VATICAN - Pope Benedict XVI says Paul of Tarsus is an example to follow: “The important thing is to put Jesus Christ at the centre of our life so that our identity is essentially marked by encounter and communion with Christ and with his word”

Thursday, 26 October 2006

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - During his weekly audience on Wednesday 25 October, having concluded his reflections on the twelve Apostles Pope Benedict XVI said he was beginning a new series of meditations on prominent figures of the early Church. “They too spent their lives for the Lord, for the Gospel and for the Church- the Pope said -… the first, called by the Lord himself, by the Risen Lord to be a true Apostle, was undoubtedly Paul of Tarsus. He shines as a first great star in the history of the Church and not only that of the early Church.”
After Jesus he is the person we know more about. Besides Luke’s account in the Acts of the Apostles, we have in fact a conspicuous set of Letters “coming directly from his hand without intermediaries and which reveal his personality and thought”. His name was originally Saul and he was a Jew of the Diaspora. In Jerusalem he study mosaic Law thoroughly and learned a trade, tent- making. “His encounter with the community of those who professed to be disciples of Jesus was decisive for him- the Pope said -... As a zealous Jew, he considered the message unacceptable, indeed scandalous, and therefore felt it was his duty to persecute followers of Christ even outside Jerusalem. It was precisely on the road to Damascus, in the early 30s, that Saul, as he tells us, was «captured by Christ» (Phil 3,12).”
Saint Luke tells of these events in detail, whereas Saul in his Letters mentions only the essential, underlining above all that his conversion was “the fruit of divine intervention, an unexpected grace… And from then on, all his energies were placed exclusively at the service of Jesus Christ and his Gospel”. Pope Benedict XVI then indicated the lesson Paul teaches: “the important thing is to put Jesus Christ at the centre of our life so that our identity is essentially marked by the encounter and communion with Christ and with his word. In His light every other value is rediscovered and purified of any impurity”.
Another lesson from Paul is “the universal nature of his apostolate. Deeply concerned that the Gentiles, or pagans, should also have access to God, who in Jesus Christ crucified and Risen offers salvation to all men and women without exception, Paul devotes himself to making known this Gospel, literally «good news », or announcement of grace destine to reconcile every human person with God, with self and with others. From the moment he realised that this reality concerned not only the Jews or a certain group of people, it was of universal value and concerned all, because God is God of all mankind”.
Paul was not spared difficulties, “which he faced with courage, out of love for Christ… he would have been unable to face so many difficult situations at times desperate, unless there was a reason of absolute value, before which no limit could be considered impassable. For Paul, we know, this reason was Jesus Christ”. After preaching justice to the whole world and reaching the extreme boundaries of the West he was martyred in Rome under the emperor Nero. The Holy Father ended his catechesis asking the Lord to “help us put into practice the exhortation left by the Apostle in his Letters: « Take me as your pattern, just as I take Christ for mine» (1 Cor 11,1).” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 26/10/2006, righe 41, parole 600)


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