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Apostle to the Gentiles: St Paul: A Force of Grace
Scott Hahn
From the Nov/Dec 2008 Issue of Lay Witness Magazine
Pope Benedict XVI has called the Church to a full year in honor of St. Paul the Apostle—from June28, 2008, to June 29, 2009. We should remember this saint with gratitude.
It’s impossible to imagine what the last 2,000 years would have been if St. Paul had not lived at the far end of them. All the years since then have borne the mark of Christianity—the sign of the Cross—and so much of what we understand about Christianity, and especially about the Cross, we have learned from the great Apostle to the Gentiles.
St. Paul was among the first Christians to set pen to paper to proclaim the Gospel. He looked upon the news of the day as it unfolded, and he interpreted it in light of God’s previous marvels. He took the great heritage of Israel and renewed its language for the New Covenant. St. Paul gave the Church the vocabulary it would use, ever afterward, to understand the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus.
We have St. Paul to thank for so much of what we call the Church. It’s not that he was the "founder" of Christianity, as some people claim. But he did play a unique role in the early proclamation of the Gospel.
His name from birth was Saul, and he had been a Pharisee—an intensely devout and intelligent man, whose entire life was motivated by the expectation of Israel’s Messiah. As a Pharisee, he worked to hasten the day of the Messiah’s coming. He went so far as to enforce the strictest fidelity to the Law of Moses, believing that this would bring about the Day of the Lord. It was for this reason that he persecuted the Christians (see Phil. 3:5–6). He thought they were abandoning the God of their ancestors in order to worship a man.
As he traveled one day, Saul met Jesus. The encounter was dramatic (see Acts22 for the full drama). Saul recognized, then and there, that Israel’s expectations had already been fulfilled, the work had been accomplished, the day had indeed been hastened, the Messiah had come. It was Jesus.
There was no need for Saul to abandon the religion of the Old Covenant or radically redirect his zeal. Rather, he saw the signs and proclaimed the Day of the Lord, no longer in anticipation, but now in fulfillment.
Of course, this came at no small cost. It was a career-killer for him as a Pharisee. And then he had to endure afflictions and hardships beyond counting—calamities, beatings, floggings, stoning, imprisonment, shipwreck, hunger (see 2 Cor. 11:23–28).
He traveled the known world to announce a Church that was not just a reservation for the righteous, but was indeed universal, intended for Israel and the nations together. At some point he began to use the name Paul.
Of all the Apostles, it was Paul who most consistently kept the Church from receding back to the safety of a provincial reservation. It was Paul who kept the universal, Catholic vision. It was Paul who proclaimed the power of the sacraments of the New Covenant. In the end, it was Paul who was impelled by grace, together with Peter, to consecrate the city of Rome with his own blood, shed in martyrdom.
Even today, after so many centuries, Paul’s letters convey a personality that’s overwhelming, a drive that’s urgent. It’s as if he can’t get the words out fast enough. We catch on to his excitement, but we can also be frustrated. He rarely takes the time to spell things out, and he assumes that we already know a lot about the Bible and about the times he lived in. But we shouldn’t feel too badly when we find St. Paul difficult. Even St. Peter confessed that he found St. Paul’s letters "hard to understand" (2 Pet. 3:16).
When we read St. Paul, we sometimes feel as if we’re being propelled forward by a hurricane, a tidal wave, or some other force of nature. But it’s even stronger than that, because it’s a force of grace. Look at those maps of St. Paul’s missionary journeys. Ponder those wide swaths that run the length and breadth of an empire. Imagine the momentum that made such progress possible.
And then remind yourself that the same momentum has not diminished. God’s arm has not been shortened. When you read St. Paul, when you hear his words proclaimed in the liturgy, you’re exposing yourself to the same force. And that can only be life changing. Brace yourself.
Editor’s note: This is the first installment of a special column for the Year of St. Paul.
Scott Hahn is president of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. He is professor at St. Vincent Seminary and Franciscan University of Steubenville. He was chair of CUF’s board of directors for four years and now serves on the advisory council.
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