It's no secret that the figure of Saint Paul has been very significant throughout the history of the Catholic Church. He was one of the first evangelizers, known as the "apostle to the Gentiles." A deeper look into the life of this great man, who rose from persecutor to great saint, reveals that his life is a testament to conversion.
Who was Saint Paul?
Paul was a man knowledgeable in Jewish law, instructed by Gamaliel, a Pharisee of great authority and founder of one of the great schools of Pharisaic Judaism of the time. Paul was Jewish, a Roman citizen; as a Jew passionate about the law and with fervent zeal, he persecuted Christians, thus defending the law and the tradition of his ancestors.
Paul, convinced of his beliefs, wanted to put an end to the nascent Church. Although he had never met Jesus, what was said about him and the movement that was emerging based on his teachings so disconcerted Paul that it led him to confront his own beliefs and customs. In this sense, we can understand that the "hatred" Paul felt for the followers of Jesus of Nazareth was due to his zeal for the Law, that is, the God in whom he believed.
God uses everything and has a life plan for every human being, and Paul was no exception. Paul, filled with hatred, driven by a burning zeal for the Law and tradition, goes in search of Christians in Damascus, to bring them in chains to Jerusalem. It is at that moment that Jesus appears to Paul. He had barely entered the city when a bright light engulfs him, knocking him to the ground, as narrated in the Book of Acts (9:1-18).
Paul undergoes a process of conversion upon encountering the risen Christ. It was a realization that the Law for the sake of the Law does not save, that a change of life, a living from love, is necessary to find true salvation. Paul undergoes a change of mentality, so to speak. What he believed in made sense when he discovered that the Law was not above men, but at their service, that Jesus, with his life, had borne witness to how we should live as children of God.
His eyes are opened to the light of the Risen One, he is baptized and begins his great mission as Apostle to the Gentiles.
Pablo, the great writer
Paul is the apostle who did not know Jesus, but who truly lived the Gospel. Paul reached the Gentiles, the forgotten, those not considered worthy of receiving the message of God's Word; it was there that the Word was sown and bore fruit a hundredfold. His mission was not easy; he experienced persecution, tribulation, shipwrecks, hardships, and misunderstandings (2 Cor 11:16-27), but none of this prevented him from continuing to proclaim the risen Christ (2 Cor 4:8-18).
Saint Paul lived his mission with great intensity. The "hatred" with which he initially persecuted Christians transformed into a burning love for the Gospel. The mission entrusted to Paul became so far-reaching that his own life became the Word of God. And it is Paul himself who recounts everything he experienced in his letters, describing how the Lord manifested himself throughout his life, how he became an instrument in God's hands, and how the Gospel reached, at that moment, places perhaps unimaginable in the cultural context of the time.
In the Bible, we find the Pauline corpus, composed of thirteen letters attributed to Saint Paul, seven authentic and six from the Pauline communities; these thirteen letters reveal the arduous life and mission of Saint Paul.
Authentic
- 1 Thessalonians
- Philippians
- 1 and 2 Corinthians
- Philemon
- Galatians
- Romans
Communities
- Colossians
- 2 Thessalonians
- 1 and 2 Timothy
- Titus
- Ephesians
In them, we discover Paul's apostolic zeal, his teachings to the communities, responding to the specific needs of each one, exhorting them to live the Gospel in a radical way and for their lives to bear witness to the great love of Christ.
Significant phrases of Saint Paul
- “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31).
- “I live, yet not I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And my life now in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20).
- “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may be made to me” (2 Cor 12:9).
- “For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21).
Paul modeled his life on Christ and is a testimony of conversion, faith, and dedication. May this month of June, which celebrates the feast of this great apostle, be a special occasion to learn more about and delve deeper into the life of Saint Paul, and entrust to him the entire evangelizing task of the Church today, of responding to the needs of humanity without losing the great value of faith.
In the book " Saint Paul . The Thirteenth Apostle," you can learn much more about the life of this great saint, his journey of faith, his companions in the task of evangelization, and his travels. The life of Saint Paul is a great treasure for our journey of faith.
