AUDIENCE OF 8/27/08
Aula Paolo VI
Here is a translation of the Holy Father's catechesis today, in which he resumes the catechetical cycle on St. Paul which he started the week before he left for Australia.
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 (cfr 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 (cfr 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' (cfr Acts 18,3:
skenopoiòs), which probably meant he worked with coarse goat's wool or linen fibers to be made into mats and tents (cfr At 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 (cfr Gal 1,14; Fil 3,5-6; At 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 (cfr Acts 13-14), which was entrusted to the Cypriot Barnabas. Together, they left from Antioch on the Oronte, sent forth by that Church (cfr 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 (cfr 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 (cfr 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 51-53. 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 (cfr At 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 (cfr 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 (cfr 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 (cfr 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 - tthe 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 (cfr 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 St. 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.
In English, he said:
Today’s catechesis presents the life of Saint Paul, the great missionary whom the Church honours in a special way this year.
Born a Jew in Tarsus, he received the Hebrew name "Saul" and was trained as a "tent maker" (cf. Acts 18:3). Around the age of twelve he departed for Jerusalem to begin instruction in the strict Pharisaic tradition which instilled in him a great zeal for the Mosaic Law.
On the basis of this training Paul viewed the Christian movement as a threat to orthodox Judaism. He thus fiercely "persecuted the Church of God" (1 Cor 19:6; Gal 1:13; Phil 3:6) until a dramatic encounter on the road to Damascus radically changed his life.
He subsequently undertook three missionary journeys, preaching Christ in Anatolia, Syria, Cilicia, Macedonia, Achaia, and throughout the Mediterranean. After his arrest and imprisonment in Jerusalem, Paul exercised his right as a Roman citizen to appeal his case to the Emperor.
Though Luke makes no reference to Nero’s decision, he tells us that Paul spent two years under house arrest in Rome (cf. Acts 28:30), after which — according to tradition — he suffered a martyr’s death.
Paul spared no energy and endured many trials in his "anxiety for all the churches" (2 Cor 11:28). Indeed, he wrote: "I do everything for the sake of the Gospel" (1 Cor 9:23). May we strive to emulate him by doing the same.
I offer a warm welcome to all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present at today’s Audience, including the Augustinian Spinellian Lay Associates from Malta, and also the groups from Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Dominica and the United States of America.
May your pilgrimage renew your love for the Lord and his Church, after the example of the Apostle Saint Paul. May God bless you all!
In his Italian greeting, he reminded the faithful of St. Monica's feast day today:
May the example of St. Monica, whom we remember today, and her son Augustine, whom we celebrate tomorrow, help you to look to Christ with unfailing confidence, as a light in our difficulties, a support in trial, and our guide in every moment of our existence.
After greeting the various language groups, he made this statement in Italian:
I have learned with deep sadness the news about the violence against Christian communities in the Indian State of Orissa, which erupted following the deplorable murder of the Hindu leader Swami Lakshmananda Saraswati. Some persons have been killed and others injured. Worship centers, church property and private houses have also been destroyed.
While I firmly condemn all attacks against human life, the sacredness of which demands the respect of all, I express my spiritual closeness and solidarity to the brothers and sisters in the faith who are so severely tried. I implore the Lord to accompany and support them in this time of suffering and give them the strength to continue in the service of love for all.
I ask the religious leaders and civil authorities to work together to restore among the members of the various communities the peaceful coexistence and harmony which have always been the distinguishing mark of Indian society.