By Sr. Rekha M Chennattu, RA –
Continuing from where we left off yesterday, we shall now explore the life and mission of Saint Paul as one of the first evangelizers and great missionaries of the good news. In his Letters, Paul comes across to the readers as a multi-faceted personality – a zealous Pharisee, a committed exegete, a sound theologian, a passionate apostle, a dynamic missionary and a caring pastor. Saint Paul was proud of introducing himself as a Pharisee (Phil 3:5) and was ‘extremely zealous’ for the traditions of his ancestors (Gal 1:14).
The Damascus experience was a turning-point in Paul’s spiritual journey. He often appeals to this experience to legitimize the divine origin of his call and the divine authorization of his message whenever his apostleship or his gospel was questioned by others (Gal 1; Phil 3; 1 Cor 9; 15).
In Galatians 1, Paul focuses on the God-experience and the radical changes brought about by his personal encounter with the risen Lord. Paul adopts the language of the prophetic calls to describe his experience when he claims, ‘God had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace’ (v. 15). Paul places his call and mission on a par with those of the great Old Testament prophets like Isaiah (49:1) and Jeremiah (1:5).
God’s Chosen Instrument
The prophetic language used here highlights the fact that Paul, like the OT prophets who were authorized by God to proclaim God’s message, was called and consecrated by God to proclaim the gospel. Paul uses the paradigm shift – radical changes which have taken place in his life from his former life as a zealous persecutor of the church to his new life as a passionate apostle of Christ to the Gentiles – as evidence of this divine consecration (Gal 1:13-14). This experience thus revealed Paul’s identity as God’s chosen instrument as well as inaugurated Paul’s new life in Christ.
As a Pharisee, Paul was trained to interpret the Torah and belonged to the group that was responsible for the on-going interpretation of the Torah and its faithful transmission (1Cor 15:3). This is what Paul was doing after the encounter with the Lord on the road to Damascus – reinterpreting the Torah in the light of the Christ event (Gal 3; Rom 4) and reinterpreting the Christ event in the light of the Torah as well as the new pastoral concerns of the church spreading from the Jewish to the Gentile world (Gal 3; 1Cor 15; see also Acts 17).
Paul was a key figure in extending membership of the church to non-Jews, in defining Christian identity through his law-free gospel and in developing an inculturated Christian theology. Paul thus established the identity of the Christian movement as a distinct religious group over against the sectarian understanding held by the churches animated by James and Peter.
I want to draw attention to the ‘non-stop prayer’ referred to by Paul when he exhorts the Thessalonians: ‘pray without ceasing’ (1 Thess 5:17). Or when Paul wrote to the Philippians that he was ‘constantly praying [pantote, ‘always’, ‘at all times’] with joy in every one of his prayers for all of [them]’ (Phil 1:4; see also Col 1:9, 4:2). What does it mean to ‘pray without ceasing’ or ‘pray constantly’? Prayer is therefore more than just saying prayers; it is not an occasional activity. Prayer is something that takes place within all the activities of our lives.
Prayer a Way of Life
For Paul, prayer was a way of life, and it transformed Paul constantly and made him God’s chosen instrument. Praying unceasingly is living consciously in the presence of God day in and day out. It is a call to be in communion and in communication with God. This communion enables the believer to recognize God’s actions in the world. Prayer then becomes a way of life: constantly in touch with one’s true self and with the creative presence of God in the world.
Paul talks about love (agape or agapao) more than 100 times and the centrality of love in his writings is obvious (see also 1Cor 13, Rom 13). Paul exhorts the Thessalonians to love one another more and more (1Thess 4:10). He prays for the Philippians that their love may overflow more and more (Phil 1:9).
The life of Paul illustrates that he was a man of relationships: Paul maintained relationships with people who were his close associates and fellow workers in his massive evangelisation project in the Mediterranean world. One can therefore infer with good reason that interpersonal relationships have been the focal point of Paul’s communities.
Christians are called to be united in love as the ‘body of Christ’ (1Cor 12-14). Paul appreciates the varieties of gifts and services (1Cor 12:1-6), but what is most striking is his conviction that the personal gifts and talents of the members are meant for the common good or the welfare of all (sympheron, 1Cor 12:7). Paul invites the members to have the mind of Christ and to imitate the self-emptying love and selfless service of Jesus (Phil 2:6-11). Paul’s vision of a new community in Christ articulated in Gal 3:28 reveals that the transformed life in Christ is intimately connected with the abolition of discrimination based on religious, social and gender differences. Paul’s vision of a new life in Christ marks the end of discrimination of every kind and establishes full equality among the members in the church.
Dr. Rekha is a Professor of New Testament and lectures on Biblical themes (exegesis, theology, and spirituality) and has published books and over 100 articles in India and abroad. She is currently the Provincial Superior of the Assumption Sisters (India) and a Member of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conference – Office of Theological Concerns (FABC-OTC). She is also an Associate Faculty member of Pontifical Athenaeum, Pune, India.