The Pauline Jubilee Year: Fight the Good Fight
Beginning on June 28, 2008, the Church will begin a year-long celebration to mark the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of St. Paul, the Apostle. It goes without saying that the life of St. Paul was of crucial importance in the spread of Christianity in the days of the early Church, and his message and example continue to be of utmost importance today. When he announced plans for the Pauline Jubilee Year, Pope Benedict XVI said that “the Church needs modern Christians who will imitate St. Paul’s missionary energy and spirit of sacrifice.” It goes without saying that in present times, Christianity is in danger of extinction in many of the lands where it once thrived. Where once peoples long ago opened their minds and hearts to the Gospel, now millions of people in those same lands stand in need of hearing the Gospel announced anew with the same fervor with which Paul and those early disciples did. However, being a missionary is not enough. It is a particular type of missionary who is needed, one like Paul.
The Pauline endeavor to spread the Gospel succeeded for a number of reasons. First, it was the continuation of the proclamation of the Gospel to all peoples of all nations (the Gentiles) as inaugurated by the Epiphany, given concrete articulation in Christ’s earthly ministry, and set in motion by the Holy Spirit in the Pentecost. Paul was merely an instrument of the Lord. Second, as seen in the Acts of the Apostles, Paul had the ability to engage with the cultures (the Greek Areopagus and the unknown God) into which he was introducing the Gospel and to adapt the faith to the understanding of those native peoples without compromising the integrity of the Christian faith. Third, a significant portion of the New Testament consists of his reflections on the Gospel of Jesus Christ—reflections then disseminated to Christians in later generations. Fourth, and most importantly, Paul had a zeal and love for God that gave his message the credibility necessary to change the hearts and minds of those who heard his preaching; his was the zeal of the new convert which knew the value of what had been discovered. For when in past times he was Christianity’s biggest persecutor, now he was its boldest champion. He believed in, lived, and was martyred for the Christian message, and, in doing so, he gave witness to the immediacy of God. Humanly speaking, without that same zeal, conviction, and genuine desire to share the Gospel, the cultural Christianity that seems to have replaced genuine conviction in some countries will die out.
So, what is it about Paul’s zeal and faith that are so important to the missionary endeavor of the Church’s proclamation of the Gospel? The answer can be found in the New Testament in his letters, which constitute a very personal reflection on what it means to be a Christian. They are and should be the words of every Christian. First, as someone converted to life with God in Christ Jesus, Paul is aware of the big picture, the goal, and the means to the end for which he lives—he is but a mere servant and instrument of the Lord engaged in a struggle between the forces of good and evil, powers and principalities (Eph.6:11-12), the goal being Jesus Christ, now being the acceptable time to turn to God. As such, he exhorts Christians to be strong in the Lord and to put on the armor of God and to take a stand for Jesus Christ with truth, righteousness, faith, salvation, the word of God, and the Holy Spirit as the chief means to advance the Gospel of peace (Eph.6:10-18). However, even as he preaches a Christianity of strength, Paul reminds the believer of his own weakness and sin, and that “God’s power is made perfect in our weakness,” God’s grace being sufficient for us (2 Cor.12:6-11), these earthen vessels that we are (2 Cor.4:8-15). Mindful of this, if there be any reason to boast, Paul tells us to boast in the Lord, in particular, to boast “in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14). It is the power of the cross and resurrection of Christ that gives the victory. Crucial to understanding this is that a Christian’s imitation of Christ is more than just copying the Lord’s example—it is to be conformed, configured, and united to Christ Himself, especially into His death and Resurrection (Rom.6:5-11), so much so that it is not just the individual believer who lives but Christ who lives in him (Gal.2:20).
For Paul, if it is the crucifixion which shows God’s unending love for us sinners, then Resurrection shows God’s power to do the impossible. It is the definitive act of God through which we are granted victory and hope and the denial of which our faith is in vain (1 Cor.15:13-14,51-58). Because of this, the Christian now lives in hope through the power of God even as his mortal life passes away. If anything, the Christian life is one that is lived as an upward calling, which though seemingly impossible on a human level, is nevertheless realized in the faith that God is able to do what He has promised (Rm.4:18-25). And it is because of this hope in the impossible, sealed in the Resurrection, that Paul can hope against hope: “I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and want. I can do all things in him who strengthens me”(Philippians 4:11-13). For Paul, neither tribulation nor the prospect of martyrdom nor anything else can separate us from the love of God found in Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 8:31-39), our being afflicted in every way but “always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies” (2 Cor.4:8-15). God’s unending love for us, in turn, mandates that we too show God’s love toward others, for among faith, hope, and love, love is the greatest (1 Cor.13:13). In the end, that relentless striving to live the upward calling of God, even in the midst of the many setbacks that one endures in life, will have been worth it: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing” (2 Tim.4:7-8). May we carefully reflect on St. Paul’s heroic faith and use it as a model for our own as we share the Gospel with others in this upcoming Pauline year.
In Christ,
David Brown, S.J.
Interim Administrator
