The Year of Paul, 29 June 2008-2009

Godzdogz celebrated the Year of Saint Paul in a number of ways. There was a post to introduce the year and reflections for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul in 2008 and for the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul in 2009.

Our first series was an 'A-Z of Paul', a dictionary of key terms from Paul's letters (from 'A for Apostleship' to 'Z for Zeal') with an explanation of the meaning of each term. Not surprisingly, there were 26 posts in this series.

The annual 'province day' of the English Dominicans held in December 2008 was devoted to Saint Paul and we published a report on the events of that day.

After Christmas we offered a series of 13 reflections called 'On the Areopagus', in which we tried to imitate Paul by bringing the preaching of the gospel to bear on aspects of contemporary society and culture.

Our final contribution was a series of 23 posts on ministries, charisms and fruits as another way of bringing out the rich spiritual and theological content of Paul's letters. These considered first the texts in which Paul lists the ministries required by the Church, then the texts in which he speaks about charismatic gifts of the Spirit, and finally the text of Galatians 5 in which he contrasts the fruits of the Spirit with the works of the flesh.

All told Godzdogz published 68 posts in honour of the year of Paul - 69 if you count this one! You will find them by clicking on either 'pauline year' or 'areopagus' in the list of labels on the right hand side of the blog. We hope our readers will visit them from time to time and, please God, continue to benefit from the compendium of Pauline theology that we have put together through the course of the year.

Ministries, Charisms, Fruits - 22 Self-control

People can often be put off Christianity by a perception that it makes moral demands on its followers which it is impossible to live up to: “there’s no way I could manage that,” they might say, “so why bother trying?”

When St Paul teaches us in Galatians 5: 22 that self-control is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, he reminds us that things don’t quite work like that. You don’t have to be perfect before you even think about becoming a Christian: rather, it is the participation as a Christian in the life of God which enables you to grow in the way of perfection. Yes, the moral life is a struggle (but then that’s true even if you’re not a Christian – there are always things you know you ought to do even if you don’t particularly feel like it); however, it is by allowing God to work in us through the Holy Spirit, given at baptism that we acquire the strength we need to engage in that struggle. Now, that doesn’t mean that, the moment you’re baptised, you’ll immediately be perfectly self-controlled: after all, the Christian life is about a process of growth in the love of God and neighbour which lies at the heart of choosing to do the right thing. What it does mean, though, is that, in a sense, the person who said “there’s no way I could manage that” was right – we can’t make ourselves perfect through our own effort, we need the grace of God.

This is a useful reminder, too, for those of us who are already Christians, and who find ourselves from time to time, perhaps often, subject to all kinds of temptations and feel too weak to resist. If self-control is a gift of the Holy Spirit, then resisting temptation is not just a question of gritting our teeth and not giving in through sheer effort on our part: rather, we should seek to draw close to God in prayer, and especially in the Sacraments, in which he shares his life with us. In doing so, we allow the Holy Spirit we received at our baptism to work more fully in our lives, and thus our self-control grows as the fruit of his operation in us.

Ministries, Charisms, Fruits -21-Gentleness

Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength - St. Francis de Sales

Gentleness is not often associated with strength. An alternative translation of praotes, the Greek word used by Paul, is meekness. Neither of these translations suggests strength. Far too often the opposite is assumed: to be gentle is to be delicate, weak and even feeble. The concept of gentleness does not seem to fit into the dog-eat-dog world we live in. However, gentleness, properly understood, is far from these negative connotations. To be gentle is to be in control of oneself. It is to have a balanced and tranquil spirit. It is to be even-tempered, and to have hold over the passions. The gentle person is the master of their strength and power. The Latin Vulgate expresses this by using the compound mansuetudo - being accustomed to taming the hand. Gentleness is being appropriately restrained in our actions and words, especially in our interactions with other people. We all recognize how hard it is to practise this virtue. Sartre said “hell is other people” and all too often we might feel that he is right. But because it is difficult we need the Holy Spirit to aid us in being gentle.

Gentleness, however, does not turn us into punching-bags for the world. Whilst we must always be willing to pardon offences; we must also be able fraternally to correct faults gently and with love. Gentleness helps our actions to have a positive effect. To use an old saying, 'you catch more flies with honey than vinegar'. It is a sign of real and true strength to be able to act with restraint and gentleness, and the Holy Spirit allows us to overcome all obstacles to this practice. Like the message to Elijah the Gospel will not be proclaimed by great winds, earthquakes, or fire but by the whistling of gentle air.

Ministries, Charisms, Fruits - 20 Faithfulness

The seventh fruit of the Holy Spirit that St Paul identifies is faithfulness. Faithfulness is at the very heart of the Christian vocation, of what it means to be a Christian. When we speak of faithfulness we often cite the qualities of trustworthiness, fidelity or reliability of an individual. However, as we are aware, all too often we fall short of these ideals, and as we are reminded in Proverbs 20:6, “most men will proclaim each his own goodness, but who can find a faithful man?” We must therefore look not so much to others but to God as the true example of faithfulness.

Throughout the Old Testament we are constantly reminded of God’s promises to us, despite all our sinful folly, and He is shown to be faithful always, as we read for example in Deuteronomy 7:9, “therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments”.

The most striking example of this faithfulness was in God fulfilling his promises in the person of Jesus Christ. In the life of Christ and in His death for the sake of our redemption we can see clearly the true meaning of faithfulness. God does not falter. He will not break his covenant with us. He will not abandon us no matter how severe our failings. But for this faithfulness to be of real benefit we need to show our faithfulness to Him. God cannot break His word but we can and we need to cultivate carefully and with commitment our faithfulness to His teachings. We must grow in the virtues and not neglect our duties and responsibilities to our neighbour and ultimately to Him. So often these acts of faithfulness can be played out in the smallest ways and we cannot hope to grow in Christ unless we observe his law in small matters as well as great.

Most obviously our faithfulness can be shown in our commitment to the Church and in the ways in which we fulfil our duties to family and friends but we must also not neglect what it is to be faithful to ourselves. In being honest and true to ourselves we will be true to God and be able to look forward with hope to the coming of his Kingdom. “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).

Ministries, Charisms, Fruits - 19 Goodness

St. Paul puts goodness, or, as some translations have it, generosity, fifth in his lists of the fruits of the Spirit. That there should be such a close correspondence between Paul’s understanding of goodness and his understanding of generosity, such that it could be translated either way, is interesting because it demonstrates the importance of generosity for the Jewish view of God.

So many of the psalms extol the Lord as worthy of praise because of his generosity, praising him at length for all the great gifts that he gives to man and beast. Psalm 104 in particular, the psalm which is used in one of the prayers used as grace before meals, praises God as good because he is the giver of all that sustains every living thing. This overwhelming generosity of God is shown most profoundly in the saving death of his Son, Our Lord, on the cross, what is for St. Paul the most important moment in history, the most generous self-giving of the Son to the Father in love. 

Thus for Christians, to be good is to give of ourselves so as to help others, not only when it suits us and is convenient, and not only to those who are good to us in return, but to all those who are in need. To do this we need the gift of the Spirit, for we cannot live such an extraordinary life, as the bearer of God’s life and love to others, through our own effort alone. 

To be good does take effort, we must co-operate with the grace that God so freely bestows upon us and renews in us through prayer and the sacraments, but in our pursuit of the life of virtue we are not left to fend for ourselves, for we have an advocate, a lawyer for our defence, the Spirit, to fight our corner. The Spirit as our advocate pleads insistently on our behalf for the heavenly judge to declare our goodness against the merciless cross-examination of Satan, the great accuser, who seeks to make us despair on account of our sins, and so to flee from God’s mercy.

Let us always remember that to be good is to be humble, for the greatest sin is that of pride, pride that hardens our hearts and stops us from asking for forgiveness and mercy.  The good person is the person who, by the light of the Holy Spirit, recognises their sinfulness and asks the Lord for forgiveness, confident in the mercy of the Lord who is love.

Ministries, Charisms, Fruits - 18 Kindness

Sometimes you’ll hear things said like “I don’t need to be a Christian to be a kind and decent person.” It has to be recognised that there are many kind and decent people in the world who never go near a church. On the other hand, in the letter to the Galatians we hear St Paul speak of kindness as being a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:22). This implies that kindness is deeply bound up with being a Christian.

Aristotle describes kindness as helpfulness towards someone in need, not in return for anything, nor for the advantage of the helper himself, but for that of the person helped. Of course, we have to be careful with such a definition. Just because we help someone without regard for any personal advantage, it doesn’t mean we have to be miserable as we help. It is more virtuous to delight in being helpful rather than finding it a burden, but it is essential that kindness springs from a love of others.

Careful consideration also has to be given to what it means to be helpful. Aquinas talks of kindness as something that helps to cure evils. In any kind of evil situation, there is something that is lacking, and so some form of help is needed to restore what is missing. In situations such as rivalry, hatred, jealousy and discord, our response should be kindness, an act of helping those in need. But the kind of help we provide is informed by our Christian faith. Christ died on the cross for our sins and He is conqueror over all evil. Therefore whenever we are confronted with evil, we need to bring Christ into the situation.

From time to time, we see people who are non-Christian, but yet still appear to be full of the Holy Spirit. We have to be prepared to recognise good whereever we see it, to recognise that the Holy Spirit can act in all kinds of different people. But as Christians we are at an advantage because we have the sacraments readily available, whereby the bond of union with Christ is continually strengthened. With this bond of union, we become capable of performing the greatest act of kindness possible, of helping people towards what they need most, that is life in the Holy Trinity.

Ministries, Charisms, Fruits - 17 Patience

Listed among the fruits of the Holy Spirit by St Paul in the letter to the Galatians is patience. Reflecting on what it means to be patient, I think that it is not often much in evidence today. We live a world that has been taught the value of the instantaneous. Information is now delivered from one part of the globe to another within seconds, travel gets ever faster as do, more and more. the types of food we eat. I heard a comedian once joke that the protest slogan of today’s generation would be: “What do we want? We don’t know! When do we want it? Now!”. Instant gratification without too much analysis can be all too tempting.

Yet St Paul speaks often of patience as being an important part of the Christian life. It is a sign of the life of the Holy Spirit within us. In Ephesians 4:1-3 he says: “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” and in 1 Corinthians 13:4 he says that love is always patient. God is ever patient with us. His patience is based in his total love for us and its purpose is our salvation. Made in the image and likeness of God, we are called to become like God in patience. It is a virtue that calls us to hesitate before making judgements of others.

We look at how patient Jesus was with the multiple mess ups of Peter and the other disciples. How often they just did not understand him. Patience is such an important virtue in so many situations. Patience in discussions and heated debate is important because it is a simple recognition of the fact that elements of truth may be found on all sides. Patience with the mistakes and gaffs of others is also a simple recognition that we are not perfect either and appreciate patience and forgiveness when we make mistakes. Patience in suffering comes from an understanding that God will ultimately work for our good and that the horizon of time for the Christian is not this life but eternity.

Patience also builds character, allowing us to stand back from situations, to see things more clearly from other angles and to take the longer view into account. St Thomas Aquinas sees patience as part of the sustaining side of the infused moral virtue of fortitude. It is patience that keeps an unconquered spirit in times of trial and can be expanded into perseverance. Ultimately patience is a fruit of the Spirit that is an act of love for our brothers and sisters because it gives others the loving space to change, to grow and to find understanding. And in the busy and noisy world of today, a little more patience makes life so much easier for everyone.

Ministries, Charisms, Fruits - 16 Peace

"Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit" (John 15:5), and one of those fruits, which we receive from Jesus if we dwell in him and draw our strength from him, is peace. In St Paul's Letter to the Galatians 'peace' translates the Greek, eirene. Peace is a result of a life animated by the Holy Spirit, but it comes from Christ who has brought peace and reconciliation to the world by his passion, death and resurrection. Thus we are reminded in the Mass of the words of the Risen Lord: "Lord Jesus Christ, you said to your apostles: I leave you peace, my peace I give you" (see John 14:27; 20:19-23).

These words of the Lord teach us that the life which is conformed to the Cross of the Lord, which becomes more Christ-like, receives Christ's peace. And what is the peace Paul has in mind? In Philippians 2:2 he asks the Philippians to be "of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind", this being the one mind of Jesus Christ. It is thus that St Paul exhorts the Philippians to put aside their quarrels and pride, and to imitate the Lord's humility who emptied himself of his equality with God and became a slave and was obedient even to the point of accepting death on a Cross (see Philippians 2:1-18). Hence, peace is being ordered to the mind of Christ which "in humility [counts] others better than [ourselves]".

It is in view of this Christ-centred orientation that St Augustine says that "peace is the tranquility of order". Because peace is ordered towards Christ and the eternal Good it is unlike worldly peace which is more like "a break between wars". Christ's peace infinitely surpasses the fragility of our uneasy treaties and efforts at a truce. It is ordered towards lasting joy in heaven. It is true, never deceptive, and as St Thomas Aquinas notes, it assures peace within ourselves, and in our relationships and surroundings. Such peace, of course, is the peace that the saints enjoy in heaven, and which is ultimately the goal of all our human aspirations for peace. It is not mere coincidence that the universal symbol for peace is a dove, which is also a way of depicting the Holy Spirit, the giver of true peace.

For perfect peace - conformity with Christ - comes not by our efforts but because of Who has been given to us in baptism. The peace which the Risen Christ leaves us is a Person: it is the Holy Spirit, whose work is peace, for the Spirit orders all things according to the mind of Christ. As the Lord said, "he will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you" (John 16:14). And so, the peace of Christ is ours, who are called to be saints (see Romans 1:7) and who have been given the Holy Spirit. For the Spirit is the fruit of the unity and love of the Father and the Son, and he is the one who makes us Christians of one heart and mind with Christ, who is perfectly ordered to the will of the Father. Thus, St Paul urges us to "maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:3), for peace - with the unity, concord and harmony that it entails - is a sign of the Spirit at work in our lives and in our Christian communities. Therefore, Christ said: "you will know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:16), and one fruit St Paul desired for his churches, and which we pray for repeatedly, at every Mass, is peace.

Ministries, Charisms, Fruits - 15 Joy

Joy comes second in St Paul’s list of the ninefold fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22). And, indeed, joy should be the prevailing mood of Christians. The whole Gospel of Jesus Christ is a message of joy, for Christ announced and fulfilled what was promised in the Old Testament, the kingdom of God. In Rom 14:17 St Paul writes that the kingdom of God is “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”. Christians have therefore good reason to be joyful.

But we can ask whether every form of joy is really a fruit of the Spirit. Christ says “you will know them by their fruits”. Is joy therefore an unmistakable sign? The Book of Proverbs (14:13) states that laughter sometimes hides sadness; and we know also from our own experience that not every “joy” – as, for example, malicious joy (cf. Proverbs 24:17) – deserves this name.

For St Thomas Aquinas joy is something only human beings can experience. An animal can have delight but no joy, because “we do not speak of joy except when delight follows reason; and so we do not ascribe joy to irrational animals”. There is no joy in merely sensual matters. The object of joy, however, is an apprehended good. There is so much good around us and we are invited by God, the creator of all that is good, to enjoy it: the beauty of nature, art and music, but also science and our knowledge of it. All this can be grasped and enjoyed by a rational human mind and can impart to us a deep joy.

When St Paul writes about joy he has primarily another, even higher form in mind, namely a spiritual joy which comes from communion with God himself whose redeemed children we are. It brings about not only a delight but also peace in our hearts despite all difficulties and even sufferings in this world. St Paul writes to the Church in Corinth “I am overjoyed in all our affliction” (2 Cor 7:4). This is the kind of peace only God’s Spirit can give in the firm belief that there is another world of which this life is only a foretaste.

But we can assume that St Paul also had a natural human expression of joy in mind when he wrote “my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord” (Phil 3:1). As God’s beloved children we do not have to be afraid, because we know that we are redeemed through Christ’s death and resurrection. Therefore we should not feel gloomy but enjoy what God has given us and share this joy with others.

Ministries, Charisms, Fruits - 14 Discernment

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses (1 Corinthians 12:4-11)

In St Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, in the course of a list of the gifts given believers by the Holy Spirit, he mentions the gift of the discernment of spirits. It is spoken of in the context of spiritual gifts. What exactly does he mean by discernment of spirits? The ability to discern is a very important ability. Every day we have to discern between various choices we are faced with: should I marry this person, should I support this person, what kind of life am I attracted to or feel called to, etc. There is a multiplicity of things we must discern every day, and as believers we often ask the Holy Spirit, that divine spirit of truth and wisdom, to help us. Indeed we pray that we are able to make wise choices.

But what exactly was St Paul speaking of in this particular passage when he refers to the gift of discernment of spirits? At the time Paul was writing to the Corinthians such charismatic gifts were very common in the church of Corinth, and indeed were seen as proof of God’s activity in the church. In the Hellenistic world at the time forms of ecstasy were highly esteemed. It seems that the faithful of Corinth were seeing such gifts as an end in themselves, rather than using them for the good of the church community, perhaps even regarding the possession of such a gift as something to boast about personally. Paul doesn’t dispute the divine origin of the gifts, but he does want the faithful to recognise that such gifts are supposed to work in harmony for the good of the entire church. The gift of discernment is a gift that enables us to see what is really from God, and for the good of the church, and what is not. As Christians we ought to put our gifts at the service of the church, and to work in harmony with other Christians and their gifts for the building up of the church.

Ministries, Charisms and Fruits - 13 Interpretation

Our last post spoke of the gift of tongues as a charismatic gift, which manifested itself in the early Church at the time of St. Paul, and was seen as an important way in which the Holy Spirit worked in the Church. Indeed, there are signs that this gift is still given in the Church today, especially amongst those who are part of the charismatic movements. It is a gift that is often regarded with much suspicion by onlookers. It expresses itself as people speaking a series of words that to our ears seem to make no sense. What possible use could this be?

This question is one which was very important also in the time of St Paul. The First Letter to the Corinthians, in speaking of the many gifts, names 'the interpretation of tongues' as an important part of the whole range of gifts (1 Cor 12:10). We see how the gift of tongues is of no use unless the words spoken can be interpreted. Words should never be empty and meaningless, because this is a misuse of language. After all, words are only of use as a way of communicating, and, as such, an individual who speaks in a way that cannot be understood is not communicating at all. The tongues must be interpreted, and this is a gift in itself. This is just one of many ways in which we see how firmly Paul believes that the Christian life is not simply about the individual, but individuals united in a common belief in Jesus Christ, and living a life shaped by that belief.

There are different opinions about the charismatic gifts in today's Church. Nevertheless, there is much that all of us can learn from Paul's writings on the subject. After naming the charismatic gifts, he goes on to show how important it is that, whatever our gifts are, they are used for the building up of the Church. All the members of the Church have a range of gifts, and no two individuals are the same. This reality shows both how important and valued each and every individual is to God and to the Church, yet also how the individual forms part of the whole, and is dependent on the others. As part of the whole which is the body of Christ, the Church, we find both our dignity as individuals and a way of self-transcendence which makes us capable of more than we could ever imagine.

Ministries, Charisms, Fruits - 12 Tongues

The gift of tongues is a supernatural gift that was given for the aid of the further preaching of the Gospel following Ascension and Pentecost. St Luke relates the events of that first Pentecost, telling us that one hundred and twenty disciples of Galilean origin were heard to speak in a variety of diverse tongues according as the Holy Spirit had given them to speak. Approximately three thousand people were brought together at that time, representing two religious classes, Jews and proselytes, from fifteen different nations, seen to be symbolic of every nation under Heaven. Those present were confounded in mind, for each heard the wonderful things of God spoken in his own tongue. Many thought the disciples were grossly inebriated but St Peter justified this anomaly by explaining it in the light of prophecy as a sign of the last times (cf. Acts 2:1-15)

St Paul was a witness to the operation of the same, or a related, gift at Ephesus. He directs the Corinthians to employ nothing but articulate and plain speech in their use of the gift of tongues, and also to refrain from its use in Church unless what is said can be grasped by the unlearned (cf. 1 Cor 14). No tongue is genuine without the voice of interpretation and to use tongues in this way Paul considers to be the act of a barbarian. He considers that the impulse to praise God in one or more strange tongues should come from the Holy Spirit and counts it as an inferior gift, granting it a penultimate place in a list of eight charismata. In effect Paul teaches that it is a mere sign, meant not for believers but only for unbelievers.

Ministries, Charisms, Fruits - 11 Miracles

St Paul’s inclusion of miracle-working among the gifts of the Holy Spirit which he lists in his first letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 12: 10) might seem rather strange: it certainly seems rather less common than those of wisdom, knowledge and faith which he mentions in the same chapter of that letter. Indeed, some people find talk of miracles to be one of the factors which puts them off Christianity: it’s all pious mumbo-jumbo, they say, and anyone who takes modern science seriously just can’t believe in that sort of thing.

Of course, as Christians we should not be afraid of scientific progress: the more scientific discoveries can explain, the more we can wonder at the amazing complexities of the natural order which we believe to be established by God the Creator of all that is. To ignore or disregard that (and so to explain everything in terms of immediate divine intervention) is not only to downplay the truly miraculous, but also to reject the glory of the natural order which is no less the work of God. And yet at the same time it seems clear that some occurrences completely defy a natural explanation, and it it is to these that we rightly ascribe the term ‘miracle’, a source of wonder: if we truly believe that God creates and sustains in being all that exists, then it makes sense that He can determine how it all works not only in general, but also in particular cases.

Thus for St Paul, miracles are not a disincentive to belief, but rather a sign of God’s power (cf. Gal 3: 5). But how does wonder-working as a gift of the Holy Spirit fit into all this? Just because God can work wonders, that doesn’t explain why he might allow human beings to exercise this power. In Galatians 3: 5 it is clear that, as with all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the gift of working miracles is a sign of a person’s living faith which allows God to work through them. This in turn reminds us of Our Lord’s teaching that faith the size of a mustard seed will move mountains (Matt 17: 20), and that whatever we ask of the Father in his name will be given us (John 16: 23): God wills that his power be exercised through human beings.

People might ask why, if this is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, there isn’t much evidence of wonder-working in your average Catholic parish. To this we might respond first of all, as St Paul does, that not all are called to fulfil the same function in the Church (cf. 1 Cor 12: 28). At the same time we might note saints throughout the Church’s history who have borne during their lifetime the name of 'Thaumaturge' (or 'wonder-worker') because of this particular gift of the Holy Spirit which has been given to them. Examples are St Nicholas in the 4^th century, St Andrew Corsini in the 14^th, and, in the last century, St Pius of Pietrelcina, better known as Padre Pio. Still, we should not all expect to be like them. St Paul teaches us in that same first letter to the Corinthians to appreciate the variety of gifts and ministries in the Church, not jealously seeking any of them, but gratefully receiving them as God’s gifts. What we should strive for most of all, as he reminds us, is that greatest gift of the Holy Spirit which surpasses even the gift of working miracles, namely the gift of love (1 Cor 12:31-13:13).

Ministries, Charisms, Fruits -10 Serving

Service is central to the Christian life. We are called to follow our Lord in a life of service to God and our fellow man. The gift of the Holy Spirit mentioned in Romans 12:7 is a specific type of service, which may not be obvious from the English translation. St. Paul uses the Greek work diakonia. This word refers to administration within the Church. In the context of the early Church this would concern the distribution of alms and material aid. As the Church grew, the application of this gift grew and diversified. Today the Roman Curia, the central governing body of the Roman Catholic Church, coordinates and provides the necessary central organization for the correct functioning of the Church and the achievement of its goals. But it is only the tip of an administrative colossus which consists of the curiae of the individual dioceses and orders, the episcopal conferences, parish councils, group coordinators and many more sub-divisions. Of course the original need for administrators - the distribution of aid, material, educational and spiritual - still exists and has grown. The Catholic Church is the oldest and largest provider of aid in the world. Every branch of the Church has need of administration to ensure an effective and successful mission.

Administrators and bureaucrats do not have the best reputation. They are often caricatured as faceless, legalistic bean-counters or at worst scheming, calculating, powers-behind-the-throne. It is a sad fact but all too often these stereotypes are realised in individuals, such as wily cardinals and corrupt parish treasurers. Bureaucrats are necessary for the organisation of a community. They are not however a necessary evil we must tolerate. They should benefit the society that they serve and promote the common good. The Christian administrator does not only serve a human community but the Body of Christ. The Christian administrator, strengthened by the Holy Spirit, must follow Christ’s example of humble and selfless service. The Holy Spirit bestows not only the talent for organising, maintaining and administrating but also a sense of duty to the people of God.

Ministries, Charisms, Fruits - 9 Administration

Administration is an inescapable part of most of our lives and one that is often likely to raise a grimace at the mere mention of the word. The phone calls that have to be returned, the emails that have to be sent, the meetings we have to attend, rotas to organise and budgets to complete are all part of everyday life for many of us. This, of course, all takes time, patience and organisation. It is easy for us to lose sight of the ‘bigger picture’ and feel overwhelmed by administrative affairs and forget the true purpose behind it all. We may even hark back to a time when everything seemed so much simpler …

In religious life there is a particular temptation is to see these day-to-day affairs not as simply taxing but as an actual impediment to the spiritual dimension of our lives. In 1 Corinthians 12:28, however, we learn that this is far from the view we should hold and that the spiritual gift of administration is indeed vital in building, strengthening and maintaining the Church on earth:

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.

It is clear from this passage that it is the Spirit that furnishes us with the ability to build up the Kingdom and that administration has been a vital component of the Church since its very inception. We must also recognise that there are those especially granted with the gift of being able to administer effectively. Whilst it is vital that we all play our part we must recognise those among us with special talents in this area, and ensure that they are encouraged and productively employed and supported, for without them the task of building the Body of Christ would suffer immeasurably. It is important, therefore, that we remember our duty to use our spiritual gifts to carry out Christ’s plans on earth.

Prudence, as a cardinal virtue, is essential for an effective administrator. As St Thomas makes clear in the Summa this virtue of the practical intellect is required to make the assessments that take us from the end desired through possible means of choice and thence to command or precept. In other words deliberation, judgement and command are vital in effective administration. If we can cultivate this virtue in particular we shall find, with God’s grace that we are ever more able to labour productively as Christ’s co-workers in helping to build the reality of his kingdom on earth.

Ministries, Charisms, Fruits - 8 Healing

Of all the charismatic gifts that St. Paul describes, the gift of healing is probably the one which might, at first, appear least relevant to our modern world.  Even prophecy seems less obscure, since we can probably think of Christians who seem to have a certain wisdom for discerning what will be the end result of a particular situation.  How many of us can say that we have witnessed someone being healed by another Christian? Well, it depends on what exactly we mean by healing.

While the most obvious form of the gift of healing is the ability to heal physical ailments, this need not be the only form that the gift of healing might take.  There are those within the Church, most of us have met one of them, who have a great gift for healing the psychological and emotional wounds of others.  Just getting one of these people to listen to our problems or hearing their advice can be like a balm to the soul, and we know then and there that the Holy Spirit is working through this graced individual.  However, we should not completely exclude the power to heal physically from our consideration.  Certainly in the Acts of the Apostles we read about an extraordinary outpouring of love personified, the Holy Spirit, where after Pentecost the disciples are able to heal the sick through the laying on of hands, the anointing with oil and perhaps most astonishingly, simply uttering the holy name of Our Lord and Saviour.

These miracles are recounted with a frequency that gives the impression that they became almost routine, an expected part of the life of the Church.  This certainly seems to be the case in St. Paul, since he includes the gift of healing in his list of the gifts given by the Spirit.  St. Paul had himself experienced the gift of healing when he was cured of his blindness by Ananias (Acts 9:12) when he laid his hands on him.  Furthermore, those who have been given the gift of healing, while they may be rare, are not unknown in our time.  There are many who claim to have been cured of various physical ailments through the prayers of healers at Catholic charismatic events, for example.

Thus while the reason why the gift of healing seems to occur much less frequently in our own day than in the time of the apostolic age may remain a mystery to us whilst we remain on this earth, we do know that prayer is an incredibly powerful force for good in this world.  It is therefore our job as Christians to intercede to our heavenly Father, who never neglects to answer our prayers, on behalf of those who suffer in body and soul.

Ministries, Charisms, Fruits - 7 Love

In the book of Deuteronomy we hear the great commandment "you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might" (Deut 6:4-7), and this is a commandment that Jesus himself repeats in all three Synoptic Gospels. Love is central to the Christian life, and St Paul is keen to emphasise this: "if I am without love, I am nothing. Though I should give away to the poor all that I possess, and even give up my body to be burned - if I am without love, it will do me no good whatever" (1 Cor 13:2).

This could be a source of worry for some of us - are we supposed to always act with a strong sense of affection and oneness with God. No doubt there are some Christians who do have these feelings, and it is surely a good thing if people have the sorts of emotions that make them delight in doing good works. But the kind of love St Paul describes sounds more like an attitude or outlook, than an emotion: love is always patient and kind; love is trusting, hopeful and enduring. If we can have a loving attitude like this, then it will provide the firm ground in which other spiritual gifts can take root.

Yet there are attitudes and emotions that prevent us from loving properly - boastfulness, jealousy, conceit, rudeness and delight in wrongdoing, are all incompatible with love. These negative emotions and attitudes need to be done away with, but how do we get rid of them? St Paul says ‘All who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified self with all its passions and desires’ (Gal 5:24). By turning to Christ crucified, we can be freed from all those selfish passions and desires that prevent us from truly loving God.

But true love isn’t just about getting rid of negative passions. St Paul also says love 'finds its joy in the truth' (1 Cor 13:6). Thus true love is located in the highest part of the human soul, the intellect. In our mental appreciation and in our voluntary resolve, God should stand above everything else. From this appreciation and resolve all other love flows. When we love goodness and truth in God then we can love all of His creation through Him.

Ministries, Charisms, Fruits - 6 Faith

One of the constant themes in the writings of St Paul is the central role of faith. In 1 Cor 12:9, he speaks of faith as one of the manifestations of the Spirit given for the common good. In his letter to the Romans, Paul insists that righteousness comes through faith in Jesus Christ from first to last. No one will be saved by works or by following the requirements of the law. In Romans, Paul certainly says that there is a value in the law. They are the very words of God. But what God truly wants is not merely outward or physical signs and actions but the total obedience of the heart. Faith is not just faith in God but about believing and trusting that the same God who raised Jesus from the dead and glorified him at his right hand, will raise us also to enjoy a glorious inheritance. Paul puts forward Abraham as the model of faith because he trusted that God would be utterly faithful to his promise to make him the father of many nations.

This faith, which is the free and loving gift of God’s grace, is the total obedience to God and not just intellectual assent. Thus this faith calls us to imitate Christ more closely who “humbled himself by becoming obedient to death - even death on a cross” (Phil 2:8). It is by the obedience of faith that we become truly free. Sin, which has its root in disobedience to God, makes us slaves and burdens us. Faith is our liberation: “it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Faith must involve the total transformation of a person's life. It must transform what we do and say each day. We are to put on “the new self, created to be like God in holiness and righteousness”. (Eph 4:24).

But how are people to believe if others do not answer the call to go out and preach the good news of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ? “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” (Rom 10:14). What greater joy can someone share with another than the good news about their faith in Christ? “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news” (Rom 10:15).

Ministries, Charisms, Fruits - 5 Knowledge

The "word of knowledge" (logos gnoseos) is only mentioned once in St Paul's letters, in 1 Corinthians 12:8. Its context in this letter is important, for the Corinthian church was noted for being "enriched in [Christ] with all speech and all knowledge" (1 Cor 1:5). And yet, Corinth was a Christian community marked by quarrels, dissent and manifest disunity during the Eucharist. Clearly, the Corinthians' gifts of prophecy and knowledge were not enough to unite them in Christ. For knowledge, although a gift of the Spirit, is "imperfect" (1 Cor 13:9) because we do not, in this life, ever possess perfect knowledge. More importantly, we do not always possess those virtues that help us to use this knowledge well.

But what does Paul mean by 'knowledge'? He explains that knowledge is a gift of the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us in baptism, and who "searches everything, even the depths of God"(1 Cor 2:10). Thus the Holy Spirit, who alone comprehends the thoughts of God, teaches and makes comprehensible to the human mind the spiritual things of God. However, knowledge, which is only given to some, is meant to be used at the service of the Church, "for the common good" (1 Cor 12:7). Paul uses the analogy of the one body with many members, co-ordinating together and serving the whole. So, no one member can be more important than the other, and thus no spiritual gift ought to be used selfishly. Rather, we are called to work together, with a diversity of spiritual gifts, so as to aim together for love (see 1 Cor 13:14). For Paul warns that "knowledge puffs up, but love builds up" (1 Cor 8:1) just as knowledge comes to an end, but love does not. As such, without love, knowledge amounts to nothing.

The exercise of knowledge in love means that we need to look out for one another, especially those who are "weak". In 1 Cor 8, he cites the interesting example of someone who knows that "there is no God but one", and so, it is tolerable to eat food offered to idols, since these do not really exist. However, there might be other Christians who do not have this knowledge concerning the one God, and they are thus misled into thinking that it is acceptable to eat food offered to idols, whom he still thinks to be real. In such a case, the weaker are scandalised and misled by the knowledgeable, and all suffer. So Paul argues that it is better for those with knowledge to forego their 'rights' for the sake of the 'weaker'. For "if one member suffers, all suffer together" (1 Cor 12:26).

Therefore, in 1 Cor 14:6, Paul says that knowledge only benefits the Church if it is taught to others and exercised in love to build up the Church, rather than used for self-gratification. One is reminded of the Dominican ideal that study is always at the service of preaching, so that we do not become academics who pursue selfish and arcane interests, but always seek humbly to hand on the fruits of our contemplation. Sometimes theologians and scholars can fail to do this, and they may scorn the less knowledgeable, or behave in a manner that scandalises the faithful. Such knowledge, then, although it is correct, is useless. But if it is taught with the patience and kindness that characterises love, and the humility that comes from realising that all knowledge comes from God, then it will bear fruit and contribute to the good and growth of the Church.

Ministries, Charisms, Fruits - 4 Wisdom

St Paul obviously had an ambivalent attitude to “wisdom”. In 1 Cor 3:19 he writes that “the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God”. What Paul means here is a natural or “earthly” human wisdom. This kind of wisdom is indeed seen rather critically. Christ himself confirms in his prayer to the Father that the revelation of God’s kingdom remained hidden from the wise and understanding (cf. Matt 11:25; Luke 10:21).

Nevertheless, in 1 Cor 12:8 Paul praises the “utterance of wisdom which is given through the Spirit”. The wisdom which St Paul preaches is the Cross. He writes earlier in this first letter to the Corinthians (1:23-24) that “we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” This is the wisdom about which a Christian is called to speak: Christ crucified. St Paul himself does not try to convince his audience with “plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit”. All this might show us that the gift of which he speaks in 1 Cor 12:8 is, of course, not of the earthly, foolish kind of wisdom. It is exactly “a demonstration of the Spirit”.

But we must see that the wisdom in 1 Cor 12:8 is not a gift for everybody in the community. It is a special charisma only for a few. Therefore Paul does not write that through the Spirit is given “wisdom”, but the “utterance of wisdom”. He is here not talking about having or knowing wisdom. He talks about a gift of instruction. But such a gift of instruction is an extraordinary phenomenon. In the preceding verses St Paul makes it quite clear that the gifts he lists in his letter to the Church in Corinth are not for personal sanctification. Those to whom these gifts are granted are, rather, given a high responsibility. They are made instruments of God for the good of the community. These gifts are freely given for the service of others. St Thomas writes in his commentary on Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians: “the personal graces enable the Holy Spirit to dwell in us; the ministerial graces do not do this but only enable the Holy Spirit to be made manifest.”

But there is a diversity of ministries and no one has all of them. If these gifts were necessary for personal sanctification, it would be fitting that everybody should have all of them. But they are given “for some benefit”: the building up of the community. And it is not even Paul’s intention to present an exhaustive list of gifts or manifestations of God’s Spirit. He rather demonstrates to the recipients of his letter, the Church in Corinth, which is divided due to sundry quarrels, that there is a great diversity of manifestations of the Spirit. It is one and the same Spirit, as St Paul says, who is the source of all gifts, God’s Spirit. Therefore the gifts must not be a cause for conflicts and separation in the community, since it is God who acts through them.

Ministries, Charisms, Fruits - 2 Prophets

Throughout the history of Israel there were many prophets and the stories of their lives and their writings have been handed down to us in the Old Testament. These venerable figures were inspired by God to perform a task, namely to prepare the people of Israel for the coming of God in the person of Jesus Christ. We also have an account in the Gospel of the most important of all of them, John the Baptist, whose mission was to 'prepare the way of the Lord'. All the prophets had a common task: they were sent by God as messengers to the people, bringing God's message to them. In the writings of Paul, we see however that prophecy continued to have an important role. This role was different to that of the Old Testament prophets and John the Baptist. It is not one of preparing the people for the coming of God as man. That event has already happened.

Prophecy is, according to Paul, one of the charismata, gifts given through the grace of God. The grace that comes to us by the Holy Spirit justifies and sanctifies us, but also makes us useful in doing God's work. The exercise of this gift is spoken of as a specific role or ministry in the Church. Prophets have a role in building up the Church, the Body of Christ. Paul thinks that prophets are people who have a particularly strong faith, a close relationship with God. They are able to be responsive to the movement of the Holy Spirit, and are able to discern the will of God for the believing community, and proclaim it (Romans 12:6). Prophets were important in the early Church, precisely because they spoke words that came from God. This had a beneficial effect not only on the dynamics of the Christian community, but also in the development of mission and outreach to those who did not believe.

In today's Church, the need for the prophetic ministry is every bit as important as in the early Church. Listening to the voice of the Lord, speaking especially through those who proclaim and preach the Gospel, is essential in building up the Church, and helping its members to live as one body in the truth of Christ. It is also important in making sure that the message of the Gospel is heard by all those who do not believe, that they might come to Christ.

Ministries, Charisms, Fruits - 1 Apostles

The term apostolos in Greek is one that denotes a “sent one,” a messenger who comes with a message from another. But the word is applied in a particular way when it speaks of those who are “Apostles of Christ”. It refers to those who have received the gift of apostleship, personally chosen and sent by Christ Himself to bear witness to Him to people in a personal way. In this sense, all Christians may be said to be apostles, but the gift of Apostleship was one given only to a few.

Paul repeatedly identifies himself as an Apostle. In the First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul defends his apostleship, showing that he has the various qualities of an Apostle: “have I not seen the Lord,” he asks (1 Cor 9:1). A personal encounter with the Risen Lord was a criterion for the appointment of Judas’ replacement, as we read in Acts of the Apostles 1:21-22. When we read of the commissioning of the Apostles in Matthew’s Gospel, we learn that Jesus also gave them power to perform miracles in His name. In the same letter, Paul also claims this as a mark of the authenticity of his Apostleship: “truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds” (1 Cor 12:12).

When constructing an ecclesiology, Paul places the Apostles in a position of unique honour. In 1 Corinthians 12:28, they are listed as “first” in importance. This is in keeping with the prophecy made by the Lord when we read of the commissioning of the Apostles in Luke. Here the Lord says that in the coming Kingdom, they will “sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Luke 22:29-30). In the Book of Revelation their names are on the twelve foundation stones of the New Jerusalem.

Those who were granted the gift of Apostleship hold a prime place of honour in the new life we have in Christ. As the personal messengers of Christ, they share in his ministry of preaching and healing. In their ministry, conducted with the anointing of the Holy Spirit, they are the foundations of the Church.

The Year of Paul - Ministries, Charisms, Fruits of the Spirit

To mark the final weeks of the Year of Paul, Godzdogz will offer a series of reflections on the ministries, charisms and fruits of the Spirit identified by St Paul in his letters and frequently referred to by him. We will treat of the ministry of apostles, prophets, teachers, healers, administrators and 'servers'; of the charisms of wisdom, knowledge, faith, love, miracles, tongues, interpretation and discernment; and of the fruits of joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

In this way we will together recall the rich vision of the Christian community presented by St Paul, his understanding of the many parts that go to make up the one body, the many gifts of the one Spirit, the varieties of service to the one Lord, and the varieties of working inspired in every one by the one God. Each of us finds ourselves somewhere among these ministries, charisms and fruits. Our hope is that by meditating on them together we will gain a richer sense of our call and live it out more confidently from day to day.

Please post your comments to these reflections to ask for further clarification or to fill out what we say from your meditation on Paul's writings.

On the Areopagus - 13 The Basis of our Hope

One of the factors a lot of people speak about as characteristic of many in society today, especially young people, is a pervading sense of hopelessness, a sense that there isn’t much to look forward to and often, sadly, not much to live for. The sense of purpose and of deep inner value is often hard to find. Pessimism and cynicism seem to prevail in many areas of the media. Yet the Christian is called to a life that is extraordinarily different from these things. The First Letter of Peter exhorts the Christian to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 1:15). Christians have received the gift of hope that comes from that most trustworthy and unfailing source - God our Father, revealed through Jesus Christ. Saint Paul in his letter to the Ephesians states firmly that before they came to know Christ they were “without hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). Believing in Christ means coming into possession of a great hope.

What is this hope based on? Pious sentiment? Mad daydreams? Self delusion? No. St Paul is clear in his letter to the Thessalonians. He exhorts them not to grieve over the dead as do those without hope: “we believe that Jesus Christ died and rose again, and so believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep with him” (1 Thess 4:14). It is a hope based on the knowledge of the immense love which God has for us and which he revealed in the death of his only-begotten Son on the Cross. The tortured figure of Christ on the Cross, arms outstretched before the world, as it were to gather us all to himself, reveals the depths of his love and of how far God will go in his effort to save each human being. “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). Pope Benedict explains in his letter on hope, Spe Salvi, that “the dark door of time, of the future, has been thrown open. The one who has hope lives differently; the one who has hope has been granted the gift of a new life.”

This firm hope in the promise of the resurrection occupies a large part of Paul’s thinking. For him the second coming is a glorious occasion. Not only will the bodies of human beings be transformed but all creation will be renewed: “the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). Therefore we are children of the light, the light of the knowledge that Christ has revealed to us in his life, death and resurrection. We have put on faith and love as a breastplate and the hope of salvation as a helmet. All Christians are called to be beacons of hope in a world too often darkened by fear, pessimism and hopelessness. Whatever our place in life, whatever our difficulties or sufferings, each of us is of incalculable value to God. For he has spoken to us through his Son and therefore we are comforted by our sure hope in Christ’s saving power and by the firm knowledge that “neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).

On the Areopagus - 12 Neither Jew nor Greek ... a multicultural world

We find ourselves reminded several times in the letters of St Paul (Rm 10:12; Gal 3:28; Col 3:11) that there is no longer Jew or Greek; in other words, the racial distinctions made by the Jewish law no longer have a place in Christianity.

At one level, this could be interpreted as referring only to the Church: it is clear that there were disagreements in the Church of the first century about whether non-Jews who became Christians should be obliged to observe the whole Jewish law – in other words, whether, in order to become a Christian you had first to become a Jew – and it is equally clear that St Paul believes this is not the case: Christ’s sacrifice has fulfilled the old law, doing away with the distinction between Jews and Greeks and uniting all who follow him in his body, the Church. Although we no longer have the same particular question to deal with, St Paul’s teaching reminds us of the truly universal nature of the Church, where people of all nations are called to share together as equals in the heavenly banquet.

At the same time, by noting that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, St Paul is also perhaps reminding us that we are first of all ‘fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God’ (Eph 2:19): whatever national culture we might hold as our own through birth, that Christian culture which encompasses and sanctifies all human cultures and which has become ours through baptism is that to which we most fundamentally belong.

Indeed, looking more closely at these texts from the Pauline epistles, it becomes clear that St Paul is not talking only about the Church: Christ’s sacrifice has changed the whole world. In the renewal of creation which Christ’s death and resurrection effected, there is no longer a privileged path to God for those of a certain race: all are called to share God’s love in Christ. As for the Church, so for the world: on the one hand, it is clear that people of all cultures are called to live together in unity, and to avoid putting up artificial barriers.

On the other hand, the unity to which we are called is precisely unity in Christ, and we must not be afraid to challenge an ideology of multiculturalism which treats religion simply as part of a broader culture: this would imply that in a multicultural society, just as its various constitutive cultures are considered equally valid, so should the various religious beliefs found there be treated. Instead we must insist on the teaching of St Paul that the Gospel of redemption Christ offers is for people of all cultures, for in his new creation ‘there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all’ (Col 3: 11).

On the Areopagus - 7 The Economic Situation

“For the form of this world is passing away”, so says St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:31.  Paul was referring, of course, to the end of this present world at the second coming, which he thought would soon happen.  However, according to some financial analysts, this could equally apply to the present economic crisis that has rapidly developed into a recession.  Some economists have gone so far as to say that the present economic woes we are experiencing are in fact the birth pains of the transition to a whole new economic model.  Previous changes in the way in which the global economy functions have resulted in times of economic hardship as entrepreneurs, banks, economists and governments struggle to come to terms with a changed economic landscape where the old methods are no longer effective.  Whilst it may be possible to lay the blame for the collapse of many banks at the feet of those who recklessly offered vast amounts of credit to those they knew could not afford to pay it back, this may in fact have simply been the trigger that was needed to set off this chain of events.  Perhaps something else, not caused by such wanton disregard for the well-being of others, would have had the same effect.  Perhaps in retrospect we could have seen it coming, if we remember all the offers for easy credit we used to receive, all the adverts on TV about debt services, it should have been clear that this credit free-for-all was never going to last for ever.  People had been living on money they did not in fact have and will now have to adjust to the reality of their actual financial situation.  As always, it is those who have the least who suffer the most: let us be sure to keep them in our prayers.   

What is both fascinating and terrifying to note is the fragility of the social stability of liberal democracy.  Since mutual respect and tolerance of others, in our society, is not founded on love of neighbour but on indifference to those around us, a decrease in prosperity can so easily harm the relations of people who live not in communities, but as isolated individuals.  This has been seen in Britain recently with the protests over Italian workers being brought in by Total oil refinery.  Whilst one can of course sympathise with those who are struggling to make ends meet in difficult times, it is crucial to remember that the world has become far smaller than ever before.  We live in a globalised world where the prosperity of Britain depends, indeed has been achieved by, our openness to foreign enterprise and foreign workers, enabling a much higher degree of efficiency and productivity than would be possible if Britain were to close herself off.  It has been demonstrated beyond doubt that the Great Depression of the 1930s was worsened by the protectionist measures of those who thought they could improve the situation by raising barriers to international trade.  In our own times, this would not only be disastrous for our economy but would also contradict the scriptural command to welcome the stranger found in our Jewish heritage in Leviticus “The stranger who sojourns with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God” (Lev. 19:34) and in the words of Our Lord “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Matt. 25:35).  People coming from many nations, particularly in recent times from former Soviet-dominated countries, have contributed hugely to the prosperity of this country and it would be not only massively ungrateful, but also deeply unjust, to make them feel unwelcome now that times are harder.  Let us pray that throughout the continuing economic difficulties, the love of Christ as shown in St. Paul, who became all things to all men, will triumph over greed, selfishness and xenophobia.      

On the Areopagus - 1 A New Series

Godzdogz has been marking the Year of St Paul in a number of ways including, the A-Z of Paul which we published last year. During February 2009 we will publish a new series called 'On the Areopagus'. This refers to Paul's preaching at Athens, recounted in Acts 17. The Areopagus was, like the Forum in Rome, a central meeting place for business, discussion and civil affairs. We are told that Paul there spoke to the philosophers and citizens of Athens, trying to make connections between their convictions and worship and the gospel of Christ.

His preaching went well for a long time, they were curious and interested, but it broke down when he began to speak about judgement and the fact that God had appointed one man, Jesus, to be judge, confirming his role as judge by raising him from the dead. At that point many laughed, others said they would listen again sometime, and a handful came to believe.

Our idea in 'On the Areopagus' is to try to imitate Paul in his preaching at Athens, making connections between the convictions and concerns of people in various areas of life and the gospel of Christ. Our hope is to show how Catholic teaching responds to contemporary questions in culture, politics, science, etc. starting, where possible, with texts of Paul himself. We want to show how the gospel sheds a distinctive light on human problems. We hope that it will be of interest to you and that it will offer answers, or at least further food for thought, about many of the questions you send our way.

The Areopagus as it is today

In launching the Vatican's YouTube channel, Pope Benedict referred to St Paul's preaching on the Areopagus. 'So that the Church and its message continue to be present in the great Areopagus of social communications as defined by John Paul II', he said, 'and so that it is not a stranger to those spaces where numerous young people search for answers and meaning in their lives, you must find new ways to spread voices and images of hope through the ever-evolving communications system that surrounds our planet' (see here).

January 25 - Saul to Paul

For the first half of his life he was Saul and for the second part Paul. He became the apostle to the Gentiles, the founder of Churches, a travelling preacher and a writer of letters. At the end he witnessed to Christ by shedding his blood as a martyr for the faith at Rome. January 25th is the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, the moment he ceased to be Saul and became Paul. By God’s grace he was destined to be one of the greatest saints of the Church, a man whose life and writings continue to nourish the faith of millions. Paul describes himself as ‘one untimely born’ (1 Corinthians 15), brought to birth as ‘the last and least’ of the apostles, those privileged to encounter the risen Lord. His life before that moment – his life as ‘Saul’, culminating in his persecution of the Church of God – does not count any more.

It is true that in 2 Corinthians 11, Philippians 3, and Romans 11 Paul gives us a lot of information about his life and times, about his ancestry and education, and about the events of his life before and after his conversion. The Acts of the Apostles fills in many gaps and there is more to be gleaned from other letters of the New Testament. But if we are to take his own words seriously, then the significant life of Paul the Apostle is his preaching of the gospel and his establishment of churches. His life in Christ is the life that counts. There is nothing before or around that that is worthy of much attention. This is because for him ‘to live is Christ’ (Philippians 1.21) so that ‘it is no longer Paul who lives but Christ who lives in him’ (Galatians 2.20). The fate of Paul is now completely entwined with the fate of Christ and of his Body, the Church.

Paul belongs to the line of Israel’s prophets for whom a vision and vocation inaugurate a new life. Isaiah, for example, saw God’s glory in the temple at Jerusalem, felt his own unworthiness, had his lips burned clean with fire, and then entrusted himself to the grace that made him the bearer of God’s word (Isaiah 6). Amos the keeper of sycamore trees is also turned into a prophet (Amos 7). Jeremiah is called in spite of his feeling that he is too young for the responsibilities involved (Jeremiah 1).

We can use the words of Isaiah, describing the effects of God’s presence in the temple, to say that Paul’s experience of untimely birth meant the shaking of his foundations and the filling of his house with smoke. He was confused and blinded for some time until a representative of the Church, Ananias, came as the instrument of God’s Spirit and guided him to his new birth (Acts 9). Then in baptism, as he has taught the whole Church, Paul became a new creation (2 Corinthians 5.17).

And so his life begins. We cannot doubt that Paul’s personal experience of Jesus on the road to Damascus and in the days that followed deserves all the attention that has been lavished on it. The Acts of the Apostles tells the story three times. (Artists tend to paint the scene with Paul falling from a horse but in none of these accounts is there any reference to a horse!) His teaching and the energy with which he travelled back and forth across the Roman Empire were the result of that moment in which Paul met Jesus and was forever overwhelmed.

What did Saint Paul then do all day? He tells us that he burned himself out in his anxiety and care for the churches. There are hints that he continued to earn a living through his trade of tent making (1 Corinthians 9). But this would have been a tedious distraction from his heart’s passion, which was to preach the gospel of the crucified and risen Lord, to become all things to all people that he might somehow win some of them. He preached to Jews and Greeks, to tradesmen and philosophers, to prison guards and political leaders, to men and women.

As an instrument of the Spirit he achieved remarkable things. He established and strengthened Christian communities in many places. He brought the gospel to Europe. He ended his life by dying a martyr’s death in Rome. He was privileged to follow Christ in more than a figurative sense. With his physical blood Paul completed the outpouring of his heart’s passion, his love for Christ, that love from God that had been poured into his heart by the Holy Spirit. He lived always in faith and love, never for a moment forgetting the grace of God working in him in spite of many difficulties and personal weaknesses.

Saint Paul is one of the best-known personalities of the ancient world who continues to teach and inspire millions of disciples of Jesus. On January 25 we recall the wonderful things God did through him. Let us, in Paul’s own words, ‘give thanks to God who gave him (and gives us) the victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ’ (1 Corinthians 15.57).

A - Z of Paul: Zeal

St. Paul mostly uses the concept of zeal or eagerness in a negative way perhaps because he associates it with the zeal for persecuting Christians that he had before his conversion. Paul thinks of zeal as the attitude of a man who is focused on attaining righteousness through the law. He writes in Philippians 3:6, describing how pious he was before his conversion, that “as to zeal, [I was] a persecutor of the church”. Paul was a man whose zeal for the Lord was so great that he could not bear to see what he then thought of as the blasphemy of Christians who dared to claim that this man Jesus was divine. This zeal led him to persecute Christians and to oversee the execution of the first martyr for Christ, St. Stephen: “And Saul approved of their killing him” (Acts 8:1).

The Greek word that is translated 'zeal' can have several meanings including striving and jealously. From this we can infer that when Paul writes of pressing on towards the prize (Phil 3) he is describing the kind of zeal that should characterise a Christian. In the place of zeal for the ritual purity of the law should be a zeal for Christ and his gospel, and who could be a better example of this than Paul who evangelised an astonishingly large area of the Roman Empire with great fervour. The Christian regards as rubbish everything that he cared about in the world before he came to Christ and is willing to suffer the loss of all things in order to have Christ and to preach the good news to all. For Paul the focus of one’s desires is what characterises the Christian. The Christian man or woman does not have their mind set on earthly things but contemplates the heavenly glory that awaits those who suffer for the sake of the gospel. In Philippians Paul makes clear that our zeal is not to be for earthly things like power, wealth and prestige but instead we are to place our trust in the Spirit of Christ Jesus who overcame the world and the death that was the wages of sin.

A-Z of Paul: Yes

Although St Paul faced many challenges and had to make many difficult decisions during his ministry, it is a sign of his spiritual genius that he was able to use these situations as a vehicle for expressing the profound truths of the Christian Faith. One such example is Paul’s decision not to revisit Corinth. After writing 1 Corinthians, Paul paid a brief, stern visit to Corinth and promised to return. However, when Paul changed his mind and decided not to visit Corinth again, this caused some of the Corinthians to doubt Paul’s integrity. Could this man be trusted? In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul assures them he is not a ditherer, not someone having in his mind Yes and No at the same time. Rather he is prompted only by doing God’s will which is all Yes. The Gospel that Paul preached was that God is totally faithful; He keeps His promises. In Jesus Christ, in His resurrection, all God’s promises are fulfilled. Whenever we receive the Eucharist, we say Amen, Yes to Christ. It is through Jesus Christ that we are able to live by the Holy Spirit rather than being guided by ordinary human promptings and it is through Him we can fully say Yes to God and give God the thanks and praise that is due to Him.

A-Z of Paul: Xenophilia

Paul's mission is to bring about the obedience of faith among all the nations (Acts 9:15; Rom 1:5; 15:18; 16:26). He glories in this mission to the 'gentiles' (also translated 'nations' or 'pagans' - Rom 11:13; Gal 1:16; Eph 3:8) contrasting it with Peter's mission to the Jews (Gal 2:7-9).

This was not because Paul loved foreign things as such (the dictionary meaning of 'xenophilia') but because he had come to see that the promise to Abraham of a posterity that would be a blessing to all nations had been fulfilled in Christ. Christ is the offspring or seed of Abraham in whom is finally fulfilled the promise made at the beginning of salvation history (Genesis 12; Galatians 3:8,14).

Gentiles are not innocent just because they do not have the law. Paul is not romanticizing the 'noble savage'. What the law requires is written on their hearts, and their failure to live by it shows that they too need salvation (Rom 2:14-16; 3:9). The work of Christ extends to Jew and Gentile alike (Eph 2:14-18). For Paul this was not an alternative to Judaism but rather its fulfillment and he quotes psalms which speak of the Gentiles glorifying God, praising his mercy and finding their hope in the God of Israel (Rom 15:9-12). We know from the Acts of the Apostles that his strategy was to preach first in the synagogues of the towns he visited, to try to convince the Jews there that they should believe in Christ, and only after would he preach to the Gentiles. But he was clear from the beginning that his mission was to them also and not just to Jews.

At times the term 'gentiles' or 'nations' takes on the pejorative sense that is often given to the term 'pagans'. Paul often writes to his Christian converts reminding them of the idolatry and immorality that characterized their lives as pagans and from which they have now been freed (1 Cor 12:2; Gal 4:8; Eph 2:1; 4:17; 1 Thess 4:5). They have been baptized into the one body of Christ, along with Jews who have come to believe in Christ, and have been made to drink with them of the same Spirit (1 Cor 12:13). Christ has broken down the hostile dividing wall that separated Jew and Gentile (Eph 2:14). They are reconciled in one body to God by means of the cross of Christ (Eph 2:16). The cross of Christ is a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, Paul says, but to all who are called, whether they are Jews or Gentiles, it is the power and the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:18.25). The pagans are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, fellow partakers of God's promise, having equal access through one Spirit to the Father (Eph 2:18; 3:6).

Paul's transformed understanding comes about through his encounter with Jesus, risen from the dead, and therefore vindicated by God the Father. A light shines backwards then for Paul, across all the texts of the Old Testament, illuminating a promise that had always been there and has now been fulfilled, that in Abraham all the families of the earth are blessed (Gen 12:3). The offspring of Abraham through whom the promise is fulfilled is Christ (Gal 4:16). Salvation is from the Jews, as Jesus says to the Samaritan woman (John 4:22) but it is for all nations, as the great hymns of the Book of Revelation celebrate (e.g. Rev 5:9-10).

A-Z of Paul: Weakness

Often in our world, we might be tempted to flaunt our achievements or consider ourselves self-sufficient; in our CVs we hide our weakness and exaggerate our strengths. As "self-made men" there is certainly a hubristic tendency for us to think that we do not need God and render him 'irrelevant' to our lives. 

St Paul, however, who was by all accounts a successful missionary and preacher, knew that he was a weak and sinful human being. He uses the word astheneia, which is translated as 'weakness', extensively in his major writings. In the first place all human beings are weak and utterly dependent on God's grace. Consequently, whatever we achieve is a result of God's activity in our lives. As Paul said, "But we have this treasure [of the Gospel] in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us" (2 Cor. 4:7).

The marvel of God's love is that he cherishes us and uses us despite our failings. So we need not hide our weakness before God; he does not check our CV before using us. God uses us as we are, and indeed it is because we are weak and in need of God that God's power is displayed. So, for Paul, human weakness provides the best channel for divine power. As he says in 2 Corinthians 12:9, "[The Lord] said to me 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 

The ultimate sign of God working in what the world might consider weakness is Christ crucified. For it is through the weakness of the Cross that God's power of love, the power of Christ's resurrection, is displayed for all to see and transforms the world. And so, we are called to imitate the Cross of Christ in our lives, so that empowered by God, our human weakness (with all its trials and suffering) may be borne courageously and gradually transformed by grace. 

This work of grace which transforms us and shapes us according to the pattern of Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit. Thus St Paul says that "the Spirit helps us in our weakness" (Rom 8:26), and the goal of this transformation is that, having died with Christ, we might also rise with him.

Therefore, Paul's concept of weakness emphasises the power of God's grace and his transforming love. This ought to encourage us, for when we recognise our complete need of God and realise that we cannot strive for happiness apart from God, then we can serenely allow God to work in our lives, to be like clay in the hands of the divine Potter and allow God to use us "in order to make known the riches of his glory" (Rom 9:23). 

A-Z of Paul: Victory

Paul uses the term 'victory' in just one context, at the end of 1 Corinthians 15. This is a long consideration of the resurrection, responding to a number of difficulties the Corinthians were experiencing about it. One was the classic Greek difficulty about any bodily resurrection. Greek thought tended to be dualistic and to be happy with the idea of a 'spiritual' part or aspect continuing after death but not with the suggestion that bodies might be resurrected. It seemed so obvious that the flesh perished, what could restore it except something equivalent to an act of creation (precisely what Abraham and his children in faith believed about God, the One who could bring life out of death). Many people nowadays talk in the same dualistic terms about what happens after death: a 'spiritual' or even 'divine' part continues while the body perishes. Christianity teaches something much more extraordinary.

Paul's response to this difficulty is to appeal to the life he was living and the life they were living as a result of his preaching. If there is no resurrection then neither can Christ have been raised and if Christ has not been raised from the dead then the gospel is false, we are still in our sins and the preachers of the gospel are on a hiding to nothing - 'if our hope in Christ has been for this life only we are the most unfortunate of all people' (1 Corinthians 15:19). It is striking that Paul appeals already to the Church's tradition (as he does earlier, about the Eucharist): 'I taught you what I had been taught myself' (1 Corinthians 15:3; see 1 Corinthians 11:23 where he says he has received it 'from the Lord'). The best 'proof' of the resurrection, then, is the life of the Christian community. Just as the transformation of the disciples after the death of Jesus is most reasonably explained by his resurrection from the dead and his appearances to them, so the transformation of human lives in the community of love established by Christ is the most powerful witness there can be to the fact that Christ is risen and is alive.

The second difficulty troubling the Corinthians is about the nature of the resurrected body. Paul offers some thoughts about this, even though he initially dismisses it as a 'stupid question' (1 Corinthians 15:36). Just as is the case with Jesus, what needs to be kept in mind is the continuity which makes the resurrected body to be the body of this person who has died as well as the discontinuity which makes the resurrected body to be part of a radically transformed order, the perishable made imperishable, the mortal made immortal. And here is where he introduces the term 'victory', for this clothing of the perishable in imperishability and this clothing of the mortal in immortality, is the victory prophesied by Isaiah and Hosea: 'he will destroy Death forever, wipe away all tears, take away his people's shame - this is our God in whom we hoped for salvation' (Isaiah 25:7-9); 'where is your plague, Death? where are your scourges, Sheol?' (Hosea 13:14).

In a final hymn of triumph Paul offers his own interpretation of these prophecies: 'the sting or plague of death is sin, and sin gets its power from the law'. Paul had come to see that salvation from sin is not through observance of the law, which serves only to convict us of sin, but is through the faithfulness of Christ, his death on the cross, his victory. 'So let us thank God for giving us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ' (1 Corinthians 15:57). Not only is it a victory achieved by God, it is a victory given to us for it is Jesus, the Son of God and our brother, who has won eternal life for us.

A-Z of Paul: Unity

Paul is remembered for his argumentativeness (see Paul A-Z: Quarreling) and at the same time a concern with unity is found all through his writings. We can imagine him then experiencing a certain amount of anxiety about his own temperament in this regard.

The foundation for the unity of Christians is their union with Christ through baptism. They have been made one with him in his dying and rising (Rom 6:5) and so he prays that God will help them to live in such harmony with one another, in Christ, that they will be able to glorify God with one voice (Rom 15:5-6). The community of Corinth was the most divided of Paul's churches. Not surprisingly, then, he appeals to them to be united in the same mind and in the same judgment (1 Cor 1:10). The Eucharist is the sign and realization of their unity with Christ (communion in his body and blood) and with each other (we who are many are one body for we all partake of the one bread - 1 Cor 10:17). There has to be variety in gifts, service and activity but it is the same Spirit, the same Lord, the same God who inspires all these different things in different individuals for the sake of the unity of the body (1 Cor 12).

Christians ought to be 'knit together in love' (Col 2:2), a unity possible because they all hold fast to the one Head (Col 2:19). The terms 'Christ' and 'love' seem perfectly interchangeable in the letter to the Colossians: over everything else, to keep it all together, put on love (put on Christ), which binds everything together in perfect harmony (Col 3:14).

The unity of the community is a particular concern of the Letter to the Ephesians. God's eternal plan was to unite all things in Christ (Eph 1:10) and this has been achieved through the death of Jesus on the cross. In his body, on the cross, Christ has made peace, reconciling all to God in one body (Eph 2:13-16). So they must live a life worthy of the gift they have received, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph 4:3). There is only one body, one Spirit, one hope, one call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all (Eph 4:4-5). Although in principle our unity and reconciliation have been achieved by Christ, we still have a distance to go as the body builds itself up in love, a unity and diversity that is growing towards mature humanity, the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ (Eph 4:12-16). Marriage is a fitting symbol of this union between Christ and his body the Church, two that become one in a union of love (Eph 5:31).

For Paul the unity of the community is founded on the unity into which Christ calls us, a unity in the Spirit of God's love. 'So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any incentive of love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind' (Philippians 2:1-2).

A-Z of Paul: Timothy and Titus

The Letters of Paul to both Timothy and Titus are know as the 'Pastoral Epistles'. If we read them carefully, we can notice several things about them. The first is that they are addressed to individuals who seem to have responsibility for local Churches. It seems likely that both Timothy and Titus are early bishops, episkopoi, who, if we take the literal meaning of the Greek word, 'oversaw' the affairs of the local Churches. We also notice that the tone and the content of the letters is quite different to, say the Letter to the Romans or the Corinthian Epistles. Many scholars are of the opinion that the different style of these letters is a sign that they are not in fact from Paul - the tone and language are, after all, very different. On the other hand, it can be argued that the letters addressed to both Timothy and Titus have a very different aim in mind. A leader such as Paul would, after all, write quite a different letter to other Church leaders than the kind that he might write for instructing and encouraging all the members of a Church in a particular place. The arguments for and against Pauline authorship will no doubt continue, and we must be careful not to be too drawn in, lest we lose sight of their value to all Christians.

The letters to Timothy and Titus are above all letters of support and encouragement. The First Letter to Timothy emphasises strongly the importance of prayer and of peace in the local Church. His instructions concerning those who are to be Bishops and Deacons show how clearly Paul thinks that holiness in Church leaders is fundamental in leading the faithful to Christ. Good leaders have a duty to ensure good teaching in the Church, and safeguard the wellbeing of the whole community, young and old (1 Tim 5:1-2). In the Second Letter to Timothy, it is clear that Paul believes his life to be coming to an end. This time, Paul encourages Timothy, and sets himself up as a model to be imitated, reminding him of the ways in which the Lord worked for him and through him throughout his life. 'Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching' (2 Tim 4:2). The letter to Titus, the shortest of the Pastoral Epistles, emphasises good teaching and good deeds.

So we can see how there are common threads running through all the Pastoral epistles. The Church needs leadership and authority to maintain its unity. But the effectiveness of that leadership will be compromised unless the lives of the leaders is upright and blameless. And this message goes out to all of us of course: if we are to show Christ effectively to the world, we must all be people of holiness, ready to do all we can to help and serve others. We must strive to be icons of Christ, for there is no more powerful way to draw people to faith than to make his face visible to the world in which we live.

A-Z Paul: Son/sonship

Before his conversion to Christianity, Saint Paul must have been very aware of Christian claims about Jesus. He no doubt regarded these claims as an objectionable glorification of a false prophet. They must have provided part of the reason for his zealous opposition to this new religion in defence of his own Jewish tradition. His account of his conversion on the road to Damascus, which turned Paul from opponent to apostle of Jesus Christ, makes plain that the experience involved him in a complete reversal of his opinion of Jesus. Jesus was no longer a false prophet for Paul but a unique representative of God. He writes in the Letter to the Galatians that 'in his good pleasure God, who had set me apart from birth and called me though his grace, chose to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles' (Galatians 1:15-16).

It is clear from his letters that for Paul Jesus' sonship was in some sense unique, that Jesus possessed a unique status and favour with God, that he in some way shared in the divine glory and so was worthy to be venerated with God at Christian gatherings. Yet Paul develops his understanding of the sonship of Jesus against the backdrop of Jewish tradition and Old Testament themes. In the Letter to the Romans, for example, Paul describes how Jesus was 'declared Son of God by a mighty act in that he rose from the dead' (Romans 1:4). This seems to echo the Lord's promise to David in the Second Book of Samuel: 'I will raise up one of your family, one of your own children, to succeed you and I will establish his kingdom [...] I will be his Father and he shall be my Son' (2 Samuel 12,14). Here Paul uses language and imagery from the Jewish, royal-messianic tradition to explain his belief about Jesus' place in God's plan. At the same time, he goes far beyond Old Testament ideas in his account of how Jesus was constituted God's son by his resurrection from the dead.

Later in the Letter to the Romans Paul writes of how 'God did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for us all' (Romans 8:32). Again it is possible to identify Old Testament allusions, to the offering of Isaac and, in particular, to the angel's words to Abraham: 'inasmuch as you have done this and have not withheld your son, I will bless you abundantly and greatly multiply your descendents' (Genesis 22:16). In his decription of Jesus as 'the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me' (Galatians 2:20) Paul may have been aware of the Jewish tradition which attributed to Isaac a ready willingness to offer himself up in obedience to God.

For Paul the purpose of God sending his Son was 'to purchase freedom for the subjects of the law, in order that they might obtain the status of sons' (Galatians 4:5). Through Jesus, therefore, Christians are brought into a filial relationship with the Father. Christians are fellow-heirs with Christ and are thus enabled to call God 'Abba, Father' (Romans 8:15). The sonship of Jesus, however, remains unique. The sonship of Christians is a derived sonship which is patterned on and given through Jesus' own Sonship which is not derived from another.

A-Z of Paul: Resurrection

The central message of Christianity is of our God who died, suffered the pain of death as we suffer it, and rose triumphant over it. In the resurrection of Jesus we are given the promise that death is not the end of our existence. Through our life in Christ, who is now living, we too continue to live. All are alive in Christ, all the faithful will reign with him.

When St Paul was preaching, word reached him that some in Corinth were denying the bodily resurrection of Jesus, and as a consequence, denying also the bodily resurrection of the dead. St Paul dealt with this problem in his first letter to the Corinthians, in Chapter 15. He tells the Christians of Corinth that unless Christ did indeed rise, bodily, from the dead, their faith was completely in vain:

Now if Christ is preached as risen from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ risen; and if Christ has not risen, vain then is our preaching, vain is your faith... For if the dead did not rise, neither has Christ risen; and if Christ has not risen, vain is your faith, for you are still in your sins 1 Cor 15:12-14, 16-17.

St Paul sees the resurrection of Jesus as the proof of our salvation; it is the final event in the salvific mission of Jesus. That is why the bodily resurrection must be seen as a real bodily event. Just as bodily death was the punishment for Adam's sin, which afflicts all humanity, so too the bodily resurrection of Jesus, his victory over death, is the remedy for all humanity, the end of death’s reign over us. Paul also tells us, in 1 Corinthians, that on the last day, when Christ will return in glory, we his followers will be glorified with him. Our bodies will be like his glorified body, we shall be changed to be as he already now is.

“For this corruptible body must put on in-corruption, and this mortal body must put on immortality” 1 Cor 15:53-54.

All of creation has been redeemed in Christ, and we too will be transformed by his resurrection. As believers we will die in Christ, but we will also be raised and transformed in him.

A-Z of Paul: Quarrelling

St Paul was something of a feisty character, and was not unaccustomed to becoming involved in argument. We know that he was quite a vicious persecutor of the early Christians. Some of this passion seems to have remained in his character throughout his ministry. When Paul eventually returned to Jerusalem, following his conversion to Christ, it was Barnabas who persuaded the disciples to admit Paul to their fellowship (Acts 9:26). As a result of this intercession, a wonderful friendship between Paul and Barnabas was formed. It is, therefore, sad to note that they eventually had a “falling out” of sorts.

On the first missionary journey of these two friends, Barnabas takes his cousin John Mark, as their companion (Col. 4:10). However, we are told that during the journey John Mark decided to return to his home in Jerusalem (Acts 13:13). The reason for his departure is not specified in the text. When they had planned their second campaign, Barnabas proposed taking Mark as a helper, but Paul resisted the idea. The New Testament record indicates that a “sharp contention” developed between them (Acts 15:36-41). They could not reach an agreement, and so they split up. As far as is indicated in the scriptures, these two remarkable men never saw one another again. The segmentation of their work did not disrupt permanently the love and respect that Paul and Barnabas entertained for one another. Paul would later affectionately mention Barnabas as being worthy of monetary support in his work of proclaiming the gospel (1 Cor. 9:6).

There is also his argument with Peter about which he speaks in the letter to the Galatians. 'I opposed him to his face', Paul says (Gal 2:11). It is a moment in a much longer argument in which Paul was engaged with 'Judaizing' elements in the early Church, people who believe that pagan converts to Christianity should also be subject to requirements of Jewish law such as circumcision. Peter seems to have been trying to hold quarrelling factions together whereas on this one Paul felt that this would compromise the way to salvation now revealed, faith in the cross of Christ.

So, Paul was clearly a fiery brand, and yet when he wrote to the Corinthians he was very clear about the danger of quarrelling. He tells them that if the path to the cross is dominated by trouble and strife, then its power will be diminished (1 Cor 1:17). Therefore, he calls for the exclusion from the Church for those who espouse different leaders that oppose each other and segment the Body of Christ. But this was not just an early church problem for we experience similar problems today. There are factions, whether leaning right or left, that fragment the Body of Christ. Such factions wound Christ’s body with their theories and opinions about what Christianity should be. Often, they see personal views and entrenched stances as more important than what Christ taught and His Church developed.

But St Paul did not pull punches, so he challenged the factions to preserve the unity of Christianity. Challenging the kind of party politics that meant opting 'for Paul', 'for Apollos', 'for Cephas', before Christ, his argument is that there is one body that teaches the truth, and that is the Church of Jesus Christ. We are called together to be members of the Church, the People of God, the Body of Christ. We are not called to design our own church. Quarrelling worried St Paul because it threatened the very aims of his preaching by putting political or personal convictions before the unity of the Body of Christ. At the same time he was not averse to engaging in argument where the reality of what Christ had achieved was in danger of being compromised.

A-Z of Paul: Pharisee

Is there not a deep irony in the fact that God chose a Pharisee to be the apostle to the Gentiles? Paul was a Pharisee and a son of Pharisees (Acts 23:6). Pharisaism was a lay movement, centred on study of the Torah, the Law of Moses, which believed that to study the Law was itself obedience to the Law. He trained in Jerusalem at the feet of Gamaliel, one of the great teachers of the time (Acts 22:3; 26:4). The Pharisees were a strict sect (Acts 22:3; 26:5), zealous in their service of God and of His word in the scriptures. We are indebted to Paul himself for this striking description: I was, he says, 'as to the law a Pharisee, as to zeal a persecutor of the Church, as to righteousness under the law faultless' (Philippians 3:5-6).

Within Judaism, the Pharisees contrasted with the priestly Sadducees, not only in their position within the hierarchy of Judaism but also as regards their beliefs. Paul plays on this in his trial in Jerusalem, noticing that his accusers are made up of both Pharisees and Sadducees, and saying that the reason he is on trial is because of his faith in the resurrection of the dead. The Pharisees shared this belief and the hope it offers, the Sadducees did not. So the two groups end up fighting with each other (Acts 23:6-10).

Paul was not only a clever but also a learned man. Pharisaism was an urban rather than a rural movement and so tended to be more sophisticated and cultured than other movements within Judaism. Paul knows the Bible through and through and is familiar with Jewish traditions about it and ways of interpreting it. He also knows a lot about Greek philosophy and is keen to engage with the philosophers in Athens (Acts 17). When Festus, one of the Roman officials trying him at Caesarea, cries out in exasperation, 'Paul you are mad; your great learning is turning you mad' (Acts 26:24), Paul replies calmly that he is not mad but speaking 'the sober truth'. He does not deny, though, that he is a person of great learning! His testimony at Athens, Jerusalem and Caesarea show him to have been equally at home with Hebrew and with Greek.

On a number of occasions Paul explains how he has been faithful to his original zeal and dedication even if both fellow Jews and fellow Christians find it difficult to see how this was so. 'According to the Way', he says, 'I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the law or written in the prophets, having a hope in God which these themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust' (Acts 24:14-15). Later he repeats this: 'I stand here on trial for hope in the promise made by God to our fathers, to which our twelve tribes hope to attain ... and for this hope I am accused. Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?' (Acts 26:6-8). He presents himself as a radical Pharisee, 'saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass, that the Christ must suffer, and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to the people and to the Gentiles' (Acts 26:22-23).

Abraham's faith in a God who raises the dead becomes central to Paul's thinking once he has encountered the risen Lord on the road to Damascus (Romans 4:17). Paul's 'faultless righteousness' on the basis of his study of the Law is shown up to be worth nothing compared with the knowledge of Christ, the first to be raised from the dead. Having once been zealous for the Law he is now zealous for Christ. This Christian Pharisee now regards everything else as so much skubala (a term that means 'dung' or 'excrement') compared with gaining Christ Jesus and being found in him (Philippians 3:7-11).

A-Z of Paul: Old Covenant

What is the Old Covenant and why would St Paul, being the Apostle of the Gentiles, be interested in the Old Covenant in the first place? Paul was a Pharisee, a devout Jew who led his life with a firm belief in the Scriptures. Inspired by them the whole people of Israel saw themselves as the heir to the promise and the blessing given by God to Abraham and to his offspring, and this is what the Old Covenant means.

Even though St Paul became a follower of Christ, he sees his new vocation as an apostle as sprouting out from his Jewish belief. Christ proclaimed himself to have come in fulfilment of both the prophets and the law and St Paul explains for us what this means. In his Letter to the Galatians (ch. 3) he says that it is Christ himself who is the heir of the promise and blessing given to Abraham. It is Christ who is the long-awaited offspring of Abraham.

If this is so, then, the Old Covenant finds its fulfilment in the person of Christ.

Jesus, as the heir of the promise, makes another Covenant with God, or if you like, extends the Old Covenant, through his death on the cross and resurrection. In this way the Old Covenant is brought to perfection as Christ died for all, and so the New Covenant made on the cross is lasting and universal. If this is so, then the only right thing to do is to preach God’s love and mercy beyond the boundaries of the Chosen Nation and this is what St Paul did with great Pharisaic dedication.

A-Z of Paul: Newness

The whole of the Bible can be viewed as an epic of new creation. Very early on in the narrative God’s pristine creation is marred by the ugliness of sin and its effects. But although it has its ups and downs the story told throughout the Bible is one of redemption. The Lord makes something new out of the mess that human beings have made and re-establishes his covenantal relationship with them. This reaching by God to heal the wounds of sin and division reaches its climax in the life, death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus where those who follow Christ are given a newly created dignity, bought with the price of his blood on the Cross, that of children of God, members of Christ’s mystical body.

For Paul this motif of newness takes pride of place. He says in 2 Cor. 5:17 : “Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new.” In this passage St. Paul is trying to get across that the message of Our Lord requires us, and the gift of the Spirit enables us, to be transformed from our old worldly ways of being and acting. Our Lord Jesus tells us that we must be like little children of we are to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Little children?! Many of the people whom Paul was preaching to in Corinth were well educated, well-paid professionals and academics who had worked hard to get to the position they had reached. They had tried very hard to remove themselves form the status of children, who, let us not forget, had no legal rights in the Roman Empire. To them this preaching of newness and the message of Our Lord that a child-like trust in God was required must have seemed bizzare and totally unrealistic. It is a testament to the work of the Holy Spirit enflaming Paul and his companions that so many of the Corinthians became believers and established a thriving Christian community in Corinth. For St. Paul the newness that God gives to us is never ending, we are to be refreshed again and again, converted again and again, continually brought back to his love.

A-Z of Paul: Marriage

In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul says it is good for a man not to touch a woman; yet to avoid immorality every man should have his own wife and every woman her own husband.

From this, one might suppose that St Paul had a rather negative view of marriage; it is tempting to think he saw marriage as the lesser of two evils. On this basis, some people even attempt to analyze St Paul’s psychological makeup and come to very unflattering conclusions.

However, in interpreting what St Paul says on marriage, we need to understand the circumstances in which he was writing. There is little evidence to suggest that sexual immorality was common amongst the Corinthians. Yes there was the case of incest mentioned in 1 Cor 5, but in the wider context of the letter to the Corinthians, Paul is concerned with those who claimed to have a superior knowledge of God. The inability to deal with a particular case of sexual immorality was just an example to show how empty the Corinthians’ claim to superior knowledge was.

St Paul, in writing to the Corinthians about marriage was trying to heal a split in the community. Reading between the lines, it is likely that Paul was addressing a group of Corinthians who were not only celibate, but who also disapproved of any sexual activity, even within marriage. St Paul in mentioning “it is good for a man not to touch a woman” could be quoting a Corinthian slogan, a slogan which he agrees with to the extent that it forbids incestuous relationships or sexual intercourse with prostitutes, but to the extent that it forbids marriage or enforces sexual abstinence within marriage, he does not agree. St Paul does recognise celibacy as a gift, but he rejects the Corinthians’ attempt to make one particular expression of the spiritual life binding on all believers. So he does not see sex within marriage as sinful, but he advises believers to marry in holiness and honour.

Being married is no obstacle to living a holy life which is pleasing to God, but St Paul goes further than this. In the letter to the Ephesians, St Paul describes Christian marriage as mirroring the relationship Christ has with the Church. Husbands are commanded to love their wives as Christ also loved the Church. Therefore marriage is a sign of the mysterious union of Christ with the Church, and the sign of marriage is a way in which this union with Christ can be actually realised by the individual, a way of participating in God’s divine life. Thus St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians helps us appreciate the great importance of Christian marriage and helps us understand why it is a sacrament.

A-Z of Paul: Love

Paul's most famous statement about love is in 1 Corinthians 13: 'I may have tongues of angels, I may prophesy, and I may give my body to be burned but if it is without love then I am nothing, I gain nothing'. Love is always patient and kind, never jealous or rude, believes all things, endures all things, hopes all things. It is important to remember how the passage is introduced as otherwise it can seem simply incredible: 'I will show you a WAY that is better than any other'. What Paul means by love is a way of living, an ideal towards which we must continually strive, a direction in which we ought to be moving. It is unlikely that anybody, on reading 1 Cor 13, would say 'I know someone like that', far less 'I'm just like that'. We can meditate on it replacing the word 'love' with the name Jesus and it still works. Meditating on it while replacing the word 'love' with your own name is a salutary, humbling exercise. Paul speaks elsewhere too of love as a way in which Christians are to walk (Col 3:14; Eph 5:2).

What had swept Paul off his feet and turned his life on its head was a realisation that the Christian gospel was true: Jesus was not only messiah but Son of God, the final and complete revelation of the Father's glory, a glory revealed as love. This is why Christians can dare to hope that they might one day love God and one another as Jesus has loved us, because 'God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us' (Rom 5:5). Paul is overwhelmed by seeing that the love of God revealed in Christ is the most powerful reality there is, the most real thing. Nothing can prevail against it, whether past, present or future, whether physical or spiritual, whether powers or heights or depths, nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:31-39).

Love is not a new law imposed from without. It is, certainly, a word in which the whole law is fulfilled (Gal 5:14) but it is a new kind of law, something bubbling up urgently inside us (2 Cor 5:14) , the first fruit of the Spirit in us (Gal 5:22). To know Christ's love surpasses knowledge (Eph 3:19). The Spirit we have received is a Spirit of power, love and self-control (2 Tim 1:7).

In spite of such profound statements Paul is not starry-eyed or unrealistic about love. He knows that God's love has been revealed in the suffering and death of Jesus. In his first recorded reference to it he speaks of 'the labour of love' (1 Thess 1:3). The truth is to be lived out in love, in many very practical ways of loving and supporting the neighbour (Romans 12-16; 2 Corinthians 8-10). The supreme and most ordinary example of human love, that of husband and wife, is itself a mystery that reveals something to us of the love Christ has for the Church (Ephesians 5).

Paul is not shy about proclaiming his love for the people who have come to faith through his preaching. So often at the end of his letters he says 'give my love to X', 'give my love to Y', 'you know how much we loved you, like a nurse, like a father, like a mother ...' The heart of the gospel is the great truth that 'God is love', that God has revealed his love in Jesus Christ, and that the Spirit of God's love has been given to us so that we can work in it and walk in it. All who come to believe in Jesus belong to a great communion of love, a body held together and given life by the same Spirit of love. Paul says we are to seek to outdo one another only in this matter of love, not allowing ourselves to be overcome by evil but overcoming evil with good (Rom 12:9-21).

A-Z of Paul: Koinonia

What does it mean for us to receive Holy Communion? The Greek word St Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 10:16 is koinonia, and so that verse may be translated thus: "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a communion in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread." Paul used this word frequently to signify the relationship that we have with one another because of our common salvation in Christ. Through his saving body and blood, we are united and held in fellowship, koinonia, by the Holy Spirit.

This sacred fellowship of all the baptised who are united in the Spirit is called the Church. We become the Mystical Body of Christ because, having been baptised into Christ, we receive his Body and Blood in the Eucharist. Holy Communion is thus a sign of the holy koinonia we share; it is a mark of our unity and love for one another, precisely because we have been called together as God's people and continue to be transformed by the Eucharist into the Body of Christ, the Church.

St Paul strongly berates those who gather for the Eucharist but remain divided from their fellow Christians (see 1 Cor 11:18-34). Indeed, he says that the one who "eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself". On one level we can say that this refers to those who do not realise that the Eucharist is the real Body and Blood of Christ, but we can also see that St Paul refers primarily to those who receive Holy Communion but do not discern that our Eucharistic koinonia is a sign of the real unity and communion that exist among us in the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ. Therefore, the Church also teaches that grave sin wounds our communion with God and one another. Thus, communion has to be restored through the sacrament of Reconciliation (penance, or confession) before one can receive the Eucharist with integrity.

Moreover, as Pope Benedict has said: "The Eucharist is the sacrament of communion between brothers and sisters who allow themselves to be reconciled in Christ, who made of Jews and pagans one people, tearing down the wall of hostility which divided them (see Eph 2:14). Only this constant impulse towards reconciliation enables us to partake worthily of the Body and Blood of Christ" (Sacramentum Caritatis 89).

Furthermore, since Holy Communion is an expression of the unity of the entire Church, we should not make the Eucharist into a celebration of private groups and cliques thus dividing the Church into various parties. Rather, as the Pope, when he was Joseph Ratzinger, reminded us, Holy Communion calls us out of ourselves into the Body of Christ, "beyond all boundaries and divisions [so that the Mass] becomes a point from which a universal love is bound to shine forth", drawing others into the unity of the Church and communion with God.

Finally because of the essential communion that exists among Christians, St Paul also speaks of koinonia as a sharing of finances, of helping to further the preaching mission, and of sharing in the sufferings of Christ and of the members of the Church. Thus, ideas of Christian charitable aid, prayers for one another, and solidarity with poor and persecuted Christians around the world, are all expressions of our sacred communion in Christ that is rooted in the sacrament of Holy Communion.

A-Z of Paul: Justification

The arguments that broke out at the time of the Protestant reformation ensured that 'justification' became one of the best known and most controversial of Paul's words. Justification is the usual English translation of the Greek term dikaiosune when it is applied to human beings: in what Christ has done, God has 'justified' us. When the same term is applied to God it is usually translated 'righteousness'. So Paul says that 'the righteousness (dikaiosune) of God is revealed in the gospel by faith for the purpose of faith, as it is written 'the righteous one (ho dikaios) by faith shall live'' (Romans 1:17, quoting Habbakuk 2:4). God who is just and faithful has put forward his Son as atoning sacrifice, Paul continues (Romans 3:24-26). The faithfulness of Jesus seen in the shedding of his blood reveals God's righteousness, that God has been patient and 'passed over former sins'. The action of God in the death and resurrection of Jesus has not only shown God to be righteous but has revealed also that those who participate in the faithfulness of Jesus are 'justified' and 'made righteous', 'brought into right relationship' with God.

So 'justification' is another in that list of terms needed to bring out the implications of what God has done in and through Jesus. Paul speaks of it as grace, salvation, redemption, reconciliation, life, freedom, sanctification, new creation, and also as justification. In Romans 5, he contrasts the consequences of Adam's trespass (death, condemnation, judgement) with the consequences of Christ's obedience (grace, justification, acquittal and life). In Romans 8 when speaking of the life in the Spirit made possible for those who believe in Christ he speaks of predestination, vocation, justification and glorification: 'We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified' (Romans 8:28-30).

Justification is by faith, our participation in the faithfulness of Jesus. This is made possible by the gift of the Spirit, the love of God poured into our hearts who assures us that we are children of God, heirs with Christ, destined to be glorified with him if we share his sufferings (Romans 8:17). 'For in Christ Jesus we are all children of God, through faith' (Galatians 3:26).

Click here for the 1999 Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification of the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church

A-Z of Paul: In Christ

It is dangerous to pick one sentence from the letters of Paul and claim that it contains the whole of his theology. Some of the Protestant reformers tended to do this with Paul's comment in Romans 3 about justification by faith. In recent years scholars of the so-called 'new perspective' on Paul (Sanders, Dunn, Wright, and others) have been working hard to promote a fuller reading of Paul within Protestantism.

Pre-reformation and subsequent Catholic understandings of Paul tended not to focus on one sentence in this way but rather to try to integrate the variety of ideas and themes found throughout his letters. It is true that Romans is the closest Paul comes to writing a systematic theology but even there his arguments and preoccupations are determined by the needs of the Church to which he is writing rather than by the requirements of a system of thought.

If Catholics were to opt for the one sentence approach to Paul's letters, however, they might be tempted by 2 Corinthians 5:17: 'Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come'. The insight, like so much in Paul, can be traced back to Jesus' question to him on the road to Damascus: 'why are you persecuting me?' In identifying Himself with the disciples whom Paul was pursuing, Jesus teaches him so much about the new reality that has come with the resurrection. Christ and those who belong to Him form one body. Those who come to faith and baptism, and who walk in the way of love that He taught, are 'in Christ', members and parts of one Body, united and animated by one Spirit. He is in them and they are in Him. The creation groans and waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God, Paul says in Romans 8. And even if, as he goes on to say, we too groan inwardly as we wait for the redemption of our bodies, nevertheless we are already living the life of the Spirit because we are 'in Christ'.

The new creation is underway. The resurrection has begun. We have died to sin and been crucified to the world so that the life we now live is no longer ours but is the life of Christ in us (Galatians 2:20). For Colossians 1:15 Christ is the image of the unseen God and for Hebrews 1:3 he is the perfect copy of God’s nature. Those who are 'in Christ' are re-created in his image which is the perfect likeness of the Father: we are to be conformed to the image of the Son (Romans 8:29). By the Spirit we are adopted children of God and heirs with Christ of the glory which is his (Romans 8:14-17; Galatians 4:4-7; Ephesians 1:3-6). Colossians 3:10 speaks of us being renewed after the image of the Creator through the work of Christ and our coming to live in him (see also Ephesians 4:24). Looking beyond the Pauline texts for a moment we recall that 2 Peter speaks of us becoming 'partakers of the divine nature' (1:4).

To be 'in Christ' is to be a member of His body, the Church. It is to live by the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus that has set us free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2). It is to be one with Him in His death in the hope of sharing fully in His resurrection (Romans 6:3-11; Philippians 3:10-11). The Christian life, Paul says in his earliest writing, is made up of 'the work of faith and labour of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ' (1 Thess 1:3).

A-Z of Paul: Holy Spirit

One thing that is very clear from the writings of Paul is that Christianity brings us a great freedom. As Paul says in his Letter to the Galatians ‘For freedom, Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery’ (Gal 5:1). Why then are we free? Well, we are free because of the Holy Spirit: slavery comes through living a life in the flesh, but freedom comes ‘because the Spirit of Christ dwells in [us]’ (Rom 8:9).

Paul’s ideas about the Holy Spirit and about the Church are closely linked. For Paul, the Church is the body of Christ, joined to Jesus as its head. And the power of the Holy Spirit is made manifest in a powerful way in the Church, precisely to build up the Church, to strengthen her unity while giving her all the gifts she needs, and to make her the witness to Christ that she is called to be.

The gifts that Paul speaks of are often known as charismata, or charisms, and are all ordered towards the service of others in the Church. In his first letter to the Corinthians, he gives an account of their diversity. They allow members of the Church to utter wisdom and knowledge, to heal, to work miracles, to prophesy, to discern, and so on. All these gifts are inspired by ‘one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills’ (1 Cor 12:11). Paul’s account of the working of the Holy Spirit shows us how important each member of the Church is in the work of Christ.

The Church now understands the concept of charisms in a wider sense, seeing them as the God given talents which help each of us to follow our calling, and to live out our vocation in the fullest way. The fact that all of us possess gifts that differ but are complementary shows us how the Holy Spirit works. We should never feel the need to compare ourselves with others, because the Holy Spirit is at work in all of us. At an individual level, the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives brings us to maturity as individual Christians. The Holy Spirit helps us to grow up in our faith, which in turn helps the whole community to be the mature Christians that we need to be, so that we reach our final goal, and draw others into the love of Christ.

A-Z of Paul: Growth

'I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth... For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building' (1 Corinthians 3:6,9).

We have heard a lot in recent years about disunity and factionalism in the Church. Christians often appear to define themselves according to which wing of the Church they belong to, or which Church leader they most admire. Each side seems to have its own ideas about the best way for the Church to move forward and grow.

In the early days of the Church, Christians at Corinth also seemed to define themselves by their differences rather than their common life. This was made manifest in their allegiances to particular apostles: "I am for Paul", "I am for Apollos" (1 Cor 3:4).

For Paul the Christians of Corinth were destroying themselves by their factiousness. Their party spirit had divided Christ. He therefore exhorts them to be of the same mind, to have the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16), for those who have the mind of Christ know how to use their gifts for the building up of the Church.

Paul seeks to relativise the importance of the leading personalities around which the Christians of Corinth were grouping. He tells the Corinthians that these leaders are all servants of their salvation. In the agricultural imagery that Paul uses he describes both himself and Apollos as fellow workers in the field of the Lord. Both work together in a common enterprise for the benefit of the Christian community: Paul 'planting' as the initial evangeliser, Apollos 'watering' by carrying forward the work Paul had begun. Yet neither is anything without God. Both are channels for the creative work of God for ultimately the effect of their ministry must be attributed to God. God is the source of all growth in the Church. The efforts of people like Paul and Apollos, important as these might be, would be nothing unless God was at work building up the Church. It is God, who through Paul and Apollos, has cultivated his precious field, the Christian community at Corinth.

A similar theme is developed in the letter to the Ephesians. Here Paul writes of Christ as the source of all growth in the Church (Eph 4:16). Yet Christ achieves this growth through all sorts of joints and ligaments, namely, the mutual support of the members of Christ's body. It is not, therefore, division, jealousy and rivalry, but Christ's love at work in the members of his body that is the decisive power in building up the body of Christ, the Church.

A-Z of Paul: Faith

For the Apostle Paul, those who are now baptized into the life of grace in Christ, are freed from a live of observance of the Law of Moses, which has now been subsumed into Christ. Christ is now the law, which is to be “observed” by faith. The basic question that St Paul answers is how God is gracious to humans who stand condemned as sinners. How can we humans, who are sinners, be deserving of salvation, how can we become holy in the sight of God. Under the old covenant we could only be saved by observing the law of Moses, thus in a sense our salvation depended on how capable we ourselves were in following follow that law in our lives. St Paul realised that with the advent of Christ something radical had happened. Jesus Christ himself fulfilled the law for us, and ended the reign of sin, which had begun at Adam's fall. The crucified Christ is the source of our holiness, which he has given to us as a free gift. We ourselves could never earn salvation through our own efforts; Christ has done it for us in his one eternal sacrifice on the cross. We, by having faith in Christ and what he did for us, are justified in the sight of God. Faith in Christ is what saves us, not our own efforts. For St Paul faith in Christ is what brings us eternal life.

A-Z of Paul: Eschatology

For the Lord himself shall come down from heaven with commandment and with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God: and the dead who are in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, shall be taken up together with them in the clouds to meet Christ, into the air: and so shall we be always with the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)

On several occasions within his epistles, Paul dramatically and vividly describes the parousia, the coming of the Lord in judgement at the end of time. A common characteristic of all these passages is the apparent nearness of this parousia. And yet Paul does not assert that the coming of the Saviour is at hand. In each of the five epistles wherein he expresses the desire and the hope to witness in person the return of Christ, he at the same time considers the probability of the contrary hypothesis, proving that he had neither revelation nor certainty on the point. He knows only that the day of the lord will come unexpectedly, like a thief (1 Thess 5:2-3), and he counsels the neophytes to make themselves ready without neglecting the duties of their state of life (2 Thess 3:6-12).

A particular circumstance of St. Paul’s preaching is that the just who shall be living at Christ’s second advent will pass to glorious immortality without dying. Although the coming of Christ will be sudden, it will be heralded by three signs, general apostasy (2 Thess 2:3), the appearance of the Antichrist (2:3-12) and the conversion of the Jews (Rom 11:26).

In line with the synoptic authors, Paul views the judgement as closely connected with the parousia and the resurrection. They are the three acts of the same drama which constitute the Day of the Lord: "For we must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the proper things of the body, according as he has done, whether it be good or evil" (2 Cor 5:10. See also 1 Cor 1:8; Phil 1:6, 10; 2:16). Thus the judgement on that day will be upon all the living and the dead, and none shall escape, for that judgement will be universal. The judgement of each one will then be made on account of their works, as all people will be brought to account for their use of their freedom.

St. Paul’s eschatology is not as distinctive as it has sometimes been presented. Perhaps its most original characteristic is the continuity of the just between the present and the future, between grace and glory, between salvation begun and salvation consummated. A large number of terms, redemption, justification, salvation, kingdom, glory and especially life, are common to the two states, or rather to the two phases of the same existence linked by charity which “never falls away”. The eschatological message of Jesus urges us to keep alert always, because we do not know the time when the actual end will happen. If Paul adds to this, it is by exhorting us to be consistent with what we know to be true. Our identification with Jesus is as important as Jesus’ identification with us. Paul understands that we are already united with Jesus in His death and resurrection.

A-Z of Paul : Damascus

There was a time when every schoolboy (and girl) knew that Saul of Tarsus was struck down on the road to Damascus and that his life was completely transformed by that experience. (Most of us also thought he was riding a horse at the time but there is no mention of this in the Bible.) After this 'conversion' or 'call', and then better known by his Greek name, Paul became the great missionary of the early Church, establishing Christian communities all across the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean.

The event outside Damascus was crucial, not just for Paul personally but for the whole Church. The Acts of the Apostles recounts it no less than three times, in chapters 9, 22 and 26. Paul himself refers to it again and again: 1 Corinthians 9:1 (have I not seen Jesus our Lord?) and 15:8 (last of all as to one untimely born he appeared also to me); Galatians 1:11f (the gospel which was preached by me came through a revelation of Jesus Christ) and 1:15f (he who had set me apart before I was born, and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me).

Why was it so crucial? Well, it turned round completely one of the most zealous persecutors of the early Christians. Paul was a Pharisee, proud of his Jewish faith, zealous for the Lord as Elijah and Phinehas and others had been. As a Pharisee he believed in the resurrection of the dead. What amazed him on the road to Damascus was an encounter with Jesus risen from the dead: the resurrection was underway, or at least it had happened in the case of this man Jesus, exactly what was being preached by some Jews in Jerusalem, Damascus, and elsewhere.

Paul was not converted in the sense that he came to believe in a different God. It was rather that he came to see that the God of Abraham, 'a God who can raise the dead and bring into being that which is not' (Romans 4:17), had indeed acted, as his followers claimed, in the resurrection (and so also in the death) of Jesus of Nazareth. We owe to St Paul some of the most beautiful and profound reflections on the mystery of how God acted in Jesus and the meaning of that action for humanity: the Father sending His Son through whose faithfulness the Spirit of adoption is poured on all who come to believe in Him.

The rest, as they say, is history. Paul is brought into Damascus where he is instructed further in the Christian faith by Ananias and then baptised. Immediately he began preaching that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God but soon he had to flee Damascus, being lowered over the wall in a basket (Acts 9:19-25). His own account says that he went first to Arabia, then back to Damascus (perhaps when the fuss about him had died down) before, three years later, finally going back to Jerusalem to meet with Peter and James (Galatians 1:17-19).

Damascus, one of the great cities of the Middle East, thus gained an honoured place in the history of Christianity. A 'Damascus road experience' is a moment of illumination or conversion, a radical change of mind or direction. Although the phrase is often used, no experience so described can compare with the original one when Saul of Tarsus encountered the risen Lord Jesus and became Paul, apostle of the gentiles, tireless preacher and teacher, called finally to give his life far from Damascus for the Lord he had there come to know and love.

A-Z of Paul: Cross

When Paul writes about the cross of Christ, he normally means something more than the tree of the cross, the way of the cross, or even the moment of crucifixion itself. It is the death of Christ and its implications for the human race that is the subject of Paul’s teaching or reflection. What does he make of it then?

First of all for Paul, the death of Christ on the cross is a life-giving act. The cross is the tree of life because we can all live a new life by participation in the death of Christ. This is what the sacrament of Baptism means: ‘the dipping in the death of Christ’ so that we may rise with Him again. It may seem a paradox that the cross should become such a symbol, but still, the cross never stands on its own separated from resurrection. We cannot chop up the acts and words of Jesus and treat them separately – each of them is only well considered when we look at it in the light shed by other.

Secondly, when we are made to share in the cross and death of Christ this does not make us any better people. Consider the following passage: ‘For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive’ (1 Cor 15:22). The temptation is to see it as a judgement on what we were before Christ came, a judgement that would essentially mean that we are evil by nature, because we all share in one nature that is subjected to death. Such a reading is obviously misguided. Paul is not re-writing the beginning of the book of Genesis here. Rather is he explaining the importance of the death of Christ: His death has a universal reach, salvation is available to all through the cross, and this is just as sure as the fact that all who are share in Adam’s nature die. Christ’s death is an act of re-claiming for his own something that he has always had: ‘Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother?’ (Romans 14:9-10).

There is no place then for elitism among the believers: Christians by virtue of being Christians are not made any better people than those who do not believe. All that God created was very good (Genesis, 1:31), and Paul is not denying it here.

For St Paul then the cross is not a sign of division and warfare, it is the source of love and unity for all. We draw our strength from the fact that we share in it in baptism, and following the cross we can flourish even in difficulties, having the courage to choose what is true and helping others on their way. We are to support them above all by preaching Christ to them.

A-Z of Paul: Body

In antiquity the imagery of the body was used in a figurative and corporate sense in mythology and for groups of people. Thus the term 'body' referred to the whole group and the term 'limb' to an individual within the group. St. Paul used this already existing metaphorical language and applied it to a reality that took the language beyond mere metaphor. For when St. Paul refers to the Body of Christ, in Ephesians 5:30 for example, "because we are members of his body", he is not simply referring to Christians as individual members linked together as the limbs of a body are linked together but is referring to a mystical reality. In baptism Christians are united into one body not only as the members of an organisation are joined together by their common allegiance - although this is also true - but principally by the mystical character that the sacrament confers.

St. Paul also uses the Greek word for body, soma, to mean a person, a human being. For Paul, in contrast to those who would deny the value of the body (such as the gnostics who were to come later) human beings are a union of soul and body, both of which were created by God and are therefore both good and holy. Even in the realm of the spirit, or soul, human existence is a bodily existence. However, Paul also uses the word body to speak of sins that are bound up with our physicality. Certain sins come about when one gives in to the ways of the flesh rather than following the ways of the spirit, spiritual ways. In using the term "sins of the flesh" St. Paul is not claiming that the body is inherently bad but only that there are certain sins which those who place their physicality above their spirituality will be liable to commit.

Indeed Paul makes clear the exalted place given to the body in the Christian faith by his focus on the bodily resurrection from the dead. We will not be ourselves again, even if we are in heaven, until we are re-united with our bodies at the general resurrection. The body is the place where the Holy Spirit dwells within us as baptised Christians: "do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you which you have from God? ... So glorify God in your body"(1 Cor. 6:15, 19f).

A-Z of Paul: Apostleship

During his earthly ministry, Jesus gave the title of apostle to twelve of his disciples. He instructed them to preach that the Kingdom of heaven is close at hand and he gave them the authority to heal the sick and to cast out demons. When the apostles appointed a replacement for Judas, the criterion that was set was that this office should be filled not only by someone who had seen the risen Lord, but also by someone who had travelled with him during his ministry.

Paul does not quite fit both criteria. He claimed to have witnessed the risen Lord on the way to Damascus, but he was not with Jesus before the resurrection. Indeed, some Christians did question Paul’s apostolic credentials. Even Paul himself, acknowledging his infamous past, was aware of his unworthiness to be called an apostle.

Yet to deny Paul’s apostleship would be to deny the authenticity of his Christian teaching. Paul’s authority didn’t come by letters of recommendation from other leading Christians, but rather it stemmed directly from his encounter with the risen Lord, an encounter which was totally transforming. Paul’s transformation from zealous persecutor of Christians to Apostle to the Gentiles is a remarkable sign of God’s amazing grace. Although Paul was able to perform wondrous signs and experience spiritual ecstasies, he down played these in favour of preaching the cross. With his apostolic authority, he used it to build people up rather than knocking them down. He was an example of power emptied out in service to others.

Paul did boast, but his boasting was on behalf of the Lord; saying anything less would be to deny the wonderful way in which Christ manifested his glory. Paul fulfilled his mission faithfully to the end. He was sent out by God to proclaim Christ’s death and resurrection, a message he proclaimed not only through his words but also in the way he lived his life and in the way he died.

The Feast of Sts Peter and Paul

The Feast of Sts Peter and Paul celebrates the two outstanding apostles of the Church.  In many ways these two men were different. Peter was from Galilee, a fisherman, poor and uneducated. Although St Jerome tells us that Paul too was a Galilean, his enforced exile to Tarsus as a child opened other possibilities for him: he was well educated and knew his way around the Roman system, perhaps even being a Roman citizen. He trained in the rigorous code of the Pharisees. He was a lawyer but also a skilled tentmaker. How is it their stories became intertwined? What brought these men to give their best efforts and ultimately their lives for the embryonic Christian faith?

The answer lies in the fact that both these men came face to face with Jesus Christ, who called them to follow him. That encounter and call transformed their lives forever. Peter, impulsive and rash, struggled all through Jesus' ministry to understand and believe in the meaning of Christ.  In Matthew 14:22-35 as Jesus walks on the water, Peter impulsively demands proof that it is indeed Jesus by allowing him also to walk on water. As he takes his first few steps, he begins to be beset by doubts and sinks until Jesus reaches out and holds him up. The words “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” seem to be a recurring theme for Peter as he struggles, and often fails, to make sense of this life changing relationship. Yet it is the same Peter who responds to the prompting of the Spirit and declares boldly “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). Ultimately Christ draws out the best of Peter to whom he entrusts the leadership of the Apostles and who will go on to preach the first sermon of the Christian Church at Pentecost, while on fire with the Holy Spirit.

We meet Saul in the Acts of the Apostles, full of righteous zeal against these dangerous Christians, approving of the stoning of St Stephen. It is while on a mission to hunt down Christians in Damascus that he has his literally earth shattering encounter with the Risen Christ. He is left blinded, dazed and confused. Stripped of all his certainty, power and assuredness, he must be led by the hand into the city, not knowing where he is going, lost and frightened.  Through the power of the Spirit the scales fall from Saul’s eyes so that he can see.  But in seeing not only with the eyes of the body but also with the eyes of the soul, Paul is reborn in baptism. In this new life, he goes on the preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ all over the Mediterranean as far as Rome, hoping to travel on to Spain, 'the ends of the earth', and leaving us the precious teaching of his epistles and the wonderful example of his life and ministry. For both men these words seem appropriate. “For God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ” (2 Cor 4:6).

Jubilee Year of St Paul

"You are the chosen instrument of God, Saint Paul, the apostle of the nations. You are the preacher of truth in all the world" - responsory for the feast of the Conversion of St Paul

To mark the 2000th anniversary of St Paul, Pope Benedict XVI has exhorted the Church to celebrate a year of St Paul to begin on 28 June 2008 and run to 29 June 2009. The 'Pauline Year' will be a period for us to reflect on the writings and example of St Paul, and to renew our desire to spread the Word of God. Our world, like the world that St Paul inhabited, needs our Christian witness of love and a dynamic preaching that engages with the concerns of our contemporaries and transforms the philosophy of the age with the truth of the gospel. Thus, the Holy Father said, "Today, too, Christ needs apostles ready to sacrifice themselves. He needs witnesses and martyrs like St. Paul", and so, we are invited to respond generously and courageously to God's call.

As preachers of the truth, Dominicans have a special love for St Paul and seek to share in his apostolic life of itinerant preaching. We recall the words of St Paul who said: "God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise… so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption; therefore, as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord’” (1 Cor 1:27-31). Thus, St Paul offers a witness of humility to those of us who wish to follow in his footsteps. He also reminds us not to rely on "lofty words or wisdom" but rather on God's Holy Spirit so that our "faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God" (see 1 Cor 2:1-5). In this regard, one is reminded of the advice of the fifth Master of the Order, Bl Humbert of Romans, who said in his Treatise on Preaching: "Since human effort can achieve nothing without the help of God, the most important thing of all for a preacher is that he should have recourse to prayer, asking God to grant him speech that will be effective in bringing salvation to his hearers".

With this in mind, Godzdogz invites you to join us on this year-long journey as we celebrate the Year of St Paul. In the next few months we shall present an A-Z of themes in St Paul's writings. Later in the year, we plan to follow Paul's example of dialogue with contemporary ideas by presenting a response to the challenges of the so-called 'new atheism'.