A year of St. Paul, in praise of Jesus Christ |
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Written by MOST REVEREND LEONARD P. BLAIR, Bishop of Toledo
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Friday, 02 January 2009 01:00 |
I wish all of you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. Whatever 2009 may bring, it is my hope that together we will grow in faith, hope and the love of God and neighbor.
At the initiative of Pope Benedict XVI, the church is currently observing a special Jubilee Year of the Apostle Paul on the occasion of the bi-millennium of his birth. (Historians estimate he was born sometime between the years 7 and 10 A.D.) The celebration runs from June 2008 to June 2009.
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Bishop Leonard P. Blair
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There is so much that can be said about the life, mission, theology and spiritual greatness of St. Paul. I hope that through organized Bible study and individual reflection on his writings, all of us in the diocese will profit spiritually from the Jubilee Year. Many resources can be found on our diocesan Web site, and the Vatican and U.S. Bishops’ Web sites.
Various opportunities for spiritual enrichment also present themselves, as indicated elsewhere in today’s Chronicle, including the annual Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul Jan. 25, which, because of the exceptional nature of the Jubilee, we observe this year even though it falls on a Sunday.
There is one thing in particular that strikes me about St. Paul, something that is absolutely essential for understanding him, and it is simply this: Jesus Christ was Paul’s only source, center and reason for being.
In the Letter to the Philippians, reflecting on his former life and conversion, Paul writes: "I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having any righteousness of my own based on the law but that which comes through faith in Christ. ..." (3:8f).
It may seem obvious that Christ is essential to the life of a Christian. But on what basis is this so? For St. Paul and for the faith of the church, Jesus Christ is the very incarnation of God, the revealer of the Trinitarian being of God, the only Lord of creation and history, the only source of justification, salvation and eternal life. To achieve life’s purpose we have to hand over all that we are and all that we have to Jesus, as Paul did.
The late Cardinal Avery Dulles once observed that all too often Catholic faith "appears as an acceptance of a complicated system of abstract truths, or as dutiful submission to the church as an authoritative teacher, regardless of what is taught," when in fact "for those who rightly understand them, all the doctrines and institutions of the church can help to focus, direct and intensify our relationship to Christ the Lord."
The need for evangelization and for deeper instruction in the faith is urgent in the church today. We will only be successful, however, if our starting point is that "Jesus Christ is the energizing center of evangelization and the heart of catechesis. ... [He] is at once the message, the messenger, the purpose of the message and the consummation of the message. Only He can lead us to the love of the Father in the Holy Spirit and invite us to share the life of the Holy Trinity." (National Directory for Catechesis, p. 4)
At a time when the "New Age" section in bookstores is as big if not bigger than the Christianity section, it is common to find Jesus presented as a great teacher, healer, or as an embodiment of "divine wisdom," but not as the eternal only-begotten Son of the Father and the world’s only Savior. Much of this contemporary thinking also looks upon God as an impersonal force of higher and collective consciousness rather than as the personal, triune God who is totally other, and who calls us, His creatures, to new life in Jesus.
In proclaiming the Jubilee, Pope Benedict stated: "This is the purpose of the Pauline Year: to learn from St. Paul, to learn the faith, to learn about Christ." Through the intercession of the great "Apostle to the Gentiles," may his life’s witness be fruitful in us, so that with him each of us can say: "It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me." (Gal 2: 20)
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 03 March 2009 13:39 |
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