| YEAR OF SAINT PAUL
By Jane Barz
Eleventh in a series of Reflections on the Life of Saint Paul For the Jubilee Year of St. Paul June 28, 2008-June 29, 2009 |
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St. Paul's Teachings and Literature on Christian Unity Are Still True Today
By: Jane Barz
Today we are faced with a secularized world and a divided Christianity. If you look at the world of St. Paul you will see a similarity between the multicultural, secularized societies of today and the complex, pagan world of St. Paul. Paul faced enormous challenges but always proclaimed the Gospel – the good news of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ (see 1 Cor1:23). He proclaimed this good news in all situations, some of them complex and difficult, and he remained unafraid. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13).
St. Paul taught and worked to bring Christians from Jewish, Greek and Roman cultures together “in a basic unity of faith” (see Ephesians & Philippians). He warned against the contradiction of saying on the one hand that we are in Christ and at the same time exhibiting behaviors that go against the Gospel. He was not as concerned with his popularity and being politically correct as he was with helping people see the necessity to really understand what it means to be transformed by the Holy Spirit into a new life and not be conformed to the world (see Rom 12:2).
The problems preventing Christian unity today are similar to the problems Paul faced. In his writings to the Galatians we see that they were being influenced by newcomers to Galatia who were proposing ‘another gospel’ which Paul saw as a ‘different gospel than that of Jesus Christ.’ From the beginning of church history people have been influenced by popular ideas with ‘new’ thoughts and ideas and with the cultures in which we live. Today we live in a world that says that the most important thing to consider is ourselves. The important things in life are all ‘about us’ and how our lives can seem to be made easier by getting whatever we want with no consequences. We get caught up in these ideas because they sound good and are perhaps easier to live with. We attempt to apply them to the Gospel and to the Church making our own ‘Gospel,’ one that fits our agenda. We pick and choose which scripture we follow forgetting that in order to have a clear understanding of the teachings of Christ and to live as his followers we must accept the whole.
As we are called to speak truth in a world that does not want to be reminded of that truth, we can learn much from reading and studying St. Paul’s writings. Paul continued to proclaim and teach the truth of Jesus Christ while in prison and right to his death. Truth echoes and the truth written down by St. Paul continues to echo down through the ages to us.
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