When I first heard that the Holy Father had declared this "The Year of Saint Paul", honestly, I said to myself, “So?”  Since then, it’s dawned on me, over the last several months, why it’s important to do this, to declare years for special causes.  There was the Year of the Trinity, the Year of the Father, the Year of the Spirit.  If we use these opportunities to delve into the life of the person that we are focusing on, we can grow in our faith greatly.   Now I realize what a great blessing it is to have this Year of Saint Paul.

If we could get to know Paul better, we would know Christ better.  One of the best professors I ever had in my life was in college.  His name was Patrick Connelly and he was a history teacher.  When he taught history, he always taught a lot of details about the various historical figures and their  lives; Washington or Jefferson or whatever.  He taught us of their idiosyncrasies, what they ate, their marriage, what they liked to read or enjoy in their pastimes, etc.  I realize what Professor Connelly was able to do was that he’d get the hook in you because you’d be interested in the man, or the woman, and then you suddenly become more interested in what they’ve done, whatever their art form might be, writing, etc. We see this same approach used by David McCullough. Many of you have read some of his works, a great work on Washington entitled  1776, also John Adams, and several other books.  McCullough is an excellent writer and if you watch what he does, he gets the hook in you by making you interested in the person.  I was thinking, if we could do that, if I could accomplish just a little bit of that tonight, then perhaps this would be a night that would be very well spent, if we could just get interested in Paul, because we know a lot about Paul.  As a matter of fact, we know more about Paul than we do many major figures in the scriptures because he wrote so much, and he was talked about so much.  He’s called the Great Apostle to the Gentiles, and that’s us.  Most of us come from non-Jewish roots, and so, he’s our apostle.  He brought the Gospel to us.  He brought the faith to us.  That’s a special reason why we love Paul.  I love Paul, and I am looking forward to meeting him.  No big rush, but when I do meet him, I’ll know what he looks like, and I’ll tell you about that in a minute.

He teaches us so much about Christ.  He wrote 13 books of the Bible.  Thirteen epistles, or letters, that we call Books of the New Testament.  He wrote nine letters to the churches that he founded:  Romans, I & II Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and two letters to the Thessalonians.  He wrote four letters to individuals.  They are very short.  He wrote two letters to his good friend Timothy, a letter to Titus, and a letter to Philemon.  I love to read those letters.  As a matter of fact, in Monday’s Mass, we have one of his letters to Timothy.  They are personal letters.  They were never intended to be shown to the whole world, and yet, we can see and learn something about Paul from them.  When you read someone else’s mail, you learn a lot about them.

He teaches us by not only what he wrote but also how he lived.  Now, Paul was not good looking at all.  This is a second century description of Paul that is most probably very accurate.  “A man small in size, bald headed, bandy legged” (that means bow legged), “well built, with eyebrows meeting, and a big nose”.  Paul looked like Groucho Marks.  If you don’t know who Groucho Marks is, please put your hand up.  You children are deprived of true culture.  Groucho Marks was a comedian:  “Say the secret word and receive $50,” and a duck would come down.  Do you remember that?  So, Paul looked like Groucho Marks.  Just leave that in your mind for a moment.  This same account went on to say though, that he was “full of grace, for sometimes he seemed like a man, and sometimes he had the countenance of an angel”. 

Now, we know a lot about Paul from his writings, as well.  First, read his stuff.  This is one brilliant man.  Even a non-believer, if a non-believer was to read the theology of Paul, they would be amazed, and say, “My goodness, this man is brilliant!”  He also had a very quick and fiery temper.  I wouldn’t want to be on his wrong side.  In fact, he could be fierce and he did not suffer fools gladly.  Nor did he suffer heretics at all. 

He was born about the same time Jesus was.  Maybe a year or two after, we don’t know.  As we heard in the scriptures, he was born in Tarsus.  Tarsus was a city in a Roman provincial capital that was under Hellenistic culture, or Greek culture.  It was a place of culture and learning.  Paul was a Roman citizen.  His name, of course, was not Paul, it was Saul.  Jesus changed his name to Paul when he changed his mission.  The word Saul is Hebrew, and it means “asked for of God.”  So maybe his parents prayed for a son, and were given Paul, and named him “asked for of God”.  He was from the tribe of Benjamin, the least of the twelve tribes in terms of size.  The tribe of Benjamin was also the tribe that King Saul, his namesake, came from.

As we heard in the scriptures, he was taught by the most famous Rabbi of the day, Gamaliel.  He was considered the greatest master, the greatest Rabbi, of the day.  Paul was recognized in the Jewish community as being brilliant.  He probably spoke Aramaic at home, an Aramaic dialect, the same that Jesus spoke.  He also knew Greek, of course and he began to learn Hebrew when he studied the Hebrew scriptures of the Old Testament, probably about the age of 5.  He was a tent maker, by profession and he was a very strict Pharisee. Pharisees were the keepers of the law, every jot and tittle.  The Pharisees were a very serious bunch that did not tolerate any divergence from the law whatsoever.  He persecuted Christians, as we know.  In fact, when Stephen, the first martyr, was stoned, Paul (or Saul at the time) stood there and approved of his martyrdom.

In today’s account, from the Acts of the Apostles, Paul is on the way to Damascus to persecute the Church.  Then, we hear the story, where this light strikes him, and he hears the voice, “Why are you persecuting me?”  Interestingly, he says, “Who are you, sir?”  “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting.”  Paul, or Saul, was persecuting the Church, which means he was persecuting Jesus Christ Himself.  By the way, there is no reference to a horse being there and yet most of the art that we see depicting this scene, has him being knocked off his horse.  As the story was told tonight, he then went into Damascus, was baptized and converted immediately.  He began to be an evangelist.  He went to the synagogues and told them that they have a Messiah, and His name is Jesus and the Jews in Damascus try to kill him.  Paul had to escape from Damascus.  He did that by his Christian friends.  They got a basket and put him in it, tied the basked with ropes, and lowered him down the city wall of Damascus.  He escaped.  Later, he was to escape from Jerusalem.  After he escaped from Damascus, he went to Jerusalem, and there he met Barnabus and Peter.

After that, there’s a period of about 10 years that we’re not sure where he was.  He tells us he was in Arabia for some time.  Some writers think he went back to Tarsus.  By the way, Tarsus is in the eastern part of what is today Turkey, just north of the Mediterranean Sea.  Ten years later, in about the year 46, he returned to Jerusalem, and conferred there with Peter.  Notice, twice he goes to Jerusalem to see Peter, the Pope, the first Bishop of Rome.  Peter is still at this time in Jerusalem and Paul sought Peter’s approval, and Peter did bless him.  He said, “You know enough.  Go and spread the Gospel.  Just be good to the poor.”  That was the only guidance Saint Peter gave to Saint Paul.  Actually, they had a few disagreements that Paul won.  Peter realized that he was wrong on a few things that were important.

Saint Paul had three major missionary journeys, the first one, from 46 A.D. to 49 A.D, with Barnabus and John Mark.  He went up through Lebanon.  It was the shortest of the three journeys.  The second journey, from 54 A.D. to 58 A.D., he went with Silas through Lebanon, all through Turkey, if you can imagine that on a map--north of the Mediterranean, and all through Greece.  He founded churches all along these routes and that’s where the letters come from; Thessalonians in Thessalonica, Corinthians, Colossians, Galatians, etc.  He founded churches, and oftentimes would write them letters saying “Behave yourself!  You are not doing what I told you,”  and would reprimand them, or affirm them, or encourage them, or whatever.  The third missionary journey was very similar to the second.  He began through Lebanon, up past Antioch, Turkey, finding churches along the way.

He then returned to Jerusalem, but was seized by the Jews there, and was given protective custody by the Roman governor.  The Roman governor said, “You need a hearing, and you are a Roman citizen,”  and the  governor, in Jerusalem, sent Paul to Rome for the hearing.  An extraordinary thing, if you think about it.  He sent him with a large military escort or entourage, or guard and it took forever to get to Rome.  They went through Lebanon, Turkey, and the Isle of Crete.  They were shipwrecked off Malta.  Then finally to the boot, which is today Italy, and up to Rome.

He had a hearing there, and we are not sure all what happened.  It might have been that he was released.  He returned to his missionary work.  Nero persecuted the Christians and Paul was killed by Nero in the year 67 A.D. or 68 A.D.  Paul was a Roman citizen and because of that, he was spared the agony of crucifixion, and was decapitated.  Lucky Paul.

That’s his story.  A fantastic character.  He teaches us many things and I just want to highlight four lessons that he teaches, not only by what he said but more by how he lived.  We need to learn these lessons and do as Paul did.

First, he never gave up.  So often, we run into obstacles, with our faith or with our lives or with our families, and we want to throw in the towel.  Paul just kept his nose down and he ran the race until the race was finished.  He had stick-to-it-iveness.  He was single minded in his goal of achieving heaven, and we need to also.  It wasn’t easy for him.  “Five times I received 40 lashes minus 1.  Three times I was beaten with rods.  Once I was stoned.  Three times I was shipwrecked.  I spent a night and a day in the open sea.  I have been constantly on the move.  I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea, and in danger from false brothers.  I have labored and toiled, and I have often gone without sleep.  I have known hunger and thirst, and I have often gone without food.  I have been cold and naked.”  II Corinthians Chapter 11.  The next time you are complaining about how hard your faith is, check out that passage, and I think you’ll feel stronger.  So, don’t give up.

Secondly, he taught us not to judge our own success.  I think this is very important.  Many people judge their own spirituality.  Paul never did that.  He said, “I’ll let God worry about that.  I’m not going to judge myself.  I’m just going to attend to what’s in front of me today.  I’m going to do my work, and let God be the judge, the Just Judge, the Judge of Mercy.”  Also, don’t judge your children’s lives, or your grandchildren’s.  Even if they’re clearly going wrong at the moment, don’t give up on them.  Trust in Christ’s love and mercy for them as well.  When I mention not to judge your own success, Paul, before he died, looked back.  In Rome, he wrote this, as he looked back on his own missionary work, that the Thessalonians have become negligent, the Corinthians are vain and sensual, the Galatians were unstable in the faith, the Ephesians and Colossians let themselves become contaminated by heresy, and in Rome, his disciples and friends had abandoned him.  I guess he looked back, as if he was an old priest, at his last 6 parishes and saw catastrophe.

Paul, by the way, wasn’t appreciated in his day.  He wasn’t appreciated, really, until the 4th century.  His theology and his writings were so deep that it took centuries for the church to begin to see the treasure they had in Paul.  Of course, the cannon of scripture wasn’t determined until about that time as well.

Thirdly, he sees suffering not as a curse, not as a rejection, but as a proof that he’s following Christ because Christ suffered.  If Paul ever had a really good day, he probably accused himself of not being loyal to Christ.  Now, we are the exact opposite.  “Father, why does this happen to me?  Why am I rejected?  Why is this?  Why am I suffering?”  As if we still have the old Jewish notion that if God’s pleased with you, you are rich and healthy.  If you’re not, you’ve done something wrong.  Paul knew that was nonsense and he understood suffering and rejection as part and parcel of following Jesus Christ.  If he knew that his Lord and God suffered, so must we.

The fourth point is that Paul always knew God’s love for him was a sure thing, that that was never a doubt.  Paul only concerned himself with reciprocating that love by loving others.  He taught us to rejoice in the Lord always, regardless of whatever circumstances we find ourselves in. 

Paul really taught us the meaning of Christian life.  Without him, our understanding of Jesus Christ wouldn’t be a third of what it is.  We have such depth that we owe to the great Saint Paul.  He taught us to love, to live for God, and serve others.  Not to judge ourselves or others but to trust in God’s mercy and love.

This is the Year of Saint Paul.  I encourage all of you to read his letters.  Get a good Catholic annotated Bible.  There are also a lot of good works that have been done on Paul.  I looked at the book I had on Saint Paul from Seminary.  The first chapter started off, “He really wasn’t born in Tarsus.  He never went to Damascus.”  I went to Seminary in a time of lunacy!  The sixties were still alive in the eighties.  So, get something that’s solid.  If you want to know good sources for that, check our parish website.  There’s some good links to organizations that publish excellent material.

Read Paul’s letters.  Study his theology.  Make a pilgrimage.  You probably can’t go to any of these places of his missionary journeys, but you can go to Santa Fe.  The Archbishop has designated the Cathedral Basilica as a place of pilgrimage in this Year of Saint Paul.  On the Archdiocesan website, which you can get through our parish website, there is a link there to how to go about getting an indulgence on this Year of Saint Paul, an indulgence you can apply to yourself or to someone that you love.

Saint Paul.  I’m looking forward to meeting him.  I’ll know him when I see him, because he’ll look like Groucho Marks.

Let us pray.