Paul& the Pope in
Athens |
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Books by the John Paul II,
Crossing the
Threshold of Hope, ($12.00) or about him--His Holiness:
John Paul II, & the Hidden History...
(by Carl Bernstein &
Marco Politi--$19.25). |
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P
aul clearly reminds us that we cannot enclose God in our very human ways of seeing or doing. If we wish to welcome the Lord, we are called to conversion. This is the path put before us, the path that enables us to follow Christ in order to live as he did, sons and daughters in the Son. We can therefore re-interpret our personal journey and that of the Church as a Paschal experience. We must be purified in order to enter fully into the divine will, accepting that God, by his grace, transforms our being and our existence, as was the case with Paul, who was transformed from persecutor to missionary. Thus we pass through the trials of Good Friday, with its sufferings, with its darkness of faith, with its mutual misunderstandings. But we also experience moments of light, like the dawn of Easter Sunday, in which the Risen One communicates to us his joy and leads us to all truth. Viewing our personal history and that of the Church in this way, we cannot fail to live in hope, certain that the Master of history will lead us along paths known to him alone. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to help us to be witnesses to the Good News of God’s love by our words and our actions! For the Spirit inspires missionary fervor in his Church, it is he who calls and sends, and the true apostle is first of all a person who is “tuned in”, a servant ready for God’s action.Speaking to the Athenians, St Paul wishes to hide nothing of the faith, which
he has received; like every apostle, he must carefully guard the deposit of
faith. It begins with references that are familiar to his listeners and their
way of thinking; it is so that they may better understand the Gospel that he has
come to bring them. Paul depends on the natural knowledge of God and on the deep
spiritual desire present in his audience in order to prepare them to receive the
revelation of the one and true God.
If, to the Athenians, he was able to quote ancient classical authors, the reason
is that, in a certain way, his own personal culture had been fashioned by
Hellenism. He therefore used his own training to proclaim the Gospel in words
that would make an impression on his listeners. What a lesson! In order to
proclaim the Good News to the men and women of our time, the Church must be
attentive to their cultures and their ways of communicating, without allowing
the Gospel message to be altered or its meaning or scope diminished. Paul’s
masterful speech invites Christ’s disciples to enter into a truly missionary
dialogue with their contemporaries, with respect for what they are, but at the
same time with a clear and forceful presentation of the Gospel, together with
its implications and demands in people’s lives.
In his personal experience as a believer and in his ministry as an Apostle, Paul understood that Christ alone was the way of salvation, he who, by his grace, reconciles people among themselves and with God. The Apostle then became the defender of unity, within communities as well as between them, consumed as he was with concern for all the Churches.
It is on Jesus' prayer and not on our own strength that we base the hope that even within history we shall be able to reach full and visible communion with all Christians.... May the memory of the time when the Church breathed with "both lungs” spur Christians of East and West to walk together in unity of faith and with respect for legitimate diversity, accepting and sustaining each other as members of the one Body of Christ.
Condensed from L’Osservatore Romano-9 May 2001 from the Vatican web site: www.vatican.va
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Read
other articles in the June 2001 edition of