Around the year 45 A.D., St. Paul began his great missionary journeys carrying the gospel to the Gentiles. He made roughly three journeys: one to the Middle East, one to Greece and one to Asia Minor. These journeys are recounted in the Acts of the Apostles in the Bible, written by St. Luke, one of the evangelists and Paul's companion on some of his missions. Everywhere he went he founded christian communities, to which he later sent letters to continue their instruction in Christian doctrine and to solve controversies. Paul frequently met with hostility and opposition and suffered scourging, stonings and beatings. But he had given his life totally to Christ, saying, "Now I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." (Gal.2:20) (1) The common theme of St. Paul's preaching as recounted in the Acts of the Apostles was the Risen Lord. He courageously proclaimed and defended this doctrine even to the point of martyrdom. Truly St. Paul was a herald of Christ resurrection to the Gentiles.
St Paul
There is no doubt that the most influential missionary in the early church was St. Paul. Before his conversion, he was actually fervently rooted in the Jewish faith. He was called Saul of Tarsus and even witnessed the persecution of Christians. However, he claimed to have been dramatically converted by God, whereupon he began preaching. This is why he changed his name to Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles. He preached that the Old Law, or the Laws of Moses, should be replaced by faith in Christ. For only through Christ, can a person live a life of kindness and joy, ultimately being saved and reaching heaven. Paul's important role was to combinedthe two desperate worlds of Rome and Jerusalem, to unify the scattered Christian communities, and to ease the tensions between Jewish and Greek Christian. (2) Some Jews wanted to preserve Jewish ways within Christianity. Ultimately, Paul succeeded in separating the two religions and spreading the Christian faith.
It was the message of the Risen Lord that gave St Paul the courage to face all the accusations of the Jewish people and authorities against him, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. The Living Tradition gives us some important teachings of Christ Resurrection:
648 Christ’s Resurrection is an object of
faith in that it is a transcendent intervention of God himself in creation
and history. In it the three divine persons act together as one, and manifest
their ownproper characteristics. The Father’s power “raised up” Christ his
Son and by doing so perfectly introduced his Son’s humanity, including his
body, into the Trinity. Jesus is conclusively revealed as“Son of God in
power according to the Spirit of holiness by his Resurrection from the dead.”
St. Paul insists on the manifestation of God’s power through the working of
the Spirit who gave life to Jesus’dead humanity and called it to the glorious state of Lordship.
649 As for the Son, he effects his own
Resurrection by virtue of his divine power. Jesus announces that the Son of
man will have to suffer much, die, and then rise. Elsewhere he affirms
explicitly: “I lay down my life, that I may take it again.... I have power to
lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” “We
believe that Jesus died and rose again.”
650 The Fathers contemplate the Resurrection
from the perspective of the divine person of Christ who remained united to
his soul and body, even when these were separated from each other by death:
“By the unity of the divine nature, which remains present in each of the two
components of man, these are reunited. For as death is produced by the
separation of the human components, so Resurrection is achieved by the union
of the two.”
651 “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching
is in vain and your faith is in vain.” The Resurrection above all constitutes
the confirmation of all Christ’s works and teachings. All truths, even those
most inaccessible to human reason, find their justification if Christ by his
Resurrection has given the definitive proof of his divine authority, which he
had promised.
652 Christ’s Resurrection is the fulfillment
of the promises both of the Old Testament and of Jesus himself during his
earthly life. The phrase “in accordance with the Scriptures” indicates that
Christ’s Resurrection fulfilled these predictions.
653 The truth of Jesus’ divinity is
confirmed by his Resurrection. He had said: “When you have lifted up the Son
of man, then you will know that I am he.” The Resurrection of the crucified
one shows that he was truly “I Am,” the Son of God and God himself. So St.
Paul could declare to the Jews: “What God promised to the fathers, this he
has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus; as also it is written in
the second psalm, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.’” Christ’s
Resurrection is closely linked to the Incarnation of God’s Son and is its
fulfillment in accordance with God’s eternal plan.
654 The Paschal mystery has two aspects: by
his death, Christ liberates us from sin; by his Resurrection, he opens for us
the way to a new life. This new life is above all justification that
reinstates us in God’s grace, “so that as Christ was raised from the dead by
the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” Justification
consists in both victory over the death caused by sin and a new participation
in grace. It brings about filial adoption so that men become Christ’s
brethren, as Jesus himself called his disciples after his Resurrection: “Go
and tell my brethren.” We are brethren not by nature, but by the gift of
grace, because that adoptive filiation gains us a real share in the life of
the only Son, which was fully revealed in his Resurrection.
655 Finally, Christ’s Resurrection—and the
risen Christ himself—is the principle and source of our future resurrection:
“Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have
fallen asleep.... For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made
alive.’’ The risen Christ lives in the hearts of his faithful while they
await that fulfillment. In Christ, Christians “have tasted... the powers of
the age to come’’ and their lives are swept up by Christ into the heart of
divine life, so that they may “live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”
(3)
The Resurrection of Jesus
The Apostle Paul exhorts us to become new men and women for a renewed,
improved world. It is the encounter with Christ that effects this
change. Benedict XVI preached this in his homily on Sunday, June 28th at
the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, during a First Vespers
celebration to conclude the Pauline Year.Benedict XVI: We must learn to
think in a more profound manner. St. Paul explains what this means in
the second part of the phrase, We need to learn how to understand Gods
will, so that our will may conform to it-- so that we ourselves may want
that which God wants, so that we may acknowledge that what God wants is
the beautiful and the good. (4)
Historical Significance of St. Paul Saint Paul is undoubtedly one of the most important
figures in the Church history and of the Western world. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, St. Paul
played a crucial role bringing the good news of Christ resurrection
outside the boarders of Jewish territory. Paul’s greatest impact on
Christian history comes from
his letters, which are the most influential books of the New Testament
after the four Gospels. His letters inspired Christian
thinkers for the next several centuries, and he also
developed powerful expressions of the human relationship to the divine in his ideas of faith as total commitment to Christ, of Christians as
constituting the mystical body of Christ, and of baptism
as becoming one person with Christ and sharing his death so as to share
his life. Paul encountered Christ, thus
began the expansion of the Church to the Gentiles. We must look on this
saint and encounter Christ anew through him and through his teachings, moving forward towards the glorious Church, the Heavenly Jerusalem. “I have fought the
good fight, I have finished the race, I have keep the faith. From now on
there is laid up for me on that Day, and only to me but also to all who have
loved his appearing.” (2 Tim. 4:7-8)
References: 1 Anne W. Carroll, Christ The King Lord Of History, page 84
2John Vidmar, O.P., The Catholic Church
Through the Ages, page 22-23
3Catechism of the Catholic Church, II The Resurrection – A Work of the Holy Trinity (648-651) and III The Meaning
and Saving Significance Of The Resurrection (651-650)
4 Excerpt from Pope Benedict XVI's homily during the conclusion of Pauline Year 2008-2009
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