The Great Apostle Saint Paul: 2008

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

What It Means to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ

Pope Benedict XVI

General Audience of September 10, 2008

St Paul's view of what it means to be an apostle of Jesus Christ

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Last Wednesday I spoke of the great turning point in St Paul's life after his encounter with the Risen Christ. Jesus entered his life and transformed him from persecutor to Apostle. That meeting marked the start of his mission; Paul could not continue to live as he did before, he now felt that the Lord had invested him with the task of proclaiming his Gospel as an Apostle. It is precisely this new condition of life, that is, his being an apostle of Christ, that I would like to talk about today. Usually, in accordance with the Gospels, it is the Twelve that we identify with the title "Apostles", thereby desiring to point out those who were Jesus' companions in life and who listened to his teaching. Yet Paul too felt that he was a true Apostle and it clearly appears, therefore, that the Pauline concept of "apostolate" was not limited to the group of the Twelve. Obviously, Paul is able to markedly distinguish between his own case and that of those "who were Apostles before" him (Gal 1: 17); he recognizes that they have a very special place in the life of the Church. Yet, as everyone knows, St Paul understood himself as an Apostle in the strict sense. It is certain that at the time of the early Christians, no one covered as many kilometres as he did over land and across the seas, with the sole aim of proclaiming the Gospel.

Therefore he had a concept of apostolate that went beyond the exclusive association of the term with the group of the Twelve that was passed down primarily by St Luke in the Acts (cf. Acts 1: 2, 26; 6: 2). Indeed, in the First Letter to the Corinthians Paul makes a clear distinction between "the Twelve" and "all the apostles" mentioned as two different groups of beneficiaries of the Risen One's apparitions" (cf. 15: 5, 7). In that same passage he then goes on to mention himself humbly as the "the least of the apostles", even comparing himself to "one untimely born", and declaring himself "unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me" (1 Cor 15: 9-10). The metaphor of the miscarriage expresses extreme humility; this will also be found in St Ignatius of Antioch's Epistle to the Romans: "I am not worthy, as being the very last of them, and one born out of due time. But I have obtained mercy to be somebody, if I shall attain to God" (9, 2). What the Bishop of Antioch was to say in relation to his imminent martyrdom, foreseeing that it would reverse his condition of unworthiness, St Paul says in relation to his own apostolic commitment: it is in this that is manifest the fruitfulness of the grace of God who knows precisely how to transform an unsuccessful man into a splendid apostle. From a persecutor to a founder of Churches: God brought this about in one who, from the evangelical point of view, might have been considered a reject!

Therefore, according to St Paul's conception, what is it that makes him and others apostles? In his Letters three principal characteristics of the true apostle appear. The first is to have "seen Jesus our Lord" (cf. 1 Cor 9: 1), that is, to have had a life-changing encounter with him. Similarly, in his Letter to the Galatians (cf. 1: 15-16) Paul was to say that he had been called or chosen, almost, through God's grace with the revelation of his Son, in view of proclaiming the Good News to the Gentiles. In short, it is the Lord who appoints to the apostolate and not one's own presumption. The apostle is not made by himself but is made such by the Lord; consequently the apostle needs to relate constantly to the Lord. Not without reason does Paul say that he is "called to be an apostle" (Rm 1: 1), in other words, "an apostle - not from men nor through human means, but "through Jesus Christ and God the Father" (Gal 1: 1). This is the first characteristic: to have seen the Lord, to have been called by him.

The second characteristic is "to have been sent". The same Greek term apostolos means, precisely, "sent, dispatched", that is as ambassador and bearer of a message; he must therefore act as having been charged and as representing a sender. It is for this reason that Paul describes himself as an "apostle of Christ Jesus" (1 Cor 1: 1; 2 Cor 1: 1), that is, his delegate, placed totally at his service, even to the point that he also calls himself "a servant of Christ Jesus" (Rm 1: 1). Once again the idea of someone else's initiative comes to the fore, the initiative of God in Jesus Christ, to whom Paul is fully indebted; but special emphasis is placed on the fact that Paul has received from him a mission to carry out in his name, making every personal interest absolutely secondary.

The third requisite is the task of "proclaiming the Gospel", with the consequent foundation of Churches. Indeed, the title of "apostle" is not and cannot be honorary. It involves concretely and even dramatically the entire life of the person concerned. In his First Letter to the Corinthians Paul exclaims: "Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord?" (9: 1). Similarly in the Second Letter to the Corinthians he says: "You yourselves are our letters of recommendation... a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God" (3: 2-3).

Thus it should not come as a surprise that Chrysostom speaks of "a soul of diamond" (Panegyrics, 1, 8), and continues saying: "in the same way that fire, in setting light to different materials burns ever stronger.... So Paul's words won over to his cause all those with whom he came into contact, and those who were hostile to him, captivated by his discourses, became the fuel of this spiritual fire" (ibid., 7,11). This explains why Paul defines the apostles as "fellow workers" of God (1 Cor 3: 9; 2 Cor 6: 1), whose grace acts within them. A typical element of a true apostle, which St Paul highlights effectively, is a sort of identification between Gospel and evangelizer, both destined to the same fate. In fact no one emphasized as well as Paul that the proclamation of the Cross of Christ appears "a stumbling block... and folly" (1 Cor 1: 23), to which many react with incomprehension and rejection. This happened then and it should not come as a surprise that it also happens today. Consequently, the apostle shares in this destiny, in appearing as "a stumbling block... and folly", and Paul is aware of it; this is the experience of his life. He writes to the Corinthians, not without a vein of irony: "For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honour, but we in disrepute. "To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and buffeted and homeless, and we labour, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the scum of all" (1 Cor 4: 9-13). This is a self-portrait of St Paul's apostolic life: in all this suffering the joy of being a herald of God's blessing and of the grace of the Gospel prevails.

Paul, moreover, shares with the Stoic philosophy of his time the idea of a tenacious constancy in all the difficulties that arise; but he overcomes the merely humanistic perspective by recalling the element of the love of God and of Christ: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered'. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. "For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rm 8: 35-39). This is the certainty, the profound joy that guides the Apostle Paul through all these vicissitudes: nothing can separate us from the love of God and this love is the true treasure of human life.

As can be seen, St Paul gave himself to the Gospel with his entire existence; we could say 24 hours a day! And he exercised his ministry with faithfulness and joy, "that I might by all means save some" (1 Cor 9: 22). And with regard to the Church, even knowing that he had a relationship of fatherhood with her (cf. 1 Cor 4: 15), if not actually of motherhood (cf. Gal 4: 19), he adopted an attitude of complete service, declaring admirably: "Not that we lord it over your faith; we work with you for your joy" (2 Cor 1: 24). This remains the mission of all Christ's apostles in all times: to be his fellow workers in true joy.

BENEDICT XVI

GENERAL AUDIENCE

Paul VI Audience Hall

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

St. Paul's Conversion

St Paul's Conversion

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today's Catechesis is dedicated to the experience that Paul had on his way to Damascus, and therefore on what is commonly known as his conversion. It was precisely on the road to Damascus, at the beginning of the 30s in the first century and after a period in which he had persecuted the Church that the decisive moment in Paul's life occurred. Much has been written about it and naturally from different points of view. It is certain that he reached a turning point there, indeed a reversal of perspective. And so he began, unexpectedly, to consider as "loss" and "refuse" all that had earlier constituted his greatest ideal, as it were the raison d'être of his life (cf. Phil 3: 7-8). What had happened?

In this regard we have two types of source. The first kind, the best known, consists of the accounts we owe to the pen of Luke, who tells of the event at least three times in the Acts of the Apostles (cf. 9: 1-19; 22: 3-21; 26: 4-23). The average reader may be tempted to linger too long on certain details, such as the light in the sky, falling to the ground, the voice that called him, his new condition of blindness, his healing like scales falling from his eyes and the fast that he made. But all these details refer to the heart of the event: the Risen Christ appears as a brilliant light and speaks to Saul, transforms his thinking and his entire life. The dazzling radiance of the Risen Christ blinds him; thus what was his inner reality is also outwardly apparent, his blindness to the truth, to the light that is Christ. And then his definitive "yes" to Christ in Baptism restores his sight and makes him really see.

In the ancient Church Baptism was also called "illumination", because this Sacrament gives light; it truly makes one see. In Paul what is pointed out theologically was also brought about physically: healed of his inner blindness, he sees clearly. Thus St Paul was not transformed by a thought but by an event, by the irresistible presence of the Risen One whom subsequently he would never be able to doubt, so powerful had been the evidence of the event, of this encounter. It radically changed Paul's life in a fundamental way; in this sense one can and must speak of a conversion. This encounter is the centre St Luke's account for which it is very probable that he used an account that may well have originated in the community of Damascus. This is suggested by the local colour, provided by Ananias' presence and by the names, of both the street and the owner of the house in which Paul stayed (Acts 9: 11).

The second type of source concerning the conversion consists in St Paul's actual Letters. He never spoke of this event in detail, I think because he presumed that everyone knew the essentials of his story: everyone knew that from being a persecutor he had been transformed into a fervent apostle of Christ. And this had not happened after his own reflection, but after a powerful event, an encounter with the Risen One. Even without speaking in detail, he speaks on various occasions of this most important event, that, in other words he too is a witness of the Resurrection of Jesus, the revelation of which he received directly from Jesus, together with his apostolic mission. The clearest text found is in his narrative of what constitutes the centre of salvation history: the death and Resurrection of Jesus and his appearances to witnesses (cf. 1 Cor 15). In the words of the ancient tradition, which he too received from the Church of Jerusalem, he says that Jesus died on the Cross, was buried and after the Resurrection appeared risen first to Cephas, that is Peter, then to the Twelve, then to 500 brethren, most of whom were still alive at Paul's time, then to James and then to all the Apostles. And to this account handed down by tradition he adds, "Last of all... he appeared also to me" (1 Cor 15: 8). Thus he makes it clear that this is the foundation of his apostolate and of his new life. There are also other texts in which the same thing appears: "Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship" (cf. Rm 1: 4-5); and further: "Have I not seen Jesus Our Lord?" (1 Cor 9: 1), words with which he alludes to something that everyone knows. And lastly, the most widely known text is read in Galatians: "But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and had called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were Apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia; and again I returned to Damascus" (1: 15-17). In this "self-apology" he definitely stresses that he is a true witness of the Risen One, that he has received his own mission directly from the Risen One.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

The Apostle of the Gentiles

The Apostles of the Gentiles
St. Paul, by Giotto di Bondone, 1290s,
Fresco, Upper Church, San Francesco, Assisi

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In the last catechesis before the summer holiday - two months ago, at the beginning of July - I started a new series on the occasion of thePauline Year, by considering the world in which the apostle lived. Today I wish to resume and continue reflecting on the Apostle of the Gentiles, offering a brief biography. Since we will dedicate next Wednesday's lesson to the extraordinary event on the road to Damascus, Paul's conversion, the fundamental turning point of his existence following his encounter with Christ, we will briefly linger today on the totality of his life. We find the extremes of Paul's biography in the Letter to Philemon, in which he calls himself "old" (Fm 9: presbýtes), and in the Acts of the Apostles, which, at the time of Stephen's death by stoning, describes him as "young" (7,58: neanías). The two descriptions are obviously generic, but according to ancient usage, 'young' meant a man in his 30s, while 'old' was used for those who had reached their 60s. In absolute terms, the date of Paul's birth depends largely on the dating of the letter to Philemon. Traditionally, it was believed to have been written during Paul's Roman imprisonment, in the middle of the 60s. Paul would have been born in the year 8, to have been more or less 60 then, and at the time of Stephen's stoning, he would have been 30. And that should be the right chronology. Our current celebration of the Pauline Year follows this chronology - 2008 was chosen in view of a birth date more or less in the year 8.

In any case, he was born in Tarsus of Cilicia (cf Acts 22,3). The city was the administrative capital of the region, and in the year 51 A.D., its proconsul was no less then Marcus Tullius Cicero, while ten years later, in the year 41, Tarsus was the place of the first meeting between Marc Antony and Cleopatra. A Jew of the Diaspora, Paul spoke Greek even if his name had a Latin origin, though derived by assonance from his original Jewish name Saul/Saulos, and he held Roman citizenship (cf Acts 22, 25-28). Paul was thus situated on the frontier of three different cultures - Roman, Greek and Jewish - and perhaps it was because of this that he was disposed to a fecund universalistic openness, to mediation among cultures, to a true universality. He also learned manual skills, probably from his father, appropriate for the occupation of 'tent-maker' (cf Acts 18,3: skenopoiòs), which probably meant he worked with coarse goat's wool or linen fibers to be made into mats and tents (cf Acts 20, 33-35). Around the age of 12 or 13, when a Jewish boy becomes bar mitzvà ('son of the precept'), Paul left Tarsus for Jerusalem to be educated at the feet of Rabbì Gamaliel the Elder, nephew of the great Rabbì Hillèl, according to the most rigid norms of Phariseeism, acquiring in the process a great zeal for the Mosaic Torah (cf Gal 1, 14; Phil 3, 5-6; Acts 22, 3; 23, 6; 26, 5).

On the basis of this profound orthodoxy which he learned in the school of Hillel in Jerusalem, he saw in the new movement around Jesus of Nazareth a risk, a threat to the Jewish identity and to the true orthodoxy of the patriarchs. This explains the fact that he fiercely 'persecuted the Church of God', as he admitted three times in his Letters (1 Cor 15, 9; Gal 1, 13; Phm 3, 6). Even if it is not easy to imagine what concretely this persecution consisted of, his attitude was in any case one of intolerance. It is in this context that the event of Damascus takes place, which we will return to in the next catechesis. What is sure is that, from that moment on, his life changed, and he became a tireless apostle of the Gospel. In fact, Paul passed into history for what he did as a Christian, as an apostle, than for being a Pharisee. Traditionally, his apostolic activity has been subdivided into three missionary journeys, to which is added the fourth one when he went to Rome as a prisoner. All this is narrated by Luke in the Acts. But in the case of the three missionary journeys, one must distinguish the first from the other two.

In fact, Paul did not have direct responsibility for the first one (cf Acts 13-14), which was entrusted to the Cypriot Barnabas. Together, they left from Antioch on the Oronte, sent forth by that Church (cf Acts 13, 1-3), and after having landed at the port of Seleucia on the Syrian coast, they traversed the island of Cyprus, from Salamis to Paphos, from which they crossed over to the southern coasts of Anatolia, now Turkey, passing through the cities of Attalia, Perge of Pamphilia, Antioch of Pisidium, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe, from which they then returned to their point of departure. Thus was born the Church of the peoples, the Church of the pagans. In the meantime, especially in Jerusalem, a serious discussion had been born - up to what point were these Christians, who had come from paganism, obliged to participate in the life and laws of Israel (all the various observances and prescriptions that separated Israel from the rest of the world) in order to truly participate in the promises of the prophets and to effectively share Israel's legacy? To resolve this problem which was fundamental for the birth of the future Church, the so-called Council of the Apostles assembled in Jerusalem to decide this problem - upon it depended the effective birth of a universal Church. It was decided not to impose observance of the Mosaic laws on converted pagans (cf Acts 15, 6-30) - this means they were not obliged to follow Jewish norms. The only necessity was to be with Christ, to live with Christ, and according to his words. Being of Christ, they were also of Abraham, of God, and participants in all the promises. After this decisive event, Paul separated from Barnabas, chose Silas (for a companion) and began his second missionary journey (cf Acts 5, 36-18, 22). Going beyond Syria and Cilicia, he revisited the city of Lystra, where he recruited Timothy (a very important figure in the nascent Church, son of a Jewish woman and a pagan) and had him circumcised. They traversed central Anatolia and reached the city of Troade on the northern coast of the Aegean Sea. Here an important event took place. In a dream, Paul saw a Macedonian from the opposite side of the sea, that is, on the continental mainland, who said, "Come and help us". It was the future Europe asking for the aid and light of the Gospel. Spurred by this vision, he arrived in Europe. Heading for Macedonia, he entered Europe. He landed at Neapolis, went to Philippi where he founded an admirable Christian community, proceeding then to Thessalonia, which he had to leave because of difficulties caused by the local Jews, going on to Berea, and finally reaching Athens.

In this capital of ancient Greek culture, he preached first at the Agora and then at the Areopagus, to both Greeks and pagans. The discourse at the Areopagus, cited in the Acts of the Apostles, is a model of translating the Gospel to Greek culture, of making the Greeks understand that this God of the Christians and of the Jews was not a God who was alien to their culture, but the unknown God awaited by them, the true answer to the most profound questions of their culture. From Athens, he went to Corinth, where he stayed for a year and a half. Here we have a very definite timeline of events - the surest dates in his biography, because during this first visit to Corinth, he had to appear before the governor of the senatorial province of Achaia, the Proconsul Gallion, on a charge of illegal worship. About this Gallion and his time in Corinth, there exists an ancient inscription found in Delphi, which says he was the Proconsul to Corinth from 51 to 53. So here we have an absolutely sure date. Paul's Corinthian sojourn took place in those years. We can suppose that he must have arrived there more or less in the year 50 and remained until 52. From Corinth, passing through Cencre, the eastern port of the city, he headed back to Palestine, arriving in Caesarea Marittima, from which he proceeded to Jerusalem, and from there, returned to Antioch on the Oronte.

The third missionary journey (cf Acts 18,23-21,16) began once again in Antioch, which had become the point of origin of the pagan Churches, of the mission to the pagans, and the place where the term 'Christian' was born. Here, for the first time, St. Luke tells us, the followers of Jesus were called Christians. From there, Paul headed directly for Ephesus, capital of the province of Asia Minor, where he stayed for two years, carrying out a ministry which had a fecund fallout on the region. From Ephesus, Paul wrote the letters to the Thessalonians and the Corinthians. But the population of the city was incited against him by the local silversmiths, who saw their income diminished with the weakening of the cult to Artemis (the temple dedicated to her in Ephesus, the Artemision, was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world), and so, he was forced to flee to the north. Once again, he passed through Macedonia, went down to Greece, probably to Corinth yet again, and stayed for three months, during which he wrote the famous Letter to the Romans.

He then retraced his steps - passing back through Macedonia, then sailing for Troade, and then, with brief stops on the islands of Mytilene, Chio, and Samos, he reached Miletus where he delivered an important address to the Ancients of the Church of Ephesus, giving them an image of the true pastor of the Church (cf Acts 20). He next set sail for Tyre, going on to Caesarea Marittima, and then north once more to Jerusalem. Here he was arrested on the basis of a misunderstanding. Some Jews had mistaken for pagans other Jews of Greek origin who had been brought by Paul to the temple area reserved only for Jews. He was spared from the prescribed death penalty at the intervention of the Roman tribune guarding the temple (cf Acts 21, 27-36) - all this happened when Felix Anthony was the imperial Procurator in Judea. After a period in jail (whose duration is disputed) and - being a Roman citizen - having appealed his sentence to Caesar, the next Procurator Porcius Festus sent him to Rome under military guard.

The voyage to Rome passed through the Mediterranean islands of Crete and Malta, and then the towns of Syracuse, Reggio Calabria and Pozzuoli in Italy. The Christians of Rome came out to meet him on the Via Appia as far as the Appian Forum (about 70 kms from Rome) and some as far as the Three Taverns (40 kilometrs from Rome). In Rome, he met with the representatives of the Jewish community, to whom he confided that it was for "the hope of Israel" that he carried his chains (cf Acts 28, 20). But Luke's account of Paul ends with his mention of the two years he spent in Rome under light military custody, without indicating either a decision by Caesar (Nero at the time) nor his eventual death. Subsequent traditions describe a subsequent liberation, which is said to have allowed a missionary voyage to Spain or another episode in the Orient, specifically in Crete, Ephesus and Nicopoli in Epirus. Equally hypothesized is a new arrest and second imprisonment in Rone (during which he supposedly wrote the three so-called Pastoral Letters - the two letters to Timothy and that to Titus), followed by a second trial which was not in his favor. However, there are many reasons which have led many scholars to end the biography of St. Paul with Luke's accounts in the Acts.

About his martyrom, we shall return much later in this catechetical cycle. For now, in this brief listing of Paul's voyages, it is enough to take note of how he dedicated himself to announcing the Gospel without sparing any effort, facing a series of grave trials, of which he has left us a list in the second Letter to the Corinthians (cf 11,2-28). And he writes, "All this I do for the sake of the Gospel" (1 Cor 9, 23), exercising with absolute generosity what he calls his "anxiety for all the churches" (2 Cor 11, 28). We see a commitment which can be explained only by a spirit that was truly fascinated by the light of the Gospel, enamored with Christ, a spirit sustained by the profound conviction of the need to bring to the world the light of Christ, and to announce the Gospel to everyone. I think this is what should remain with us after this brief summary of the journeys of Saint Paul: to see his passion for the Gospel, and thus sense the grandeur, the beauty and above all, the profound need we all have of the Gospel. Let us pray so that the Lord, who made Paul see his light, who made him hear his words, and touched his heart so intimately, may also make us see his light, so that his Word may also touch our hearts, that we too may give to the world today - which has such thirst for it - the light of the Gospel and the truth of Christ.

BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Paul VI Audience Hall
Wednesday August 27, 2008
© Copyright 2008 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

The Great Apostle Saint Paul

St Paul at his Writing-Desk by Rembrandt, 1629

Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg

The Great Apostle Saint Paul

Environment in which St Paul lived and worked

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today I would like to begin a new cycle of Catecheses focusing on the great Apostle St Paul. As you know, this year is dedicated to him, from the liturgical Feast of Sts Peter and Paul on 29 June 2008 to the same Feast day in 2009. The Apostle Paul, an outstanding and almost inimitable yet stimulating figure, stands before us as an example of total dedication to the Lord and to his Church, as well as of great openness to humanity and its cultures. It is right, therefore, that we reserve a special place for him in not only our veneration but also in our effort to understand what he has to say to us as well, Christians of today. In this first meeting let us pause to consider the environment in which St Paul lived and worked. A theme such as this would seem to bring us far from our time, given that we must identify with the world of 2,000 years ago. Yet this is only apparently and, in any case, only partly true for we can see that various aspects of today's social and cultural context are not very different from what they were then.

A primary and fundamental fact to bear in mind is the relationship between the milieu in which Paul was born and raised and the global context to which he later belonged. He came from a very precise and circumscribed culture, indisputably a minority, which is that of the People of Israel and its tradition. In the ancient world and especially in the Roman Empire, as scholars in the subject teach us, Jews must have accounted for about 10 percent of the total population; later, here in Rome, towards the middle of the first century, this percentage was even lower, amounting to three percent of the city's inhabitants at most. Their beliefs and way of life, is still the case today, distinguished them clearly from the surrounding environment; and this could have two results: either derision, that could lead to intolerance, or admiration which was expressed in various forms of sympathy, as in the case of the "God-fearing" or "proselytes", pagans who became members of the Synagogue and who shared the faith in the God of Israel. As concrete examples of this dual attitude we can mention on the one hand the cutting opinion of an orator such as Cicero who despised their religion and even the city of Jerusalem (cf. Pro Flacco, 66-69) and, on the other, the attitude of Nero's wife, Poppea, who is remembered by Flavius Josephus as a "sympathizer" of the Jews (cf. Antichità giudaiche 20, 195, 252); Vita 16), not to mention that Julius Caesar had already officially recognized specific rights of the Jews which have been recorded by the above-mentioned Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (cf. ibid., 14,200-216). It is certain that the number of Jews, as, moreover, is still the case today, was far greater outside the land of Israel, that is, in the Diaspora, than in the territory that others called Palestine.

It is not surprising, therefore, that Paul himself was the object of the dual contradictory assessment that I mentioned. One thing is certain: the particularism of the Judaic culture and religion easily found room in an institution as far-reaching as the Roman Empire. Those who would adhere with faith to the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, Jew or Gentile, were in the more difficult and troubled position, to the extent to which they were to distinguish themselves from both Judaism and the prevalent paganism. In any case, two factors were in Paul's favour. The first was the Greek, or rather Hellenistic, culture which after Alexander the Great had become a common heritage, at least of the Eastern Mediterranean and of the Middle East, and had even absorbed many elements of peoples traditionally considered barbarian. One writer of the time says in this regard that Alexander "ordered that all should consider the entire oecumene as their homeland... and that a distinction should no longer be made between Greek and barbarian" (Plutarch, De Alexandri Magni fortuna aut virtute, 6, 8). The second factor was the political and administrative structure of the Roman Empire which guaranteed peace and stability from Britain as far as southern Egypt, unifying a territory of previously unheard of dimensions. It was possible to move with sufficient freedom and safety in this space, making use, among other things, of an extraordinary network of roads and finding at every point of arrival basic cultural characteristics which, without affecting local values, nonetheless represented a common fabric of unification super partes, so that the Jewish philosopher, Philo of Alexandria, a contemporary of Paul himself, praised the Emperor Augustus for "composing in harmony all the savage peoples, making himself the guardian of peace" (Legatio ad Caium, 146-147).

There is no doubt that the universalist vision characteristic of St Paul's personality, at least of the Christian Paul after the event on the road to Damascus, owes its basic impact to faith in Jesus Christ, since the figure of the Risen One was by this time situated beyond any particularistic narrowness. Indeed, for the Apostle "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3: 28). Yet, even the historical and cultural situation of his time and milieu could not but have had an influence on his decisions and his work. Some have defined Paul as "a man of three cultures", taking into account his Jewish background, his Greek tongue and his prerogative as a "civis romanus" [Roman citizen], as the name of Latin origin suggests. Particularly the Stoic philosophy dominant in Paul's time which influenced Christianity, even if only marginally, should be recalled. Concerning this, we cannot gloss over certain names of Stoic philosophers such as those of its founders, Zeno and Cleanthes, and then those closer to Paul in time such as Seneca, Musonius and Epictetus: in them the loftiest values of humanity and wisdom are found which were naturally to be absorbed by Christianity. As one student of the subject splendidly wrote, "Stoicism... announced a new ideal, which imposed upon man obligations to his peers, but at the same time set him free from all physical and national ties, and made of him a purely spiritual being" (M. Pohlenz, La Stoa, I, Florence, 2, 1978, pp. 565 f.). One thinks, for example, of the doctrine of the universe understood as a single great harmonious body and consequently of the doctrine of equality among all people without social distinctions, of the equivalence, at least in principle, of men and women, and then of the ideal of frugality, of the just measure and self-control to avoid all excesses. When Paul wrote to the Philippians, "Whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things" (Phil 4: 8), he was only taking up a purely humanistic concept proper to that philosophical wisdom.

In St Paul's time a crisis of traditional religion was taking place, at least in its mythological and even civil aspects. After Lucretius had already ruled polemically a century earlier that "religion has led to many misdeeds" (De rerum natura, 1, 101, On the Nature of Things), a philosopher such as Seneca, going far beyond any external ritualism, taught that "God is close to you, he is with you, he is within you" (Epistulae morales to Lucilius, 41, 1). Similarly, when Paul addresses an audience of Epicurean philosophers and Stoics in the Areopagus of Athens, he literally says: "God does not live in shrines made by man,... for in him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17: 24, 28). In saying this he certainly re-echoes the Judaic faith in a God who cannot be represented in anthropomorphic terms and even places himself on a religious wavelength that his listeners knew well. We must also take into account the fact that many pagan cults dispensed with the official temples of the town and made use of private places that favoured the initiation of their followers. It is therefore not surprising that Christian gatherings (ekklesiai) as Paul's Letters attest, also took place in private homes. At that time, moreover, there were not yet any public buildings. Therefore Christian assemblies must have appeared to Paul's contemporaries as a simple variation of their most intimate religious practice. Yet the differences between pagan cults and Christian worship are not negligible and regard the participants' awareness of their identity as well as the participation in common of men and women, the celebration of the "Lord's Supper", and the reading of the Scriptures.

In conclusion, from this brief over-view of the cultural context of the first century of the Christian era, it is clear that it is impossible to understand St Paul properly without placing him against both the Judaic and pagan background of his time. Thus he grows in historical and spiritual stature, revealing both sharing and originality in comparison with the surrounding environment. However, this applies likewise to Christianity in general, of which the Apostle Paul, precisely, is a paradigm of the highest order from whom we all, always, still have much to learn. And this is the goal of the Pauline Year: to learn from St Paul, to learn faith, to learn Christ, and finally to learn the way of upright living.

BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
© Copyright 2008 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Friday, August 29, 2008

The Solemnity of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul

HOLY MASS
FOR THE IMPOSITION OF THE PALLIUM
ON METROPOLITAN ARCHBISHOPS
ON THE SOLEMNITY OF THE HOLY APOSTLES PETER AND PAUL
HOMILIES OF HIS HOLINESS BARTHOLOMEW I

ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE
AND
HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI
Vatican Basilica
Sunday June 29, 2008
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BARTHOLOMEW I

Your Holiness,
We still feel the joy and emotion of Your Holiness' personal and blessed participation in the Patronal Feast of Constantinople on the memorial of the Apostle St Andrew, the First Called, in November 2006, we have come "with exultant steps" from the Phanar of the New Rome to visit you and share in your joy on the Patronal Feast of ancient Rome. And we come to you "in the fullness of the blessing of Christ's Gospel" (cf. Rm 15: 29), reciprocating honour and love, celebrating together with our beloved Brother in the land of the West, "the sure and inspired heralds, the Coriphaei of the Lord's Disciples", the Holy Apostles, Peter, the brother of Andrew, and Paul - these two immense central pillars of the entire Church, towering to Heaven, who made their last luminous profession of Christ in this historic city. Sanctifying it in the process, it was here that they gave up their souls to the Lord in martyrdom, one on the Cross and the other by the sword.

We therefore greet you, Your Holiness, our esteemed Brother, whom we have been looking forward to seeing, with very deep and devoted love on behalf of the Most Holy Church of Constantinople and her children scattered across the world. We wholeheartedly wish "all God's beloved in Rome" (Rm 1: 7) the enjoyment of good health, peace and prosperity, and hope that they may progress day and night towards salvation and be "aglow with the Spirit, to serve the Lord. Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer" (Rm 12: 11-12).

In both our Churches, Your Holiness, we duly honour and most deeply venerate the one who gave a saving confession of the divinity of Christ, Peter, as well as the chosen vessel, Paul, who proclaimed this confession and faith to the ends of the earth, amidst the most unimaginable difficulties and dangers. We have celebrated their memory on 29 June, since the Year of Salvation 258, in the West and in the East. During the days that precede this Feast, we in the East prepare for it observing a fast in their honour, in accordance with the tradition of the ancient church. In order to greater emphasize their equal value but also because of their importance in the Church and in her regenerating and saving work throughout the centuries, the East traditionally honours them with a common icon, in which they are either holding in their holy hands a small sailing ship which symbolizes the Church, or embracing one another, exchanging the kiss in Christ.

We have come to exchange this same kiss with you, Your Holiness, emphasizing the ardent desire in Christ and love for these things that affect us both closely.

Theological dialogue between our Churches "in faith, truth and love", thanks to divine assistance, is moving forward, beyond the considerable difficulties that exist and the known problems. We truly desire and pray for this: that these challenges may be overcome and that the issues may be resolved as quickly as possible so that we may reach the ultimate goal desired for the glory of God.

We know well that this is also your desire, as we are also certain that Your Holiness will never tire of working personally, together with your distinguished collaborators, smoothing the way perfectly, please God, to a positive completion of the work of the dialogue.

Your Holiness, we have proclaimed the year 2008 "The Year of the Apostle Paul", just as you have from today up to next year on completing the 2,000th anniversary of the Great Apostle. In the context of the respective events for the anniversary, in which we have also venerated the precise site of his martyrdom, we have planned, among other things, a sacred pilgrimage to several monuments to the Apostle's evangelical activities in the East, such as Ephesus, Perga, and other cities in Asia Minor, but also to Rhodes and Crete, to the port known as "Fair Havens". You may be sure, Your Holiness, that on this sacred journey, you too will be present, accompanying us in spirit, and that in each place we will offer a fervent prayer for you and for our brethren of the venerable Roman Catholic Church, addressing to the Lord through the divine Paul a powerful supplication and intercession for you.

And now, venerating the suffering and cross of Peter and embracing the chain and stigmata of Paul, as we honour the confession and martyrdom and venerable death of both in the Name of the Lord who truly leads to Life, let us glorify the Thrice Holy God and implore him, through the intercession of his Proto-Coryphaei Apostles, to grant to us and to all the children of the Orthodox Church and of the Roman Catholic Church throughout the world "union of faith and communion of the Holy Spirit" in the "bond of peace" here on earth, and in Heaven above, instead, eternal life and great mercy.

Amen.

* * *

HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER

Your Holiness and Fraternal Delegates,

Your Eminences,

Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Since the most ancient times the Church of Rome has celebrated the Solemnity of the Great Apostles Peter and Paul as a single Feast on the same day, 29 June. It was through their martyrdom, that they became brothers; together they founded the new Christian Rome. As such they are praised in the hymn for Second Vespers that dates back to Paulinus of Aquileia ([c. 750-]806): "O Roma felix - fortunate Rome, consecrated by the glorious blood of the two Princes of the Apostles; dyed red in their blood, you shine more resplendently than all the glory of the world, not by your merit, but by the merits of the saints that you have killed, drawing blood with the sword". The blood of martyrs does not invoke revenge but reconciliation. It is not presented as an accusation but rather as the "fairer light", in the words of the hymn for First Vespers: it is presented as the force of love that overcomes hatred and violence, thus founding a new city, a new community. Through their martyrdom they - Peter and Paul - now belong to Rome: through their martyrdom, Peter also became a Roman citizen for ever. Through their martyrdom, through their faith and love, both Apostles point to where true hope lies; they are founders of a new sort of city that must be constantly rebuilt in the midst of the old human city that is threatened by the opposing forces of human sin and selfishness.

By virtue of their martyrdom, Peter and Paul are in a reciprocal relationship for ever. A favourite image in Christian iconography shows the embrace of the two Apostles on their way to martyrdom. We can say: their martyrdom itself is the realization of a fraternal embrace in the deepest sense. They died for the one Christ and in their witness for which they gave their lives, they are one. In the New Testament writings we can, so to speak, follow the development of their embrace, this creation of unity in witness and mission. Everything begins when Paul, three years after his conversion, goes to Jerusalem "to visit Cephas" (Gal 1: 18). Fourteen years later he went up to Jerusalem again to lay "before those who were of repute" the Gospel he was preaching in order to avoid the risk of "running or [having] run in vain" (Gal 2: 1f.). At the end of this encounter, James, Cephas and John shake hands with him, thus confirming the communion that links them in the one Gospel of Jesus Christ (cf. Gal 2: 9). I find the fact that the collaborators mentioned at the end of the First Letter of Peter - Silvanus and Mark - were likewise close collaborators of St Paul is a beautiful sign of the growth of this inner embrace which developed despite the diversity of their temperaments and tasks. The communion of the one Church, is clearly demonstrated by the embrace of the great Apostles, in their cooperation.

Peter and Paul met in Jerusalem at least twice; the paths of both were ultimately to converge in Rome. Why? Might this be something more than pure chance? Might this contain a lasting message? Paul arrived in Rome as a prisoner but, at the same time, as a Roman citizen who, precisely as such, after his arrest in Jerusalem had appealed to the Emperor to whose tribunal he was taken. However, in a deeper sense Paul came to Rome of his own free will. Through some of his most important Letters he had already become inwardly close to this city: he had addressed to the Church in Rome the writing that sums up the whole of his proclamation and his faith better than any other. In the initial greeting of this Letter he says that the faith of the Christians of Rome is being talked about in all the world and is, therefore, reputed everywhere to be exemplary (cf. Rm 1: 8). He then writes: "I want you to know, brethren, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented)" (1: 13). At the end of the Letter he returns to this topic now speaking of his project of a journey to Spain. "I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be sped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a little" (15: 24). "And I know that when I come to you I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ" (15: 29). These are two things that become obvious: for Paul, Rome was a stopping place on the way to Spain, in other words - according to his conception of the world - on his way to the extreme edge of the earth. He considers his mission to be the fulfilment of the task assigned to him by Christ, to take the Gospel to the very ends of the world. Rome lay on his route. Whereas Paul usually went to places where the Gospel had not yet been proclaimed, Rome was an exception. He found there a Church whose faith was being talked about across the world. Going to Rome was part of the universality of his mission as an envoy to all peoples. The way that led to Rome, which already prior to his external voyage he had travelled inwardly with his Letter, was an integral part of his duty to take the Gospel to all the peoples - to found the catholic or universal Church. For him, going to Rome was an expression of the catholicity of his mission. Rome had to make the faith visible to the whole world, it had to be the meeting place of the one faith.

But why did Peter go to Rome? The New Testament says nothing about this directly. Yet it gives us some hints. The Gospel according to St Mark, which we may consider a reflection of St Peter's preaching, focuses closely on the moment when the Roman centurion, who, in the light of Jesus Christ's death on the Cross, said: "Truly this man was the Son of God!" (15: 39). By the Cross the mystery of Jesus Christ was revealed. Beneath the Cross the Church of the peoples was born: the centurion of the Roman platoon in charge of his execution recognized Christ as the Son of God. The Acts of the Apostles describe the episode of Cornelius, a centurion of the Italic cohort, as a crucial stage for the entry of the Gospel into the Gentile world. On a command from God, Cornelius sent someone to fetch Peter and Peter, also following a divine command, went to the centurion's house and preached there. While he was speaking the Holy Spirit descended on the domestic community that had gathered and Peter said: "Can any one forbid water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" (Acts 10: 47). Thus at the Council of the Jerusalem, Peter became the intercessor for the Church of the Gentiles who had no need of the Law because God had "cleansed their hearts by faith" (Acts 15: 9). Of course, in the Letter to the Galatians Paul says God empowered Peter for the apostolic ministry among the circumcised, and instead empowered him, Paul, for the ministry to the Gentiles (2: 8). This assignment however could only be in force while Peter remained with the Twelve in Jerusalem in the hope that all Israel would adhere to Christ. As they faced the further development, the Twelve recognized when it was time for them too to set out for the whole world to proclaim the Gospel. Peter who, complying with God's order, had been the first to open the door to pagans, now left the leadership of the Christian-Jewish Church to James the Lesser in order to dedicate himself to his true mission: the ministry for the unity of the one Church of God formed by Jews and pagans. Among the Church's characteristics, St Paul's desire to go to Rome places emphasis - as we have seen - on the word "catholic". St Peter's journey to Rome, as representative of the world's peoples, comes especially under the word "one": his task was to create the unity of the catholica, the Church formed by Jews and pagans, the Church of all the peoples. And this is Peter's ongoing mission: to ensure that the Church is never identified with a single nation, with a single culture or with a single State but is always the Church of all; to ensure that she reunites humanity over and above every boundary and, in the midst of the divisions of this world, makes God's peace present, the reconciling power of his love. Thanks to technology that is the same everywhere, thanks to the world information network and also thanks to the connection of common interests, in the world today new forms of unity exist; yet they spark new disputes and give a new impetus to the old ones. In the midst of this external unity, based on material things, our need for the inner unity which comes from God's peace is all the greater - the unity of all those who have become brothers and sisters through Jesus Christ. This is Peter's permanent mission and also the specific task entrusted to the Church of Rome.

Dear Brothers in the Episcopate, I would now like to address you who have come to Rome to receive the pallium as a symbol of your dignity and responsibility as Archbishops in the Church of Jesus Christ. The pallium is woven with wool from sheep that the Bishop of Rome blesses every year on the Feast of the Chair of Peter, setting them aside as it were, so that they may become a symbol of the flock of Christ over which you preside. When we place the pallium on our shoulders, our gesture reminds us of the Shepherd who takes upon his shoulders the lost sheep that cannot find its way home alone and brings it back to the fold. The Fathers of the Church saw this little lost lamb as the image of all humanity, of the whole of human nature which strays and can no longer find the way home. The Shepherd who brings it back home can only be the Logos, the eternal Word of God himself. In the Incarnation he took all of us - "human" sheep - on his shoulders. He, the eternal word, the true Shepherd of humanity carries us; in his humanity he carries each one of us on his shoulders. On the way of the Cross he took us home, he takes us home. But he also wants to have men to "carry" it with him. Being a Pastor of Christ's Church means participating in this task which is commemorated by the pallium. When we wear it, he asks us, "Are you too helping me to carry me those who belong to me? Are you bringing them to me, to Jesus Christ?". And then we recall the account of the sending of Peter by the Risen One. The Risen Christ connects the order: "Tend my sheep" inseparably with the question: "Do you love me, do you love me more than these?". Every time we put on the pallium, as a Pastor of Christ's flock we must listen to this question: "Do you love me?", and ourselves be questioned about the extra love that he expects from the Pastor.

Thus the Pallium becomes the symbol of our love for Christ the Good Shepherd and of our loving together with him - it becomes the symbol of the vocation to love people as he does, together with him; those who are seeking, those who have questions, those who are sure of themselves and the humble, the simple and the great; he becomes a symbol of the call to love all of them with the power of Christ and in view of Christ, so that they may find him and in him find themselves. However, the pallium, which you received "from the" tomb of St Peter has another, second meaning, inseparably connected to the first. In order to understand it, some words from the First Letter of St Peter may be a help to us. In his exhortation to priests to tend the flock properly he - St Peter - describes himself as a synpresbyteros - fellow elder (5: 1). This formula contains implicitly an affirmation of the principle of Apostolic Succession: Pastors who succeed one another are Pastors like him, they are together with him, they belong to the common ministry of the Pastors of the Church of Jesus Christ, a ministry that continues in them. But this word "fellow" also has two more meanings. It also expresses the reality we define today with the term "collegiality" of the Bishops. We are all fellow-priests. No one is a Pastor on his own. We are in the succession of the Apostles also thanks to being in communion as a college, which finds its continuity in the college of the Apostles. "Our" communion as Pastors is part of being a Pastor, because the flock is one alone, the one Church of Jesus Christ. And lastly this word "fellow" refers to communion with Peter and his Successor as a guarantee of unity. Thus the pallium speaks to us of the catholicity of the Church, of the universal communion of the Pastor and flock and refers us to apostolicity: to communion with the faith of the Apostles on which the Church is founded. It speaks to us of the ecclesia una, catholica, apostolica and naturally, binding us to Christ, it speaks to us precisely of the fact that the Church is sancta and that our work is a service to her holiness.

Lastly, this brings me back once again to St Paul and his mission. He expressed the essential of his mission as well as the deepest reason for his desire to go to Rome in chapter 15 of the Letter to the Romans in an extraordinarily beautiful sentence. He knows he is called "to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the Gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit" (15: 16). In this verse alone does Paul use the word "hierourgein" - to administer as a priest - together with "leitourgos" - liturgy: he speaks of the cosmic liturgy in which the human world itself must become worship of God, an oblation in the Holy Spirit. When the world in all its parts has become a liturgy of God, when, in its reality, it has become adoration, then it will have reached its goal and will be safe and sound. This is the ultimate goal of St Paul's apostolic mission as well as of our own mission. The Lord calls us to this ministry. Let us pray at this time that he may help us to carry it out properly, to become true liturgists of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

The Great Apostle Saint Paul

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

What It Means to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ

St. Paul's Conversion

Saturday, August 30, 2008

The Apostle of the Gentiles

The Great Apostle Saint Paul

Friday, August 29, 2008

The Solemnity of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul

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