ST. PAUL AND THE EARTHLY FIGURE OF CHRIST

VATICAN CITY, 8 OCT 2008 (VIS) - In this Wednesday's general audience Benedict XVI continued his catechesis on St. Paul. His teaching touched on the Apostle to the Gentiles' relationship with the historical figure of Jesus. The audience was given in St. Peter's Square with over 25,000 people in attendance.

Benedict XVI affirmed that "it seems certain that Paul did not meet Jesus during His earthly life. Through the Apostles and the nascent Church he learned the details of Jesus' life and in his letters we find references to the pre-Easter Jesus". For example, "in an explicit and direct manner", the Apostle speaks of "Jesus' Davidic lineage", of the "existence of his 'brothers'", and knows what occurred at the Last Supper.

The Pauline letters also make reference to the tradition recounted in the synoptic Gospels as "Jesus' teaching regarding the meek and poor. ... When Paul speaks of Jesus' obedience unto death(. he knows of the Passion . of the Cross and the tradition about this Cross is already at the centre of the Pauline 'kerygma'. Paul also knows another pillar of Jesus' teaching, the Sermon on the Mount", as is evident from the Letter to the Romans.

We also note the traces of Jesus' words in the form in which Paul transposes "the pre-Easter tradition to the situation after Easter", as in the "theme of the Kingdom of God ... that announced the mystery of Jesus and was transformed in Christology. Jesus' own instructions for entering the Kingdom of God are valid for Paul in regard to the justification by faith. Both require an attitude of humility and an openness ... in order to receive God's grace".

"Another form of transformation that is faithful to Jesus' core teaching is found in His titles. Before Easter, Jesus calls himself the 'Son of Man' ... and after Easter ... the 'Son of God'. This is why the title preferred by Paul for Jesus is 'Lord', which indicates His divinity". Paul also touches upon Christ's "salvific dimension" when he speaks of "the death of Jesus as ransom, as redemption, liberation, and reconciliation".

"In conclusion, St. Paul does not think of Jesus as a historian would; he does not see Jesus as a figure of the past. He certainly knows the tradition ... regarding His life but does not treat Him as something in the past but as the reality of the living Jesus. ... Jesus lives and speaks with us today. This is the true form of knowing Jesus and the tradition about Him".

THE MEETING WITH THE RISEN CHRIST CHANGED PAUL'S LIFE

VATICAN CITY, 3 SEP 2008 (VIS) - This morning Benedict XVI travelled from Castelgandolfo to the Vatican for his weekly general audience, which was held in the Paul VI Hall. Continuing the series of catechesis on St. Paul, he today focused on the conversion of the Apostle of the Gentiles.

The Holy Father recalled how "the decisive moment of Paul's life came on the road to Damascus in the early 30s of the first century, following a period in which he persecuted the Church".

In order to understand what happened to the Apostle as he travelled to Damascus "we have two sources" the Pope explained. "The first and most popular are the accounts written by Luke, who narrates the event three times in the Acts of the Apostles". The details the Evangelist chooses to highlight - the light from the sky, Paul's fall to the earth, his blindness - "relate to the core of what happened", said the Holy Father, "the Risen Christ appears as a splendid light that speaks to Saul, transforming his mind and his life. ... This meeting with Christ, which is the focus of St. Luke's account, profoundly changed Paul's life, and in this sense we can and must speak of a true conversion".

Benedict XVI then went on to explain that "the second source are the Letters of St. Paul himself". The Apostle "never spoke of the particulars of the event, perhaps because he believed that everyone knew its essential details: everyone knew that from being a persecutor he had been transformed into a fervent apostle of Christ, the result not of his own reflections but of a tremendous event, a meeting with the Risen One".

In certain of his writings the Apostle of the Gentiles "highlights how the apparition of the Risen Christ - of which he himself was a true witness - is the foundation of his apostolate, ... the foundation of his new life", said the Pope.

Yet, Pope Benedict went on, "St. Paul did not consider the event as a conversion. And the reason", he explained, "is very clear: this transformation of his life was not the result of a psychological process, of an intellectual or moral evolution, ... but the fruit of his meeting with Christ Jesus. ... St. Paul's renewal cannot be explained in any other way. Psychological analyses cannot clarify and resolve the problem; only an event, the forceful encounter with Christ, is the key to understanding what happened".

For us, the Holy Father concluded, Christianity "is not a new philosophy or a new form of morality. We are only Christians if we encounter Christ, even if He does not reveal Himself to us as clearly and irresistibly as he did to Paul in making him the Apostle of the Gentiles. We can also encounter Christ in reading Holy Scripture, in prayer, and in the liturgical life of the Church - touch Christ's heart and feel that Christ touches ours. And it is only in this personal relationship with Christ, in this meeting with the Risen One, that we are truly Christian".
AG/ST. PAUL/...VIS 080903 (530)

ST. PAUL: DEDICATION TO CHRIST, OPENNESS TO HUMANITY

VATICAN CITY, 2 JUL 2008 (VIS) - At this morning's general audience, Benedict XVI began a new cycle of catecheses, turning his attention to St. Paul the Apostle to whom the current Pauline Year is dedicated. The Year began on 28 June 2008 and is due to conclude on 29 June 2009. The audience, celebrated in the Paul VI Hall, was attended by 8,000 people.

Paul, said the Pope, is "an example of complete dedication to the Lord and to His Church, as well as of great openness to humanity and its cultures". In order "to understand what he has to say to we Christians of today, ... let us pause to consider the environment in which he lived and worked ... which in many ways ... is not so very different" from our own.

The Apostle of the Gentiles "came from a specific and definable culture, clearly a minority culture, that of the people of Israel and their tradition". They were "plainly distinguished from the surrounding environment, and this could have two results: either derision, which could lead to intolerance, or admiration", said the Holy Father. He also identified two factors that helped Paul in his efforts: firstly, the spread of "Hellenistic culture which, after Alexander the Great, had become a shared heritage of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East"; secondly, "the political and administrative structure of the Roman empire" which "represented a shared and unifying fabric".

"The universalistic outlook typical of St. Paul's personality", Pope Benedict commented, "certainly owes its original impulse to faith in Jesus Christ. ... Nonetheless, the historical and cultural situation of his time and his environment also cannot but have influenced his decisions and his actions".

The Pope recalled how Paul has also been called "'the man of three cultures', bearing in mind his Jewish origins, his Greek language and his privilege of being 'civis romanus', as also evinced by his name of Latin origin. Another factor to bear in mid is the Stoic philosophy which was dominant in Paul's day" and which contains "exalted values of humanity and wisdom that were naturally taken up by Christianity. ... St. Paul's time was also marked by a crisis in traditional religion, at least in its mythological and civic aspects".

At the end of this "first rapid excursion into the cultural environment of the first century of the Christian era", Benedict XVI affirmed: "It is not possible to understand St. Paul adequately without seeing him against the background - both Judaic and pagan - of his time. In this way his figure acquires a historical ... profundity that reveals how he both shared in his environment and brought original elements to it.

"This also holds true for Christianity in general", the Holy Father added in conclusion, "of which the Apostle Paul is an important model from whom we still have much to learn. And this is the objective of the Pauline Year: to learn from St. Paul, to learn the faith, to learn Christ".