Walking with St. Paul Seven Ways to be a Paul-Bearer

Jul 7, 2008

Just over a week ago, Pope Benedict XVI inaugurated the Jubilee Year of St. Paul and in his homilies and subsequent catechesis at his weekly audience, the Holy Father has encouraged the faithful to imitate St. Paul in several key areas. 

 

Today, I want to join my voice with his by offering the first of seven ways that we can be “Paul-bearers” during this Jubilee Year.  Now, you’ll have to forgive the word pun (Paul-bearer vs. pall bearer), but it is a memorable way for us to reflect on God’s invitation to be imitators of St. Paul during this Jubilee Year, and to “carry him” with us throughout this special time of joy. 

 

Before we look at the first way, let’s reflect for a moment on imitating another “mere mortal” because some may resist the very idea of imitating someone other than Christ.  This bold invitation to imitation comes not from a modern author, but rather from the pen of St. Paul himself.  Not once, but twice in his first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul implored the faithful to “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor 11:1, 4:16. See also 2 Thess. 3:7,9; Heb. 13:7 ).  The fact we have St. Paul and others in our Church’s history to imitate is a gift from Christ that remind us of the many ways we can express our love and service of Christ.  God doesn’t want “cookie-cutter” Christians.  Like creation, his glory is displayed in the manifold ways one may reflect his image to the world.  We readily identify with some saints over others, because of our particular background or personality.  They become special companions with us on the journey of transformation into Christ. 

 

Other saints have a “universal” quality that we are all invited to imitate.  Hans Urs von Balthasar included these “universal” saints in his “Christological Constellation” (see The Office of Peter and the Structure of the Church).   If all the saints are like the stars in the heavens, these figures could be compared to the luminous planets that are marked by their proximity to the “Son” around whom they orbit.  They include John the Baptist, the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Peter, St. John the Beloved and of special interest to us -- St. Paul.  Therefore, our Apostle is always to be given our time and attention, but we have the added weight of this Jubilee Year to focus that attention.

 

With that in mind, then, let me propose the first of the seven ways we can carry Paul throughout this Jubilee Year.

 

1) Grow in love.  I know it sounds simple, but this is the one indispensable characteristic of the Christian life.  It is not a kind of anemic “niceness” nor is it greeting card sentimentality - it is the full-bodied self-giving lifestyle that Christ modeled for us on the Cross.  It was at the heart of Pope Benedict’s first encyclical (Deus Caritas Est) and it is the scarlet thread woven through every letter of St. Paul.  Consider some of these examples:

 

“Let love be genuine” (Rom. 12:9)

“Make love your aim” (1 Cor. 14:1)

“The love of Christ controls us” (2 Cor. 5:14)

“The fruit of the Spirit is love...” (Gal. 5:22)

“Walk in love” (Eph. 5:2)

“[Have] the same love, being in full accord and of one mind” (Phil 2:2)

 “Above all these, put on love, which binds everything together” (Col 3:14)

“May the Lord make you increase and abound in love” (1 Thess. 3:12)

“May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God” (2 Thess. 3:5)

“The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart” (1 Tim. 1:5)

“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love” (2 Tim 1:7)

“Greet those who love us in the faith” (Titus 3:15)

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“I have derived much joy and comfort from your love” (Phil. 7)

“Let us consider how to stir up another to love and good works” (Heb 10:24)

 

St. Paul met Love face-to-face on the Road to Damascus and was never the same.  I appreciate how St. Chrysostom puts it in his little book Praises of St. Paul, “The most important thing of all to him, however, was that he knew himself to be loved by Christ.”  I think Benedict XVI had that quote in mind on June 28th when he said, “what most deeply motivated [Paul] was the fact of being loved by Jesus Christ and the desire to transmit to others this love. Paul was someone capable of loving, and all his laboring and suffering is explained only from this core.”

 

One practical way to measure your growth in love this Jubilee Year is to use 1 Corinthians 13 as a weekly or daily examination of conscience.  We are all very familiar with this chapter, “Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful” etc.  The key is to substitute every instance of the word love in this chapter with your own name.  For example, “[Fred] is not arrogant or rude; [Sally] does not insist on [her] own way. [Bill] is not irritable or resentful” (1 Cor. 13:5).  Yes, it will make you squirm, but it can also be a catalyst to conversion if we truly make “love our aim” this year.  Maybe pick one or two of the characteristics of love to work on each week, and pray for the grace of God to let Christ live in and through you.  And take advantage of St. Paul’s intercession during this Jubilee Year.  He once prayed for the Church in Ephesus that Christ would dwell in their hearts through faith and that they would be rooted and grounded in love (Eph. 3:17).  I don’t think that he ever stopped praying for that, and in particular it must be his intercession for the Church today, especially during this year of joy.

 

Now some of you may want to get started right away on all seven ways to be a Paul-bearer during this Jubilee Year.  If so, subscribe to my free Gen215 podcast or simply download the latest episode at www.gen215.org to hear all seven ways we can be Paul-bearers this Jubilee Year.