which they call "Sabbath of Saturdays ». Realities all that, as a shadow of what was to come, when Christ arrived, they remained superstitions when they fulfilled them, as if they contributed salvation, those who do not know what to refer to. It is just as if the Apostle had said to the Gentiles, "What good is it to you to have delivered you from the slavery in which you found yourselves when you served the elements of this world, if now you return to them, seduced by the Jews?" They, ignoring the time of their freedom, are also subject to temporary factors as well as to the other works prescribed by the law that they understand carnally. To those factors you wish to return to enslave you, as before, when you want to confront them with the days, months, years and seasons to which you were also enslaved before believing in Christ. It is evident that the flow of time is governed by the elements of this world, that is, of the sky, the earth and the movement and order of the stars. If you designate them as weak, it is because they vary in their weak and unstable exterior image; if it qualifies them as miserable, because they lack the sum and stable image of the Creator, so that they can be as they are.

The reader then chooses which of the opinions he accepts, provided he understands that the superstitious observance of the times means such a great danger to the soul that the Apostle added to this passage: I fear for you; (I fear) that perhaps I have fatigued in vain among you. When these words, which enjoy so much celebrity and authority, are read in churches throughout the world, our assemblies are full of people who accept that astrologers tell them the times to do what they have to do. So much so that, often, they do not hesitate to warn even us that we will not start anything, be it the construction of a building, or any other work of that kind, in the days that they call "bad omen", ignoring, as they say, the ground they tread. Because if this passage is to be understood referring to the superstitious observances of the Jews, what hope remains for those who, wanting to be considered Christians, govern their life as shipwrecked people guided by the calendar? If, following the custom of the Jews, they were adjusted to the times in conformity with the divine books that God gave to the people who were still carnal, the Apostle would say to them: I fear for you; (I fear) that perhaps I have fatigued in vain among you. However, if someone is surprised, even if he is a catechumen, observing the Sabbath according to Jewish practice, the Church is disturbed. However, countless people, already baptized, now tell us face to face with great naturalness: "The second day of the month I do not get on the road." With great difficulty and only little by little we forbid this way of proceeding, with a smiling face so as not to irritate them and fearing that it will cause them strangeness, as if it were a novelty. Woe to men for their sins! Only the non-habitual ones cause us horror; Those accustomed to the purification of which the Son of God shed his blood, no matter how great they may be and who closes the door to the kingdom of God in an absolute way, when we see them often, we feel impelled to tolerate them in all and, by dint of tolerate them, we are even dragged to commit some. And, hopefully, Lord, let's not commit all those we have not been able to prevent!

[4.9] But let's see the continuation of the text. We had put aside these words: But now that you know God, or better, that he has known you. It seems that even in the way of expressing himself in this passage, the Apostle wants to adjust to the weakness of men, so that they do not think that the divine word only descended to the level of human thought in the Old Testament. The fact that you have corrected what you said first: you know God, it should not cause strangeness; It is clear that, while we walk in faith and not in vision, (Cf 2Co 5,7) we still do not know God, although that faith purifies us so that at the opportune moment we are able to know Him. But, if it is taken in its proper sense, the correction it introduces: or better, he has known you, it will lead you to think that God knows from a certain moment something that he did not know before. Consequently, (it must be admitted) that he said it figuratively, understanding as "eyes of God" the very love he put before our eyes when sending his only Son to death for the ungodly. In effect, of the things we love, we usually say that we have them before our eyes. The words: You know God, or better, he has known you, they are equivalent to these others of San Juan: Not that we loved God, but that he loved us (1Jn 4,10).

[4,12-18] He says later: Be as I am. Like me who, having been born a Jew, and contempt with spiritual criteria these carnal realities. Because I am also like you: I am a man. Then, in a timely and appropriate manner, he brings their charity to mind, so they do not consider him an enemy. When I said to them: Please, brothers, you have not harmed me in any way, it is as if I said to them: Do not think that I want to harm you. You know that I already announced the gospel to you on the occasion of a suffering suffered in the body, that is, on the occasion of suffering persecution. And you did not despise or disregard the proof that you suffered in my flesh. In fact, when the Apostle suffered persecution, they suffered the test of hesitating between abandoning him out of fear or accepting him out of love. And you did not despise, he says, the proof, as judging it useful, nor did you disregard it, to the point of not participating in my danger. But you welcomed me as an envoy of God, as Jesus Christ. Then, full of admiration, he makes his spiritual work more expensive, so that, putting his eyes on it, do not fall into the fear coming from the flesh. What was, therefore, he says, your happiness? For I testify in your favor that, if it were possible for you, you would have taken your own eyes to give them to me. So, have I become your enemy by preaching the truth to you? The answer will of course be: No. But what is the truth that preaches to you, but do not get circumcised? Look what he adds: The zeal they show for you is not good; that is, those who want to convert from spiritual to carnal see you with evil eyes. This is what it means: The zeal they show for you is not good. On the contrary, they want to separate you, so that you show zeal for them. In other words, for you to imitate them. How? Holding on to the yoke of slavery that they endure. It is good, he says, to be always jealous of good. He wants us to imitate him always; for that reason he added: And not only when I am among you. If when they were among them they wanted to give him their eyes, there is no doubt that they tried to imitate who they loved.

[4,19] If he says: My children, it is also with the purpose of being imitated as a father, those of whom he says: For whom I suffer birth pains, until Christ is formed in you. This he said rather by assuming the role of Mother Church. He also says in another place: I have become small in your midst, as when a wet nurse raises her children (1Ts 2,7). Christ is formed by the faith that lies in the inner man of the believer called to the freedom of grace, who is meek and humble of heart, who does not boast of the null merits of his works, but of the grace that gives rise to some merit Such a believer can be called "the least of his people", that is, he himself, of whom these words are: When you did it with one of the least of my people, you did it with me (Mt 25,40). Christ is formed in him who acquires the form of Christ. Now, he acquires the form of Christ who adheres to him with spiritual love. The result of this adhesion will be that, by imitating him, he will become what he is, insofar as his condition allows. John says: For whoever affirms that he abides in Christ, he too must live as Christ lives (1Jn 2,6). Mothers are those who conceive men to train them and those who, once trained, suffer the pains of birth to be born. Consequently, these words may arouse strangeness: For those who suffer birth pains, until Christ is formed in you. (They will cause strangeness) unless, under this painful birth, we understand the anxieties and worries that he suffered (first) when giving birth to them to be born in the Church and, again, when they were enlightened with pain in the face of danger of being seduced, danger what you see worries them. Care and concern, which justify comparison with the pains of childbirth, may last until they reach the full measure of Christ's age, when no doctrinal wind will shake them. The words: For those who suffer birth pains, until Christ is formed in you, did not write thinking about the beginning of faith, thanks to which they had already been born, but thinking about its robustness and fullness. To this same painful birth it makes reference with diverse language in another passage in which it says: The daily attacks against me, the concern for all the Churches. Who becomes weak, without weakening me too? Who suffers scandal, without me opening myself?

[4,20] [The Apostle] added: I would like to meet you now in the midst of you and change the tone of my voice, for I am disoriented about you. What should be derived from these words? Probably, by addressing by letter (and not by voice) those whom he had called his children, he spares them a more severe rebuke. The purpose was to prevent those who were deceiving them and those who, when absent, could not stand up to them, they found it easy to get those affected by such a rebuke, to go on hating it. I would like to meet you now in the midst of you and change the tone of my voice, that is, deny that you are my children, because I am disoriented about you. Also parents often deny their bad children, so they do not have to feel ashamed of them.

[4,21-31] ​​Then it continues: You who want to be under the law, say to me: Have you not listened to the law? What he says about the two sons of Abraham is understood without difficulty, because he interprets the allegory. Abraham had those two children at the time it is understood that they symbolize the two Testaments. On the other hand, the ones he had after Sara's death no longer fall within this symbolism. For this reason, many readers of the Apostle, but unaware of the book of Genesis, judge that Abraham had only those two sons. If the Apostle mentions these two, it is because he still had only those two at the moment in which they symbolized the realities that he exposes next. This is: that the son of the slave called Hagar symbolizes the Old Testament, that is, the people of the Old Testament, considering the servile yoke of carnal observances and the promises of earthly goods, the only ones that expect from God; entangled in them, he is not admitted to participate in the spiritual inheritance of the celestial patrimony. As for the son who was born of the free, this data is not enough to signify the inheritance of the New Testament; what, in this respect, has more value, is the fact of being born of a promise. According to the flesh, he could have been born of the slave or of the free one, just as he later had other children of Queturá -with whom he married later- not of a promise, but (only) of the flesh (Cf Gn 25,1-2). Isaac was born in a wonderful way, when both parents had aged, but after a repeated promise. Because if, taking the confidence of the Apostle, by showing clearly that those two children should be taken in an allegorical sense, I would like someone to see the children of Queturá as a figure of future realities, perhaps find that they symbolize the heresies and schisms. For not in vain have they written, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, those things about such persons. The children of Queturá were born, in truth, of a free woman, just as heretics and schismatics were born of the Church, but their birth was according to the flesh, not spiritual as the result of a promise. And, being this way, it is discovered that they also do not belong to the inheritance, to the celestial Jerusalem, which the Scripture calls "sterile", for not having generated children on earth for a long time. It was also called "abandoned", once men abandoned celestial justice and went after earthly goods, as if the earthly Jerusalem, having received the law, had a husband. Therefore, Sara symbolizes the celestial Jerusalem that for a long time was abandoned in terms of carnal treatment with the husband, because of his well-known sterility. For the men of the category of Abraham did not use their wives to satisfy their carnal desire, but to obtain a successor to them. In addition, senescence had been added to sterility, so that, starting from a totally desperate case, the divine promise would allow a great merit to be given to those who believed. Abraham, therefore, already assured by the divine promise of the duty to father, joined his wife in an advanced age, whom he had abandoned in his lush years as far as the carnal union is concerned. There is no other reason why the Apostle, attaching the symbolism of those women, sees in all that said by the prophet, namely: Because there are many children of the abandoned, more than those who have a husband, not However, Sara died before her husband and between them there was no divorce. According to this, how is she the "abandoned" and the other "the one who has a husband", but because Abraham transferred the task of generating children of the sterility of Sara, his wife, to the fecundity of Hagar, his slave? All this with the permission of Sara and freely accepting that her husband obtained children from his slave. There was a norm of justice that the Apostle himself recommends to the Corinthians: The woman has no control over her body, but the husband; but, similarly, the man does not have control over his own, but the woman (1Co 7,4). And this type of debits, like the others, are based on the domain exercised by those to whom they owe. Who does not act outside this domain safeguards the rights of conjugal chastity. The old age of Isaac's parents has figurative value because, although the people of the New Testament are new, their predestination for God and heavenly Jerusalem itself is old. Hence, John also says in the Letter to the Parthians: I write to you, fathers, because you know what existed from the beginning (1Jn 2,13). On the other hand, to the carnal in the Church, from which the heresies and schisms originate, it was the gospel that gave them the opportunity to be born. But the carnal error by which they were conceived and carried along with them has no relation to the antiquity of the truth. this reason was born of a young mother and an elderly father, but not by virtue of a promise. The Lord also appeared in the Apocalypse with white hair because of the antiquity of the truth (Cf Ap 1,14). Such, taking foot of the ancient truth, were born in the new and temporary lie. The Apostle, therefore, says that we are children of the promise like Isaac. Thus, Isaac suffered persecution on the part of Ishmael, just as those who began to live according to the Spirit suffered on behalf of the carnal Jews. Persecution otherwise useless, since, according to the Scripture, the slave and her son are expelled and he can not be associated as heir to the son of the free woman. It says: But we, brothers, are not children of the slave, but of the free one. Such freedom must now be opposed with all intensity to the yoke of slavery that bound the works prescribed by the law to those who dragged them to circumcision.