What Would Paul Say?
As we head back into Ordinary Time, I have found myself lingering with the conclusion of The Acts of the Apostles that we heard last Saturday. There, Luke brings to a conclusion the second part of his chronicles, describing Paul’s stay in Rome. It ends, of course, most curiously, in that it doesn’t mention Paul’s martyrdom, which appears to many to be most unusual, especially given that Luke has already described the martyrdoms of Stephen and James. Why leave Paul’s out? Maybe he’s still alive when Luke is writing, but ultimately we just don’t know. That’s not, though, what I’ve been lingering with.
Luke concludes Acts by writing: “He [Paul] lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance” (28:30-31).
As I’ve been pondering this passage, I have found myself asking the question, what would Paul think about the state of the world now? What would he say to the fact that the world dates the year not to the founding of Rome but to the birth of Jesus? What would Paul say about how far and wide missionaries have gone, bringing the gospel to every continent? What would Paul say about the fact that roughly a third of the world considers themselves Christians? What would Paul say about the establishment of Catholic schools everywhere and the influence of the Church on science and education? What would Paul say to the Church’s founding of hospitals and other places of health care, making physicians no longer a luxury for the wealthy alone? What would Paul say to the influence of the Church on politics, art, architecture and so much more?
“Of course.”
I think that’s what Paul would say.
I can hear Paul say, “When I proclaimed Jesus as Lord, and how He defeated the principalities and powers by his death and resurrection, did you think I was kidding? A Lord reigns, and Jesus, not Caesar, not a king or queen, not a president, not a prime minister, not any other person is the One who holds all things together and orders all of history, even when it looks like it makes no sense. I told you,” I can hear him say, “that we are living in a time no one expected, a time where right in the middle of history the Kingdom of God has set up shop, and that while the powers and principalities have been defeated they’re still prowling, as my friend, Peter, wrote, looking for someone to devour. But do not be dismayed or discouraged or frightened. Death has lost its grip on our race. Sin has been conquered, and a prowling lion is one that has been mortally wounded and is in the throes of death pangs.”
When Luke was writing those final verses in Acts, describing Paul’s boldness in proclaiming the gospel, surely what he knew from his own experience of the Apostle was Paul’s attitude. An attitude of extraordinary and unshakable confidence. Not in himself, nor in any other of the apostles. In Jesus. In who He is and what He has done.
We desperately need that same attitude.
The authors of From Christendom to Apostolic Mission: Pastoral Strategies for an Apostolic Era write that the Church in a time like ours “needs to have the same confidence in the power and goodness of the message she bears, in its life-changing potency, in the Church’s power of regeneration and growth. Especially those in positions of influence and authority need to be convinced that Christ is the answer to every human ill, the solution to every human problem, the only hope for a dying race. They need to be convinced of the bad news: that the human race has by its own rebellion brought a curse upon itself and has sold itself into slavery to the prince of darkness, and that there is nothing we can do under our own power to save ourselves. They need to be equally convinced of the Good News: that God in his mercy has come among us to set us free from our sins and from slavery to the devil, and that for those who turn to their true allegiance the nightmare of life apart from God can be transformed into a dawn of hope in an eternal destiny. They need to know, from their own experience, that obedience to the Gospel is perfect freedom, that holiness leads to happiness, that a world without God is a desolate wasteland, and that new life in Christ transforms darkness into light.”
Is this our attitude?
With Pentecost now a few days behind us, let us continue to ask the Holy Spirit, perhaps through the intercession of St. Paul especially, to clothe us anew with this kind of confidence, conviction and knowledge.
“No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 12:3).
Not a wise man, good teacher, or nice guy. Lord. Let us trust in Him who, by His cross, has redeemed the world.
