He was set free by Jesus to set others free!
Although the Fiery Paul or Saul of Tarsus is said to have been a Roman, it is also known that he had a Jewish upbringing and was a rather uncompromising and law-abiding Pharisee. In fact, the chief priests of the Synagogue had ordered him to destroy the disciples of Jesus. However, one day, while he was going to Damascus persecuting some Christians, Christ himself made him fall from his horse and surrender at his feet. This happened after seeing a light that left him blind, and made him understand that Jesus is God, and his love is gratuitous and unconditional!… That is how, after this face-to-face encounter with God, the Judaizing Jew had an amazing transformation, becoming the apostle of the Gentiles: the one who faithfully defended the doctrine of the law, went on to abolish circumcision for non-Jews and freed the Gentiles from legal ties… It should be noted that, in just three years, Paul made Christ known throughout Asia Minor and spread the Good News throughout the world.
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The life of Saint Paul the Apostle
Paul of Tarsus was born at the beginning of the 1st century, and although many call it “the apostle Pablo“, we must take into account that he was not one of the twelve disciples of Christ. In addition, his entry into the history of Christianity was not immediate either, but this did not prevent him from having a dazzling testimony and becoming an important figure for Christians, considering himself as one of the pillars of the Church, along with Peter.
From Saul to Paul: the conversion on the road to Damascus
Paul, then called Saul, was descended from a noble family from Tarsus (a region of Cilicia, present-day Turkey). His family faithfully followed the Hebrew laws, and even Paul himself was educated in the city of Jerusalem. Thus, as a fervent practitioner of Judaism, Saul could not conceive of the existence of Christianity, which at that time was considered a new “superstition”, and he actively joined the repression against practitioners of this religion. Saul is also said to have witnessed the stoning of Saint Stephen.
“Surely you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism: how I furiously persecuted the Church of God and laid waste to it.” (Galatians 1, 13)
According to the book of the Acts of the Apostles of Saint Luke, One day Paul was on his way to Damascus with the aim of finding disciples of Christ and bringing them in chains to Jerusalem.
“And as he was walking, as he approached Damascus, a light from heaven suddenly enveloped him with its brilliance. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice say to him: «Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?». He asked: “Who are you, Lord?” «I am Jesus, whom you persecute, answered the voice. Now get up, and go into the city: there they will tell you what you must do.” (Acts 9: 3-6).
After this appearance, Saul was blind for three days. Arriving in the city, he was visited by Ananias of Damascus, to whom the lord had said: “«Go look for him, because he is an instrument chosen by me to carry my Name to all nations, to the kings and to the people of Israel. I will make him see how much he will have to suffer for my name.”. Ananias obeyed the voice of God and laid his hands on him saying, ““Saul, my brother, the Lord Jesus – the same one who appeared to you on the road – sent me to you so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit””
Saul was called Paul, and he was born again as a son of God and a brother of Christ.
The travels of Saint Paul, apostle of the pagans
After his conversion, the apostle Paul began to evangelize, as Jesus Christ had asked him to do, and became “the apostle to the gentiles“. The word “gentile” is a translation of the Hebrew term “Goyim”, which means “nation”, and which in this case refers to non-Jews. In that order of ideas, Paul was the apostle of those who considered themselves as pagans.It should be noted that many “Gentile” communities embraced Judaism to some extent, without necessarily following all of its traditional customs.
Regarding his missionary journeys, it is known that Paul, Inspired by the Holy Spirit, carried out three great evangelistic journeys. The first did so accompanied by Barnabas, and together, the two apostles proclaimed the gospel in Cyprus and Asia Minor. They also preached the word of Christ to the “God-Fearers,” a group of Gentiles from the Antioch synagogue who had gathered in Pisidia. In fact, their success with these communities provoked the wrath of the authorities, for which they were expelled from the city.
During the second trip, Pablo crossed the region of Macedonia to visit different cities, and his success with the pagans was resounding. On one of his journeys he came to Corinth and stayed there for a year before leaving for Antioch.
Although it is true that after his passage some Christian churches were gradually being formed, it is also true that at the same time conflicts and oppositions were arising even within the communities of converts: in fact, Paul had to face several internal difficulties, related to with their own churches, and others related to external factors. Even so, his mission did not stop, so he returned to Asia Minor and taught in Ephesus for two years, soon after returning to visit the communities and churches in the cities he had evangelized (Corinth, Philippi and Caesarea), before decide to return to Jerusalem again, even knowing the risk that this implied: to tell the truth, his actions had provoked the wrath of the main Jewish authorities, considering that Paul had desecrated the Temple. For this reason he was imprisoned, and had to claim his status as a Roman citizen to avoid being tried (and executed) in the cities of Judea, where he was imprisoned for two years. Later he was transferred to Rome, where he suffered for many years until he died… It should be noted that little is known about the end of the life of the apostle Saint Paul, it is only certain that he spent the last years of his life in captivity . Furthermore, tradition has it that after long years of evangelistic travels, he was finally executed in Rome.
Saint Paul’s letters
Paul’s epistles
“Even if I had the gift of prophecy and knew all mysteries and all science, even if I had all faith, a faith capable of moving mountains, if I don’t have love, I am nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13, 2)
Saint Paul’s evangelization was not limited to his many long journeys, because after achieving the conversion of many pagan communities, and opening various churches (ekklesia) in different parts of Asia Minor, the apostle kept in touch with them through of a series of letters (epistles) that form almost half of the text of the New Testament. The letters attributed to him (to him or to his disciple) are: the letters to the Thessalonians, the letter to the Galatians, the letter to Philemon, the letter to the Romans (the longest), the letters to the Corinthians and the letter to the Philippians.
The Epistles of Paul they also have the goal of solidifying unity within early Christian communities, just at a time when many conflicts were beginning to form and intensify. In addition, the letters describe in a more concrete way the expectations towards the Christian peoples, especially with regard to the organization of the congregation, God’s plan and the law of Moses, the cause of much debate and disagreement among the disciples themselves.
Peter and Paul before the conflict in Antioch
The Apostle to the Gentiles He affirms that the Lord himself entrusted him with the mission of going for the conversion of the pagans, just as the apostle Peter was in charge of the conversion of the Jews. To tell the truth, this caused in a certain way a form of division between the Judeo-Christians and the Christians of pagan origin (Paul preferred the appellation of “circumcised” and “uncircumcised” to designate these communities).
It cannot be denied that the main difficulty in achieving Christian universality lies in respecting the laws of Moses that the “circumcised” always respected, while the “uncircumcised”, by definition, did not need to comply. All the difficulty of the evangelizing mission of the witnesses and disciples of Christ is due to a lack of homogeneity in the early days of Christianity. In fact, the tension between Peter and Paul, the two pillars of the Church, allowed us to have a preview of the main ecumenical challenges of the Church of Christ. Peter himself, one of the great leaders of the early Christian communities, was initially reluctant to convert and baptize the pagans (who did not respect the feeding rules of Moses). However, a vision of Christ made him understand that he could not “deny the water of baptism to those who received the Holy Spirit like us? (the faithful circumcised)»” (Acts 10:47).
It is so Church of Antioch he asked Paul to deal with the issue of giving access to Christianity to pagans who do not respect Jewish customs. In this way, the council, which was held in Jerusalem, concluded that it was not necessary to hinder the pagans to live in the house of Christ. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul even states that he confronted Peter directly: “If you, who are a Jew, live like the pagans and not like the Jews, why do you force the pagans to live like the Jews?” (Galatians 2:14) and reproached him for not sharing his table with the converted pagans, no doubt so as not to “offend” the Judeo-Christians.
On the other hand, although it is true that the words of Paul in the Epistle to the Galatians are very strong, and sometimes even reveal a certain anger, it is also true that the content of the letter reminds us of a fundamental notion of Christianity: “It is not by practicing the law of Moses that man becomes righteous before God, it is only by faith in Jesus Christ.” Faith in Jesus is the main symbol of communion between all the disciples of Christ.
Finally, it can be said that the life and letters of Saint Paul are a beautiful window on the history of the creation of a universal Church, including its difficulties and its progress.
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