Year of St. Paul renews emphasis on conversion, mission

Bishop William P. Callahan, OFM. Conv

Sunday June 29th marked the Solemnity of Ss. Peter and Paul. This year the solemnity inaugurated a special Year of St. Paul. The pope plans to designate special times for prayer and provide particular opportunities for study and examination of elements and mysteries of the faith. This provides favorable conditions in the worldwide church that help us make deeper spiritual and more practical connections to the immense history and dynamic heritage of our faith. 

For example, Pope John Paul called for a Year of the Rosary and the inauguration of the Luminous Mysteries. Pope Benedict called for a Year of the Eucharist that corresponded to the conclusion of the Eucharistic Synod and the publishing of his apostolic exhortation “Sacramentum Caritatis.”

The Year of St. Paul centers on a General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. The Synod of Bishops, meeting every four years, is a permanent institution established by Pope Paul VI in 1965 as a way to maintain the collegiality among bishops that was reached at the Second Vatican Council. This 12th synod will be held this October in the Vatican.

The theme of the synod is: "The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church." The theme was favored by the bishops at the conclusion of the last synod, which was dedicated to the study of the Eucharist. The underlying purpose and the primary goal is to set forth the intrinsic connection between the Eucharist and the Word of God. The synod’s work will be divided into three areas: 1.) Revelation, the Word of God and the Church; 2.) The Word of God in the Life of the Church; and 3.) The Word of God in the Mission of the Church.

How does this designation by the pope and a synod at the Vatican affect our daily lives throughout the church — or in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee? This is a good question and it is certainly at the heart of the pope’s rationale for the Year of St. Paul. When one thinks of St. Paul, no doubt, two particular points come to mind: conversion and mission.

So many times we forget to remember how “like us” the saints really were. We sometimes think that they started off as saints — or they had some secret power that lifted them out of the ordinary trials and tribulations that we face every day.
Not so. They had to work at their faith. They had to focus themselves in the midst of genuine difficulties and hardships — often involving physical pain, torture and privation, and even death — to believe in Jesus Christ.

St. Paul is one of those saints whom we encounter almost every time we come to Mass or read the Scriptures privately. That makes him a very familiar personality in our religious experience. Because of his centrality to our direct experience of the Word of God, his life and his experience of Jesus Christ are at the core of our prayer, study, and celebration of our faith for the coming year.

In a special way, Pope Benedict has stated that the Pauline year will be ecumenical, reflecting the saint’s commitment to the unity and harmony among all Christians. Furthermore, the pope indicated that the Pauline year will feature numerous special liturgies and events in Rome, but should also be celebrated in local churches and in the sanctuaries, religious orders and other institutions that have a special link to St. Paul.

The year will include symposiums and special publications devoted to the writings of St. Paul. The saint’s letters are a primary source of information about the life of the early church and have strongly influenced church thinking through the centuries.

In his homily for the solemnity last year at the Basilica of St. Paul in Rome, the pope noted several points about the saint we might do well to consider for ourselves in our own preparation for the year’s festivities and for our own personal reflection. Pope Benedict noted that Paul was far from being a good speaker. On the contrary, “he shared with Moses and Jeremiah a lack of oratory skill” (II Cor.10:10). “The extraordinary apostolic results that he was able to achieve cannot, therefore, be attributed to brilliant rhetoric or refined apologetic and missionary strategies. The success of his apostolate depended above all on his personal involvement in proclaiming the Gospel with total dedication to Christ; a dedication that feared neither risk, difficulty nor persecution.”

The pope also noted something that I find particularly interesting and worthy of further thought and prayer. From the faith and life of St. Paul every Christian may draw a particularly important lesson. “The Church’s action is credible and effective only to the extent to which those who belong to Her are prepared to pay in person for their fidelity to Christ in every circumstance. When this readiness is lacking, the crucial argument of truth on which the Church Herself depends is also absent.”

This stirs up great sentiment in me for the life of courage and grace that marks the Christian of today. Conversion and mission. Unless we, like St. Paul, are truly converted—our eyes clearly turned toward Christ—without looking back—we run the risk of being loosely connected to him, or, tragically, not connected at all. With less than whole-hearted connection to Christ, we cannot see with his vision; we lose sight of the Father. We struggle with false visions of false gods who lead us on missions that are less than life giving.

The Holy Father concludes: “Dear brothers and sisters, as in early times, today too, Christ needs apostles ready to sacrifice themselves. He needs witnesses and martyrs like St. Paul. He lived and worked for Christ, for Him he suffered and died. How timely his example is today!”