Today’s homily: Commemoration of St Paul

Every Tribunal Became a Pulpit

MASS Scio cui crededi
LESSON Galatians 1: 11-20
GOSPEL St Matthew 10: 16-22
HOMILIST Mt Revd Jerome Lloyd OSJV

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Yesterday the Roman Church united St Peter and St Paul in one triumph, venerating together the two Apostles whose blood consecrated the city of Rome. Today, 30 June, she remains beside the tomb of the Doctor of the Gentiles in the Basilica of St Paul outside the Walls. She commemorates Peter, because Paul’s mission was never separated from the apostolic unity founded upon the Rock; and she continues the Octave of St John the Baptist, because every apostolic labour is an extension of the Precursor’s cry: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord.”

Yet today the Church does not return chiefly to the conversion of Saul. That mystery has its own feast on 25 January, and it stood already within yesterday’s contemplation of the two Princes of the Apostles. Today she shows us what grace accomplished after Saul arose from the ground: the nations evangelised, the churches founded, the errors refuted, the prisons sanctified, the seas crossed, the blows endured, and the blood at last poured out upon the Ostian Way.

The Gospel appointed for this feast provides the divine pattern of that apostolic life. Our Lord does not describe missionary labour as a procession of easy victories. He says: “Behold I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves.” He foretells councils, scourging, governors, kings, betrayal, hatred and death. Yet He also promises that the Holy Ghost will speak through His servants, and He concludes with the assurance: “He that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved.” In St Paul, every word of that Gospel became history.

“Behold I send you.” The first truth of apostolic life is that the Apostle is sent. He does not appoint himself. He does not wander into the world to preach his private insights, cultivate a following, or establish a religious enterprise around his own personality. He bears a commission received from Christ and recognised within the Church.

Today’s Epistle makes this clear. Paul declares that the Gospel preached by him was “not according to man,” because he received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. Yet, after three years, he went to Jerusalem “to see Peter” and remained with him for fifteen days. The Apostle taught directly by Christ did not therefore imagine himself independent of the constitution Christ had given to His Church. The extraordinary character of his vocation did not abolish ecclesiastical order. The same Lord who revealed the Gospel to Paul had entrusted the keys to Peter.

Thus today’s Gradual places the two missions side by side: “He who wrought in Peter to the apostleship, wrought in me also among the Gentiles.” Peter and Paul were not rivals. Their fields of labour differed, but their Gospel was one. Peter held the keys; Paul carried the name of Christ among the nations. Peter confirmed the brethren; Paul crossed the Roman world establishing churches. Their authority came from one Lord, served one Faith, and was sealed by martyrdom in one city.

About A.D. 46, in the Church at Antioch, the Holy Ghost said: “Separate me Saul and Barnabas, for the work whereunto I have taken them.” After fasting and prayer, hands were imposed upon them, and they were sent forth. The missionary life of St Paul began, therefore, in sacrifice, prayer and ecclesial commission.

“Behold I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves.” Paul first sailed to Cyprus, where the proconsul Sergius Paulus believed after the Apostle confronted the sorcerer Elymas. He then crossed into Asia Minor. At Antioch in Pisidia he preached that through Jesus Christ remission of sins was offered and that in Him the believer was justified. Some received the word with joy; others contradicted and persecuted him.

At Iconium the city was divided. At Lystra Paul healed a man lame from birth, and the crowd attempted to worship him and Barnabas as gods. The Apostles tore their garments and protested that they were only mortal men preaching the living God. Soon afterwards the same crowd was persuaded to stone Paul. He was dragged beyond the city and left for dead.

The sheep had indeed entered among wolves. Yet Paul rose, and the following day went on to Derbe. More astonishingly still, he then returned through Lystra, Iconium and Antioch—the very places where he had been opposed, hunted and stoned—to strengthen the disciples and teach them that “through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God.”

The apostolic method of Paul was not to retreat whenever hostility appeared. Nor did he flatter converts with the promise that Christianity would deliver them from every earthly difficulty. He returned to the scene of persecution and taught that the road to the kingdom passes through tribulation. He ordained priests in every church, entrusted the faithful to God, and established not merely scattered admirers but ordered Christian communities capable of persevering.

“But beware of men; for they will deliver you up in councils.” Paul knew the fulfilment of these words repeatedly. He stood before Jewish councils, civic magistrates and Roman tribunals. At Philippi, after casting a spirit of divination from a slave girl, he and Silas were seized, beaten with rods and thrust into the inner prison, their feet fastened in the stocks.

At midnight, wounded and chained, they prayed and sang hymns to God. An earthquake shook the foundations, opened the doors and loosened the bonds. The jailer, believing the prisoners had escaped, prepared to take his own life. Paul cried out: “Do thyself no harm, for we all are here.” The frightened man fell before them and asked: “What must I do, that I may be saved?” Before the night was over, he and his household were baptised.

The world had imprisoned the Apostle, but the prison became a baptistery. The blows intended to silence him became the prelude to conversion. The chains placed upon his feet became the occasion for another soul to be delivered from the bondage of sin. This was the apostolic miracle of St Paul: not that he escaped suffering, but that suffering itself became fruitful.

“You shall be brought before governors and before kings for My sake, for a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.” This promise was fulfilled with remarkable exactness. Arrested in Jerusalem about A.D. 57, Paul was transferred to Caesarea. There he stood before the Roman governor Felix and reasoned concerning justice, chastity and the judgement to come. Felix trembled, although Paul was the prisoner and Felix the judge.

Paul later stood before Festus and King Agrippa. He did not plead merely for his release. He preached. He recounted his divine commission and declared that he had not been disobedient to the heavenly vision. So compelling was his witness that Agrippa said: “In a little thou persuadest me to become a Christian.” Paul answered that he desired not only Agrippa, but all who heard him, to become such as he was—except for the chains.

The Apostle’s freedom did not depend upon the removal of his fetters. Before governors and kings, the prisoner was inwardly free, while those seated in judgement were bound by fear, ambition and sin. Paul could use every tribunal as a pulpit because he had already surrendered the outcome to Christ.

“But when they shall deliver you up, take no thought of how or what to speak; for it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you.” This does not mean that the Christian preacher should neglect study, doctrine or prudence. Few men laboured more intensely with the intellect than St Paul. It means that, in the hour of trial, the power of the witness does not arise merely from natural cleverness. The Holy Ghost sustains the servant who speaks for Christ.

Paul demonstrated this holy wisdom throughout his missions. At Thessalonica he reasoned from the Scriptures. At Athens, around A.D. 50, he stood upon the Areopagus and began with the altar dedicated “to the unknown God.” He spoke to philosophers in language they could understand, yet he did not dilute the truth to gain their applause. He proclaimed the Creator of heaven and earth, the duty of penance, the resurrection from the dead, and the coming judgement.

Some mocked. Some postponed judgement. Some believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite and Damaris. Paul did not measure the truth of the Gospel by the response of the audience. He adapted his manner of address; he never altered the substance of the Faith.

At Corinth he preached in a city infamous for luxury and vice. He did not conclude that the moral law must be softened because the culture was corrupt. He preached the power of grace to transform sinners: “Such some of you were; but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified.” The Gospel did not merely console Corinthian society; it judged, purified and remade it.

During his third missionary journey, between approximately A.D. 53 and 57, Paul laboured for nearly three years at Ephesus. The word of God spread throughout Asia. Converts renounced magic and publicly burned their books. The trade in silver shrines of the goddess Diana began to suffer, and Demetrius the silversmith stirred up a riot.

The preaching of Paul disturbed not only private opinions but public idols and profitable sins. The Gospel threatened an entire economy built upon superstition. Paul did not preach a Christ who could be added decorously to pagan civilisation while leaving its worship, morals and commerce untouched. He preached the one Lord before whom idols must fall, sinners must repent, and nations must learn obedience.

“The brother shall deliver up the brother to death.” The sufferings of Paul came not only from declared pagans. He knew betrayal, abandonment and false brethren. He endured resistance from those who distorted the Gospel, undermined his authority, or sought to impose another doctrine upon the churches he had founded. His Epistles reveal not merely theological controversy but the anguish of a spiritual father whose children were being seduced from the truth.

He wrote to the Corinthians that he had endured labours, prisons, stripes beyond measure, frequent dangers of death, five scourgings of thirty-nine lashes, three beatings with rods, stoning, shipwreck, hunger, thirst, cold and nakedness. He knew danger from rivers, robbers, his own nation, the Gentiles, the city, the wilderness, the sea and false brethren. Yet after listing all these things he added the burden that pressed upon him daily: “the solicitude for all the churches.”

This was the heart of his missionary vocation. Paul did not merely enjoy travelling and preaching. He bore souls within himself. He agonised over doctrinal error, moral scandal, division and spiritual weakness. He compared his apostolic labour to the pains of childbirth until Christ should be formed in the faithful. His sufferings were not adventures; they were the cost of spiritual fatherhood.

“You shall be hated by all men for My name’s sake.” Paul was hated because he preached not himself but Christ. He did not offer the world a religious philosophy compatible with every passion and every idol. He preached Christ crucified: a stumbling block to the Jews, foolishness to the Gentiles, but to those who are called, the power and wisdom of God.

The Octave of St John the Baptist sheds light upon this self-effacement. John declared: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Paul said: “We preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ our Lord.” John prepared the way beside the Jordan; Paul prepared it through the provinces of the empire. John pointed to the Lamb of God; Paul planted among the Gentiles the altar of that same Lamb.

At Troas, the Christians assembled on the first day of the week to break bread. Paul preached until midnight. After the young Eutychus fell from the upper chamber and was restored to life, Paul returned to the assembly, broke bread and continued speaking until dawn. The heart of the apostolic mission was already Eucharistic.

Paul did not merely found communities of discussion or moral reform. He planted altars. He delivered that which he had received: that on the night in which He was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it and said: “This is My body, which shall be delivered for you.” Wherever Paul went, the Gospel led to Baptism, priesthood, sacrifice and Communion.

The map of his journeys is therefore a map of altars. Cyprus, Pisidia, Philippi, Corinth, Ephesus and Rome were not simply locations where lectures had been delivered. They were places where men were washed in Baptism, incorporated into Christ, gathered under pastors, nourished by the Eucharist and taught to await the coming of the Lord.

At Miletus, Paul gave the priests of Ephesus a final account of his ministry. He reminded them that he had served the Lord with humility, tears and temptations; that he had taught publicly and from house to house; and that he had not failed to declare unto them “all the counsel of God.”

That phrase should terrify every preacher. Paul did not select only the doctrines that would please his listeners. He did not conceal the severe truths or exaggerate the consoling ones. He declared the whole counsel of God. He understood that the preacher is not the proprietor of revelation but its steward. He possesses no authority to remove from the Gospel whatever the age finds difficult.

Knowing that chains awaited him, Paul declared: “None of these things move me: neither do I count my life more precious than myself, so that I may consummate my course, and the ministry of the word, which I received from the Lord Jesus.” The mission was more precious than his safety because it had been entrusted by Christ.

Shipwrecked on the journey to Rome, Paul transformed even disaster into apostolate. For fourteen days the vessel was driven helplessly through the storm. Though a prisoner, Paul became the source of courage for all aboard. He reassured them, gave thanks to God, broke bread in their presence, and promised that their lives would be spared.

Upon Malta, the bite of a viper did not kill him. He healed the father of Publius and many others who were sick. A storm, a wreck and an unknown island could not interrupt his mission. Providence supplied a new congregation wherever Paul was cast.

He reached Rome around A.D. 60. Under guard, he received all who came to him, “preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, without prohibition.” The Apostle was chained, but the word of God was not chained.

Tradition holds that, after a period of freedom and further missionary labour, Paul was arrested during Nero’s persecution and beheaded outside Rome, probably in A.D. 67. As a Roman citizen he was spared crucifixion. The sword ended the voice that had preached across the empire, but it could not silence the doctrine he had delivered to the Church.

“He that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved.” Near the end Paul wrote: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” That is the final fulfilment of today’s Gospel. He did not merely begin with fervour. He persevered.

He had been sent among wolves, and he persevered. He had been delivered before councils, and he persevered. He had spoken before governors and kings, and he persevered. He had been scourged, stoned, imprisoned, shipwrecked and betrayed, and he persevered. He had carried the burden of the churches and endured the ingratitude of those he loved, and he persevered. At last, upon the Ostian Way, he bowed his head beneath the sword and completed his course.

The source of that perseverance is given in the Introit: “I know Whom I have believed.” Paul did not persevere because he believed in Paul. He persevered because he knew Christ. He knew the fidelity of the One who had sent him, sustained him and promised to keep that which had been committed unto Him against the last day.

At this altar, the same Christ comes among us. Here the sheep sent among wolves is fed with the Flesh of the Lamb. Here the missionary receives the strength by which tribunals become pulpits, prisons become sanctuaries, chains become testimony, and wounds become instruments of grace.

We may not be called to cross the Mediterranean or stand before Caesar, but the law of apostolic life has not changed. Parents are sent into the spiritual battle for the souls of their children. Priests are sent to declare all the counsel of God. Christians are sent into workplaces, schools and public life where the name of Christ may be mocked or rejected. Every one of us will discover that fidelity has a cost.

The question is whether we know Him whom we have believed. For the man who knows Christ will not make peace with error merely to avoid conflict. He will not alter the Faith to please the spirit of the age. He will not abandon the mission because wolves appear upon the road. He knows that the Lord who sends also sustains, and that the Lord who permits the battle has prepared the crown.

Through the intercession of St Paul, may the grace of God in us not be void. May every trial become an occasion of witness, every opposition an invitation to courage, and every suffering a means by which Christ is proclaimed. May we keep the Faith, complete the work entrusted to us, and persevere to the end.

Then, when our own course is finished, may we say with the Apostle: “I know Whom I have believed, and I am certain that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.”

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

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