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FEBRUARY

Vocation of St. Paul

The Acts of the Apostles narrates three times the story of Paul's conversion: 9:1-19; 22:6-16; 26:12-18. Today interpreters would like to call these depictions more as vocation narratives rather than as conversion narratives.

Vocation has generally two aspects: the Lord puts a person in relation with himself and confers a mission on that person, which puts him/her in relation with others. In the first narration of the author in the chronological order of events (Acts 9:1-19), it is clear that Paul is made his own by Christ (see Phil 3:12), and he is going to be his “chosen instrument,” “to bring his name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel ” (Acts 9:15).

The story is repeated in Acts 22:6-16 by Paul himself at Jerusalem , after his arrest provoked by the hostility of the Jews. Paul addresses his fellow Jews and tries to tell that his vocation was really from God. He tells them what Ananias had told him about his call, “The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear his own voice; for you will be his witness to all the world of what you have seen and heard” (Acts 22:14-15). Then Paul narrates the story of his trance in the temple, in which he was told of his mission far away among the Gentiles (see Acts 22:17-21).

On another occasion Paul found it opportune to recount the story of his vocation, during the two years of his imprisonment in Caesarea (26:12-18). The Roman Governor Festus allowed Paul to defend his case before King Agrippa and Princess Bernice. Paul tells them what the Lord had told him in the vision on the road to Damascus : “I asked, 'Who are you, Lord?' The Lord answered, 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But get up and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and testify to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you. I will rescue you from your people and from the Gentiles-- to whom I am sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me'” (Acts 26:15-18). Indeed the story of Acts starting from chapter 9 is a narration of how Paul accepted his vocation and conducted his mission. Interestingly in chapter 26, while narrating the story of his vocation Paul was even trying to convert King Agrippa (see Acts 26:24-29).

A few observations may be made on the vocation of Paul. i) It was a surprising thing. It is amazing that Paul an unrelenting persecutor was called to be a tireless apostle. In fact every vocation is a surprise, as it is the work of God, an initiative of God; it is not based on one's merit, but pure grace. ii) Vocation of Paul was something, which was prepared by God. It was the God whom he and his fellow Jews had believed, who had prepared his call. It is said, “ The God of our ancestors has chosen you…” In the letter to Galatians Paul speaks in explicit terms about his vocation: “ But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles …” (Gal 1:15). Vocation is not an isolated fact in the history of a person, but a stage in the marvellous story of God's love evolving in a person. iii) The expressions chosen by Paul in Gal 1:15 show his appreciation of his vocation; in fact he alludes to the vocation of prophets Jeremiah and Isaiah in these words: “ Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations” (Jer 1:5); “The L ORD called me before I was born, while I was in my mother's womb he named me. I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isa 49:1.6).

We too are participants in this type of a vocation. God put us in relation with his Son so that we may also bring the good news of his love to all the parts of the world. We cannot but then sing the praises of the Lord in thanksgiving.

For reflection: Read the texts indicated above. Q. How did you have the first encounter with Christ ? How has it changed You ?

St. Paul 's Preparation for the Ministry

When did Paul's conversion take place? Acts 7:58; 8:1; 9:1 associates Paul's persecuting activity with the aftermath of the martyrdom of Stephen. Gal 1:17-18 seems to indicate a three-year interlude between Paul's conversion and his going to Jerusalem , that is, the interval when he was in Arabia and Damascus . (Arabia does not mean Saudi Arabia but the Nabatean kingdom running south, through the Transjordan to the Sinai. See the small map included in the introduction to the Gospels in the New Revised Standard Version ). 2 Cor 11:32-33 reports an escape by Paul from Damascus when King Aretas tried to seize him. The Nabatean King Aretas was given control of Damascus by the Roman Emperor Caligula (37-41 AD). (We should remember that at that time most of the small countries of that region were under the Roman Emperors; the kings of those countries were vassals of Rome ). Therefore many interpreters date Paul's conversion around 36 AD, and his escape from Damacus and going to Jerusalem around 39 A.D.

According to Gal 1:18-19, at Jerusalem Paul visited and conversed with Peter and saw James the brother of the Lord, but none of the other apostles. At times in his letters Paul will mention what he received from the tradition about Jesus (see 1 Cor 11:23; 15:3). It has been suggested that it was in this period that he learned some or all of that tradition. The stay in Jerusalem was brief (Gal 1,18), and then he went off to Tarsus in Cilicia (Acts 9,30). (In Gal 1:21 Paul speaks of Syria and Cilicia . That might mean Antioch [ Syria ] on the way to Tarsus ). How long Paul stayed there is not clear, but it may have been several years. About this time he must have had the vision to which he refers in 2 Cor 12:2-4; it occurred 14 years before 2 Cor was written but can hardly be equated with the conversion experience on the road to Damascus. According to Acts 22:17-21 Paul had an ecstasy while praying in the Temple of Jerusalem during his first visit to Jerusalem . What is implied is that the Lord was guiding Paul through visions. In Acts 18:9 is said, “And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision …”

The three years, between Paul's initial experience of conversion effected through his encounter with the Lord and his going to Jerusalem , which he spent in Damascus must have been the years of his preparation and maturing for the proclamation of the Gospel, although of course even later the Lord continued to instruct him through visions. Those years must have been years of prayer and reflection. We may remember that it was when Paul was praying in the Temple of Jerusalem that he went into a trance in which the Lord gave him instruction (Acts 22:17-21).

Paul's study of the Jewish Scriptures (the Old Testament) should have also brought to him the knowledge concerning the Messiah, when they were read in the light of the conversion experience he had. Surprisingly, it is Paul a late-comer, the “untimely born one” (1 Cor 15:8), who understood the depth of the Christ-event and insisted on the Gentile mission without judaising tendencies, and persisted on it all through. He had probably understood it in a way better than those apostles who had walked with the Lord for three years during his public ministry. That which enabled Paul to come to such conclusion was therefore his thorough study of the Scriptures as a Rabbi. In fact it is the study of the Scriptures that brings one closer to Christ, for as St. Jerome says, “ignorance of the Scriptures is the ignorance of Christ” ( Commentary on Isaiah. The Prologue; see Dei Verbum , 25). The study of the Old Testament is very important in this perspective, for as St. Augustine says, “The New Testament is hidden in the Old Testament, and the Old is made manifest in the New” ( Quaest. in Hept. 2,73; see Dei Verbum , 16).

For reflection: Read the texts of the Bible included in the text; go also through the texts of the Vatican Council II indicated. Q. How much time do you spend with Jesus in prayer each day ? Q. How important is reading the Bible and studying it to you ? Q. Do we meet Christ in prayer and in the study of the Scriptures?

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JANUARY

St. Paul 's Early Life

The date of Paul's birth is unknown. He calls himself an “old man” when writing Philemon (9), i.e., someone between 50 and 60 years of age. Luke depicts Paul as a “young man” standing at the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7:58). Paul never tells us where he was born but his name “Paulus” would connect him with some Roman name. His Jewish name was “Saul.” Jews at this period, especially those living outside Palestine , had two names, one Greek or Roman, the other Semitic. The Hebrew name fits well with his Jewish background about which Paul boasts. He traces his lineage to the tribe of Benjamin (Rom 11:1; Phil 3:5; 2 Cor 11:22); (“Saul,” of course, was the name of the most renowned member of the tribe of Benjamin – the first king of Israel ). Paul says that he is an “Israelite”, “a Hebrew born of Hebrews…, as to the Law a Pharisee” (Phil 3:5-6). By calling himself a “Hebrew” he may have meant that he was a Greek speaking Jew who knew also Hebrew or Aramaic or both.

Luke also presents Paul as “a Jew,” as “a Pharisee” born in Tarsus , a Hellenistic town of Cilicia (Acts 22:3.6; 21:39), as having a sister (23:16), and as a Roman citizen from birth (22:25-29; 16:37; 23:27). Luke also tells that Paul was brought up in the city of Jerusalem and educated at the feet of Gamaliel (22:3). Yet Paul's writings never suggest that he encountered or had any personal acquaintance with the Jesus of the public ministry. Probably Paul's presence in Jerusalem was not a continuous one; he must have had Jewish upbringing in Tarsus , and then come to study the Law in Jerusalem sometime before the stoning of Stephen. It is now presumed that Paul, at the time of his conversion, was already a recognised teacher with the right to make legal decisions. That is why he could go to Damascus to arrest Christians (Acts 9:1-2; 22:4-5; 26:12) and could vote against Christians as a member of the Sanhedrin (26:10).

The above information that we have from Paul's letters and Acts helps us to explain both the Hellenistic and the Jewish background of Paul. Often Paul in his letters describes himself as the messenger of Christ to the Gentile or Hellenistic world. Indeed he was born and brought up in a Greek city, Tarsus . He tells of himself as “a citizen of no mean city” (Acts 21:39). He wrote good Greek, had basic Hellenistic rhetorical skills, quoted from the Old Testament in Greek, and knew Deutero-canonical Books, which were either written or preserved in Greek. Tarsus had a reputation for culture and excellent schools. This Greek cultural atmosphere is seen in his letters, for while the Gospels reflect the agrarian life of Galilee , Paul borrows illustrations from the Greek games (e.g., 1 Cor 9:24-27).

Yet as we saw above, Paul was always proud of his Jewish heritage. He belonged to the strictest group in Jewish religion known as the “Pharisees,” distinguished for its boundless devotion to the Torah as well as the “traditions of the ancestors.” Paul says, “I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors” (Gal 1:14). It is due to his deeply rooted Jewish background that Paul expresses himself in Old Testament categories and images. He uses extensively the OT in his letters and quotes it about 90 times explicitly.

Conversion of St. Paul

The conversion of St. Paul was of paramount importance in the life of the early Church. It received such emphasis that in Acts it is narrated 3 times: 9:1-19; 22:6-16; 26:12-18. The first account it is set in the author's own narration; the second is in the context of a speech of Paul to the Jewish people in Jerusalem , as he is arrested; the third is in Paul's defence of himself before King Agrippa and the Governor Festus. In his letters, Paul tells of it once, in Gal 1:11-24, but refers to it in 1Cor 9:11; 15:8 and Phil 3:5-6.

Before his conversion Paul had persecuted the Church of God violently and tried to destroy it (Acts 8:1-3; 9:1-2; 22:4-5; 26:9-11; Gal 1:13; 1 Cor 15:9; Phil 3:6). The reason why Paul persecuted the new Jewish sect (the church) was probably that he could not conceive of a crucified Messiah. The Messiah expected by Jews at that time was a glorious figure who would be the politico-spiritual ruler of Israel . But the Messiah Jesus of whom his disciples proclaimed was someone who suffered and died a shameful death on the cross. Such a crucified Messiah was “a stumbling-block to the Jews” (1 Cor 1:23).

The encounter with Jesus in a vision on the road to Damascus changed Paul the Pharisee and the persecutor of Christians into Paul the ardent disciple and the most persecuted apostle of Christ. From then on Paul understood the Christ-event as divine action for the salvation of all humanity. It did not change his commitment to God. It taught him the soteriological value of the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah in the salvific plan of God. The latter part of Acts tells us of Paul's toil and trouble in the work of evangelisation. Thus Paul became the greatest of the missionaries of all periods and the pattern for proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In Gal 1:23 Paul reports of what the churches of Judea were telling about him, “The one who formerly was persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy.”

In Phil 3:5-9 Paul tells of his complete break with the past and describes the depth of the change that happened in him. Paul begins by describing a system of values which he considered precious before his conversion, and then goes on to describe the new system of values he has assumed upon turning to Christ. The context is one of speaking against opponents. He says, “If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more” (Phil 3:4b). Then he lists the reason for his confidence, “circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel , of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; …; as to righteousness under the law, blameless” (3-6). In the letter to Romans Paul speaks of the privileges of the Jews: “ They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs” (Rom 9:4-5). If so, the reasons for confidence, which Paul lists on behalf of himself before his conversion, were very high values. After his conversion he gave up those for the sake of Christ, whom he found as the highest value of his life. He writes: “ Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord . For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish , in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law , but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith” (Phil 3:7-9). That which was considered earlier as something precious and advantageous is now considered as loss and rubbish. As regards righteousness he had judged himself formerly as “blameless,” but now he gives up that idea and seeks for a righteousness coming from faith. The supreme value is that of knowing, gaining and being found in Christ.