Spiritual Itinerary Aspects of St. Paul by Fr. Giovanni M. Rizzi, CRSP

7/29/2019 Spiritual Itinerary Aspects of St. Paul by Fr. Giovanni M. Rizzi, CRSP

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Spiritual Itinerary Aspects of St. Paul

Fr. Giovanni M. Rizzi, CRSP

Rome 2009

Barnabite Publications


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CONTENTS

- Spiritual Itinerary Aspects of Paul

- The Specific Pauline Charism to Evangelize

- The Historical Calling Circumstantial to the Management of the Community

- The Willingness to Abandon whatever one's Project

- The Configuration to Christ

- The Configuration to Christ in the Pauline letters

- The configuration to Christ in the Acts

- Synthesis Proposal for Present Pauline spirituality


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Spiritual Itinerary Aspects of St. Paul 1

Spiritual Itinerary Aspects of Paul

It has been remembered in these months that the Barnabites are in time the first order in the

history of the church with Pauline spirituality, exactly during the warm epoch of the constitutionof the process of Reformed Churches. Naturally, the Pauline spirituality is a patrimony and at the

same time task of the whole Zaccaria family, "the sons of saint Paul", including the Angelic

Sisters of St. Paul, Barnabites and Laity of Saint Paul, so as Antonio Maria Zaccaria have

imagined and wanted. I therefore intend to focus my attention on the theme on a possible Pauline

spirituality, even reachable through modern critical readings about the letters attributed to Paul

and of the Acts of the Apostles. It deals about a dynamic spirituality, animated by essential gifts

of the Lord, but always very attentive to be guided by concrete indications in the course of life's

voyage.

It seems to me that there are four essential aspects of the spiritual itinerary of Paul that can offer

us even today elements for Pauline spirituality: a specific charism; the obedience to

circumstantial responsibilities: the availability to abandon any self projects; the configuration to

Christ.

Here gushes out a spirituality which is not much outstretched to formulate, than looking forward

to conform with all force to the divine design, which remained all the more hidden to the

concerned, though much probably so concrete in reality. It deals about spirituality, that Paul lives

intimately as ultimate discernment in relation to his proper vocation and to his life's concrete

events.

The specific Pauline Charism to Evangelize

Paul for sure, in the year 54 A.D. had already arrived at the definite knowledge that the Lord sent

him to evangelize and not to do other roles, though necessary in the Christian community:

"Christ did not send me to baptize. He sent me to tell the Good News, and to tell it without using

the language of human wisdom, in order to make sure that Christ's death on the cross is not

robbed of its power" (1 Cor 1:17). This distinction between "to baptize" (baptizein) and "to

preach the gospel" (euaggelizesthai) surprises, above all because it doesn't have any comparison

in our patterns of first missionary evangelization, which we also project in ancient epoch. Yet in

the same context in the 1st letter to the Corinthians, Paul cares to precise that he baptized only

few number of people: "I thank god that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius.

No one can say, then, that you were baptized as my disciples. I also baptized Strephanas and his

family; but I can't remember whether I baptized anyone else" (l Cor 1:14-16).


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The distinction between the two functions of the ministry takes a risk of being even completely

underestimated compared to the readings of the Acts of the Apostles, which on the contrary tends

programmatically to connect in a strict sense evangelization and baptism, since hierosolimitans

origin of their "sacred history": "Peter said to them, 'Each one of you must turn away from his

sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, so that your sins will be forgiven; and you will

receive God's gift, the Holy Spirit. For God's promise was made to you and your children, and to

all who are far away - all whom the Lord our God calls to himself. Peter made his appeal to them

and with many other words he urged them saying, 'Save yourselves from the punishment coming

from this wicked people!' Many of them believed his message and were baptized, and about

three thousand people were added to the group that day. They spent their time in learning from

the apostles, taking part in the fellowship, and sharing in the fellowship meals and the prayers"

(Acts 2:38-42). It is obvious in this programmatic summary of the Acts the intent to definitely

schematize the events distinguishing the birth of a Christian community, starting from the mother

church of Jerusalem: Peter's message, or however apostolic, baptism, listening to the successiveapostolic catechesis, the fraternal communion, the breaking of the bread and the community

prayer.

On the other part, the Acts proceed their fundamental structuring theme to demonstrate how the

Holy Spirit may have sustained the apostles in giving witness to the Word till the extreme ends

of earth: "But when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be filled with power, and you will

be witnesses for me in Jerusalem in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts

1 :8). For this reason they accept and stylize reports on Pauline evangelization of Cyprus and of

central part of southern Turkey, the so-called first missionary voyage of Paul (Acts 13:1-14,27).

In the sphere of which it never says about "to baptize." Most likely, in the years of Paul's events

the two functions of ministry were not necessary connected, at least they were not necessarily

done by the same person.

Writing a letter to the Christians of Rome, around 58 A.D. could trace a concise statement of his

experience as evangelizer in area between Balkan cost and Turkey, highlighting his inclination to

operate where nobody had first evangelized: "I can be proud of my service for God. I will be

bold and speak only about what Christ has done through me to lead the gentiles to obey God. He

has done this by means of words and deeds, by the power of miracles and wonders, and by the

power of the spirit of God. And so, in traveling all the way from Jerusalem to Illyricum. I have

proclaimed fully the Good news about Christ. My ambition has always been to proclaim the

Good News in places where Christ has not been heard of, so as not to build on a foundation laid

by someone else. As the scripture says.' Those who were not told about him will see, and those

who have not heard will understand' (Is. 52:15)" (Rm 15:17b-21).

The same letter to the Romans has to be the preliminary remarks for a new phase of his charism

as evangelizer, once retained closed by him the previous phase: "And so I have been prevented


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many times from coming to you. But now that I have finished my work in these regions and

since I have been wanting for so many to come to see you, I hope do so now. I would like to see

you on my way to Spain, and be helped by you to go there, after I have enjoyed visiting you for a

while" (Rm 15: 22-24). It seems that the project of Paul did not historically come true, by the

fact that his event concluded with martyrdom in Rome, according to the tradition in 67 A.D. in

the context of the so-called second roman imprisonment, in the sphere of which the passage of 2

Tim 4: 6-8 is traditionally contextualized. In fact, most likely it seems that Paul may have been

already martyred after his arrival in Rome around 61 A.D. On the other pat1, in the indications to

pastoral activities, traditionally believed after his arrival in Rome, there is no mentioning of

Spain, or of his activities supposed to be done in that area between 61 and 67A.D., but there are

only references of Rome and the actual Greek-Turkish area, well noted previously (1Tim 1:3.15-

17; 1Tit 1:5;3,12,13; 2Tim 4:9-16, 20-21).

The historical calling circumstantial to the management of the community

In the concrete event of Paul, his specific vocation and charism as evangelizer presuppose

another priority: obedience to the circumstantial responsibilities innate in the same ministry of

evangelization. In fact, while writing the letter to the Corinthians, around M A.D. told them of

being sent above all to evangelize (1Cor 1:17), in the sense of the above mentioned, shows

actually to engage in different responsibilities, which is the management of the second

evangelization of the community like that of Corinth, lately evangelized for the first time around

51 A.D. It is a matter of ministry of the management of communities that are already established,

and which is no longer a ministry of first evangelization, where nobody has arrived yet (Rm

15:20-21). It is a rule that obliges Paul to write his letters, to engage time and energy in a work

which is no longer in the front line and for which it is neither autonomous nor self-sufficient;

Titus, for example, was able to unblock the difficult situation appeared between Paul and the

community: "But God, who encourages the downhearted, encouraged us with the coming of

Titus. Not only where we encouraged; how happy Titus made us with his happiness over the way

in which all of you helped to cheer him up! I did boast of you to him, and you have not

disappointed me. We have always spoken the truth to you, and in the same way the boast we

made to Titus has proved true. And so his love for you grows stronger, as he remembers how all

of you were ready to obey his instructions, how you welcomed him with fear and trembling.

How happy I am that I can depend on you completely!" (2Cor 7:6,13b-16).

It might be noted that, the most important testimony shown to us by Paul, till the rise of absolute

value to express the same divine revelation, the Word of God, doesn't quiet grow from the

project of Paul, but through his obedience to the circumstantial responsibilities of his ministry,

exactly where these responsibilities could remarkably reduce his practice of his fundamental

charism in synonym with his vocation as evangelizer.


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Paul warns unequivocally that, from his same apostolic ministry as evangelizer, streams forth an

unexpected turning point rather challenging with respect to his initial vocation, and obeys to it

faithfully: "And not to mention other things, every day I am under the pressure of my concern or

all the churches. When someone is weak, then I feel weak too; when someone is led into sin, I

am filled with distress" (2Cor 11:28-29). It in fact deals about responsibility, that has to be

exercised through moral-juridical norm, which the Christian community of his time had foreseen

before: "And even though I am far away from you in body, still I am there with you in spirit; and

as though I were there with you, I have in the name of our Lord Jesus already passed judgment

on the man who has done this terrible thing. As you meet together, and I meet with you in my

spirit, by the power of our Lord Jesus present with us, you are to hand this man over to Satan for

his body to be destroyed, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord" (1Cor 5:3-5).

The functionality of this turning point could also be foreseen, namely the specific obedience ofPaul, not only for the Christian community of that period or for the future generation, but also in

an order of his formation completion, which Paul himself could not even imagine, and that he

could haven't even chose for his own personal inclination.

In fact, it is when he exercises his obedience in all his necessities for the remarkable ministerial

turning point, Paul finds himself constructing the local Christian community with difficulty. He

has to avoid being interpreted as behaving like a lord: "I call God as my witness, he knows my

heart! It was in order to spare you that I decided not to go to Corinth. We are not trying to dictate

to you what you must believe; we know that you stand firm in the faith. Instead, we are working

with you for your own happiness" (2Cor 1:23-24). He must avoid personal reactions in front of

situations which could provoke them: "When you forgive someone for what he has done, I

forgive him too. For when I forgive, if indeed, I forgive anything, I do it in Christ's presence

because of you in order to keep Satan from getting the upper hand over us; for we know what his

plans are" (2Cor 2:10-11). He must avoid punishing the persons responsible of great scandals so

as to definitely loose them: "Now, if anyone has made somebody sad, he has not done it to me

but to all of you, in part, at least. It is enough that this person has been punished in this way by

most of you. Now, however, you should forgive him, in order to keep him from becoming so sad

as to give up completely" (2Cor 2:5-7). He has to intervene energetically where the stubbornness

of somebody can mislead the others: This is now the third time that I am coming up to visit you.

Any accusation must be upheld by the evidence of two or more witnesses, as the scripture says. I

want to tell those of you who have sinned in the past, and all the others; I said it before during

my second visit to you, but I will say it again now that I am away: the next time I come nobody

will escape punishment. You will have all the proof you want that Christ speaks through me.

When he deals with you, he is not weak; instead, he knows his power among you. For even

though it was in weakness that he was put to death on the cross, it is by God's power that he


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lives. In union with him we also are weak; but in our relations with you we shall share God's

power in his life" (2Cor 13:1-4).

It deals about difficult common sense, expression of evangelizer ministry, also in charge of

already founded community, which in his time was typical to the apostle: "For it seems to me

that God has given the very last place to us apostles, like men condemned to die in public as a

spectacle for the whole world of angels and of mankind" (1Cor 4:9). Such ministry is distinct in

any case from innumerable or from the number of those who were still called and counted among

the Twelve: "I passed on to you what I received, which is of the greatest importance: that Christ

died for our sins, as written in the Scriptures; that he was buried and that he was raised to life

three days later, as written in the Scriptures; that he appeared to Peter and to all Twelve apostles.

Then he appeared to more that five hundred of his followers at once, most of whom are still

alive, although some have died. Then he appeared to James, and afterward to all the apostles.

Last of all he appeared also to me, even though I am like someone whose birth was abnormal.For I am the least of the apostles, I do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I

persecuted God's Church" (1Cor 15: 3-9). In Paul's specific responsibility he can be found

completely involved in the fullness of his human and spiritual maturity, between the 45-60 A.D.,

around ten years after his conversion, when he could overcome by that time his thirtieth age.

This means that, from his sure written letters we are not capable to view some of his internal

evolution in relation to different juvenile positions.

Nevertheless, in spite the fact that Paul was sober when he himself threw a retrospective glance

on his past experience (cfr. 1Cor 15:8-9; Fil 3:4-8a), perhaps the Acts of the Apostles still

manages to view indirectly something about the human and spiritual growth to Christian

maturity of Paul. According to the testimony of the Acts of the Apostles, the juvenile tendency of

Saul would have been very far from common sense, which instead after thirty years of age he

was asked to exercise the apostolic ministry.

He participated as voluntary witness of the assassination of Stephen: "With a loud cry the

Council members covered their ears with their hands. Then they all rushed at him at once, threw

him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses left their cloaks in the care of a young man

named Saul. They kept on stoning Stephen as he called out to the Lord. 'Lord Jesus, receive my

spirit!'He knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, 'Lord! Do not remember this sin against

them. He said this and died" (Acts 7:57-60).

He practiced a resolutely aggressive form of Judaism and so uncompromising towards the minim,

the "heretics'" which is typical to the area of Diaspora: "In the meantime Saul kept up his violent

threats of murder against the followers of the Lord. He went to the High Priest and asked for

letters of introduction to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he should find there any

followers of the Way of the Lord, he would be able to arrest them, both men and women, and


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bring them back to Jerusalem" (Acts 9:1-2; cfr.22:3-4; 26:9-12a). Such behavioral tendency can

be defined as interpretation on the identity of Judaism, properly by the more extremist current,

exactly typical of the Judaic Diaspora and of some Palestinian environment, but not properly

typical of Gamaliel the Old, of which Saul would be defined as disciple (cfr. Acts 22: 3; 23: 6;

26: 5). This Tannaita teacher (i.e. transmitter of the oral tradition) of the first generation of wise

men (between 10 A.D. -70 A.D.), was highly esteemed in the Judaic tradition of his time (cfr. M.

Sota 9,15) and was a nephew of the great rabbi Hillel, one of the most illustrious teachers of all

time of Judaism. On the contrary, his nephew, Gamaliel II, of the tannaitic generation during the

years between 80 A.D. and 120 A.D., would be very drastic to the purpose of the obligation to

read the XIX "benediction", in fact a demand to the Lord to annihilate the minims, including also

the Christians.

An emblematic episode relative to Gamaliel the Old is still transmitted to the Acts: "But one of

them a Pharisee named Gamaliel, who was the teacher of the Law and was highly respected byall the people, stood up in the Council. He ordered the apostles to be to be taken out for a while,

and then he said to the Council 'Fellow Israelites, be careful what you do to these men. You

remember that Theudas appeared sometime ago, claiming to be somebody great, and about four

hundred men joined him. But he was killed, all his followers were scattered, and his movement

died out. After that, Judas the Galilean appeared during the time of the census; he drew a crowd

after him, but he also was killed, and all his followers were scattered. Andso in this case, 1 tell

you, do not take any action against these men. Leave them alone! If what they have planned and

done is of human origin, it will disappear, but if it comes from God, you will cannotpossibly

defeat them. You could find yourselves fighting against God!' The Council followed Gamaliel's

advice. They called the apostles in, had them whipped, and ordered them never again to speak in

the name of Jesus; and then set them free. As the apostles left the Council, they were happy,

because God had considered them worthy to suffer disgrace for the sake of Jesus. And every day

in the temple and in people's homes they continued to teach and preach the Good News about

Jesus the Messiah." (Acts 5: 34-40).

The biblical text here remembers us the providential intervention of the famous tannaita teacher

in the Sanhedrin of Jerusalem, which came to save the Twelve from a possible condemnation to

death, due to formal and relapsing disobedience to a preceding injunction to the same Sanhedrin

in the retained grievous matter (cfr. Acts 5:26ff). The discourse of Gamaliel is evidently

reconstructed with certain freedom in the compilation of the Acts and contains some historical

anachronisms, most of all on the insurrectional messianic movements, comprehensible in a

compiler who may have wanted to keep it updated even to safe guard the Christians of his

generation around similar risks; Moreover, Paul on the contrary to the more traditional sense

given to the formulation of Acts 9:1-2, could have not received from the Sanhedrin juridical

authorization of any kind which might be valid even out of Palestinian area, in as much as, under

the roman Solicitor, the Sanhedrin didn't have the same powers. In the beginning of 30 A.D.,


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there was still Pontius Pilate (from 26 to 36 A.D.); there was a hypothesis that Paul may have

been sent from a hierosolimitan synagogue of the "Hellenistic" Hebrews to Damascus, with an

eventual letter of recommendation of the high priest in charge, to notify the local synagogues

around the danger of the Christian movement, so they made adequate measures.

The narration of Acts 5: 34-40 lets us understand that Gamaliel was firmly convinced that the

Christian movement wasn't dangerous and that would have not caused the eruption of roman

military forces in Palestine; differently, the old Hebrew teacher could have not ventured himself

to expose his co-nationals and coreligionist to a bloody reprisal and repression of the roman

military authority. Joseph Flavius claims that the military irruption of Rome in Palestine was due

to the Hebrew-Palestinian revolutionary movement which ended in the hands of the adventurist

rascals. In as much as the thesis of an ancient Hebrew historian, an apologist that came from a

roman family of the Flavians, may be questionable for the modem critics such as the ancient and

modern Hebrew currents, the rabbinic Judaism also became very critical toward the supporters ofthe updated revolutionary Messianism, deferring for almost two millennium the fulfillment of

such waiting of a not better predicable eschatological future. Gamaliel, the teacher of Paul,

shows that religious intransigence and Fanaticism, designed today as Fundamentalism, are not

structural defects of the religious traditions, but rather expressions of immaturity and however

very personal subjects, even in groups inside the religious traditions. If a conversion from one

religion to the other is authentic, sooner or later, has to reach also these wounds of a personality,

which brings us back even in the change of religion.

The intransigent tendency of the behavior of Paul, may have manifested about 5 years after his

conversion, during the first phase of his ministry as evangelizer, as regards to the opportunity to

still accept John Mark as collaborator in the mission with Barnabas his disagreement with the

latter, in front of the weakness of John Mark, might have caused him to quarrel harshly:

"Sometimes later Paul said to Barnabas 'Let us go back and visit our brothers in every town

where we preached the word of the Lord, and let us find out how they are getting along.'

Barnabas wanted to take John Mark with them, but Paul did not think it was right to take him,

because he had not stayed with them to the end of their mission, but had turned back and left

them in Pamphylia. There was a sharp argument, and they separated: Barnabas took Mark and

sailed off for Cyprus, while Paul chose Silas and left commended by the believers to the care of

the Lord's grace" (Acts 15: 36-40).

His disagreement with Barnabas seems to be completely forgotten, when Paul explains to the

Christians of Corinth the specific pastoral choice, his and of Barnabas, to support each other with

their work, renouncing the customary right as evangelizer to be supported by the community (cfr.

1Cor 9:6).


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In this sense, the appearance of the responsibility not personally chosen, partly contrary to the

charism retained specific, but inherent to the development of the apostolic mission, commit Paul

in an experience, in which fruits are the sign of the human and spiritual personal maturity, in

favor of the community in the pastoral ministry and in favor of the Christian generation in the

draft of the letters, that are enumerated inside the revelation of the New Testament. The priority

is not the realization of how Paul could feel within him as instinctive tendency in Judaism, nor

how he could feel it as specific charism within the context of the Christian experience. Priority is

the obedience to the responsibility posted before the building of the Christian community. Paul is

engaged concretely in modifying the aspect, which he himself noticed as structural of his

personality and of his young religiosity: "and I was so zealous that I persecuted the church. As

far as a person can be righteous by obeying the commands of the Law, I was without fault" (Phil.

3:6). The experience of Christ, lived day to day in the development of his vocation and of his

charism, brings him to face, not without difficulty and suffering, that aggressive and intolerant

attitude, which push him in his youthful age to annihilate those who don't correspond even to hisreligious ideals, to become builder of the community, which could be those who are not yet in

conformity to the gifts of the Lord and that instead they could go far thru this gifts. In this sphere

of Pauline spirituality we don't need to underestimate the unicity and the uniqueness of his

vocation and mission, which doesn't depend from the ecclesial mandate, nor from the authority

of the Twelve superior to him. In fact, the Acts recall also and ecclesial journey of Paul at the

community of Antioch and Syria: "Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul. When he

found him he took him to Antioch, and for a whole year the two met with the people of the

church and taught a large group. It was at Antioch that the believers were first called Christians"

(Acts 11:25-26). But the decision of the mission directly comes from the Holy Spirit, and not

from the ecclesiastical authority constituted to it: In the church at Antioch there were some

prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon (called the black), Lucius (from Cyrene), Manaen (who

had been brought up with governor Herod), and Saul. While they were serving the Lord and

fasting, the Holy Spirit said to them, 'Set apart from Barnabas and Saul, to do the work to which

I have called them'. They fasted and prayed, placed their hands on them, and sent them off

(Acts 13: 1-3). The gesture to impose the hands is not interpretable in this context like a sort of

sacred ordination or of an official permit of a religious authority.

Paul recognized himself is very explicit about the independence of his authoritativeness from

whosoever: Fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along

with me. I went because God revealed to me that I should go. In a private meeting with the

leaders I explained the gospel message that I preached to the Gentiles. I did not my work in the

past or in the present to be a failure. My companion Titus, even though he is Greek, was not

forced to be circumcised, although some wanted it done. Pretending to be fellow believers, these

men slipped into our group as spies, in order to find out about the freedom we have through our

union with Christ Jesus. They wanted to make slaves of us, but in order to keep the truth of the

gospel safe for you, we did not give in them for a minute. But those who seemed to be the


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leaders - I say this because it makes no difference to me what they were; God does not judge by

outward appearances - those leaders, I say, made no new suggestions to me. On the contrary,

they saw that God had given me the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as he had

given Peter the task of preaching the gospel to the Jews. James, Peter, and John, who seemed to

be the leaders, recognized that God had given me this special task; so they shook hands with

Barnabas and me, as a sign that we were all partners. We agreed that Barnabas and I would work

among the Gentiles and they among the Jews. All they ask was that we should remember the

needy in their group, which is the very thing I have been eager to do" (Gal 2:1-10).

Evidently, so as to avoid dangerous misunderstandings in outlining The Pauline spirituality for

our time, we need to have clear idea that these aspects of Paul's spirituality are neither directly

reproducible as such, nor applicable to other persons after the closure of the revelation of the

New Testament. In Paul's case, it will always be necessary to understand better how he had

discovered and realized his way of submission to obedience to the Lord, after his conversion,without structural ecclesiastic mediation, but in a profound independence of communion with the

Twelve, in view of his fidelity to his vocation and to his apostolic ministry.

The history of our Zaccarian family, from its origins, it abundantly illustrated that Pauline

spirituality doesn't coincide on the supine flattering behind formulas and others' programs, even

those of the effective pontifical and ecclesial teachings. The faithfulness to the Lord lived by

John Semeria, for example, shows us that the true service to the Church, even though it is not

recognized as such by all, can anyway be accepted through a respectable or fair manifestation of

the inviolable demands of own conscience before God, even when it is necessary to ask a

specific space with respect to the teachings formulations.

The willingness to abandon whatever one's project

Paul experiences also the necessity to be freed from every form of one's plan, in front of events

which apparently don't seem to have something to do with the Will of the Lord. Persecution and

imprisonment, like in Ephesus around 54 A.D., until they feel the incumbent threat of death,

constitute an experience, which seems to have been mentioned with particular intensity at least

twice in his own letters. Writing a letter to the Christians of Philippi during his imprisonment at

Ephesus, he said: "Because I know that by means of your prayers and the help which comes from

the Spirit of Jesus Christ I shall be set free. My deep desire and hope is that I shall never fail in

my duty, but that at all times, and especially right now, I shall be full of courage, so that with my

whole being I shall bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die. For what is life? To me, it is

Christ. Death, then, will bring more. But if by continuing to live I can do more worthwhile work,

then I am not sure which I should choose. I am pulled in two directions. I want very much to

leave this life and be with Christ, which is a far better thing; but for your sake it is much more

important that I remain alive. I am sure of this, and so I know that I will stay. I will stay on with


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you all, to add to your progress and joy in the faith, so that when I am with you again, you will

have even more reason to be proud of me in your life in union with Christ Jesus" (Phil 1: 19-26).

After awhile, once free, writing to the Christians of Corinth remembers: "We want to remind

you, brothers of the trouble we had in the province of Asia. The burdens laid upon us were so

great and so heavy that we gave up all hope of staying alive. We felt that the death sentence had

been passed on us. But this happened so that we should rely, not on ourselves, but only on God,

who raises the dead. From such terrible dangers of death he saved us, and will save us; and we

have placed our hope in him that he will save us again, as you help us by means of your prayers

for us. So it will be that the many prayers for us will be answered, and God will bless us; and

many will raise their voices to him in thanksgiving for us" (2Cor 1:8-11).

During his imprisonment experience it seemed like Paul had been supported by a special grace:

"For what is life? To me, it is Christ. Death, then, will bring more. But if by continuing to live Ican do more worthwhile work, then I am not sure which I should choose. I am pulled in two

directions. I want very much to leave this life and be with Christ, which is a far better thing"

(Phil 1: 21-23). Similar characteristics can also be found in the letter of Ignatius of Antioch to the

Christians of Rome: "In fact, while I am still alive, writing to you, at this point, I am more

inclined to die. My love was crucified and there's no fire in me that let me desire some material

thing, but there's water in me which is alive and gushing, which tells me interiorly: Come to the

Father" (Ignatius, Letter to the Romans, 7).

After his freedom from the condemnation to death and from prison, remains in Paul a

constructive effect about the whole thing: being freed also in relation to the practice of hope

reposed only in the Lord (cfr. 2 Cor 1:10), after having practiced charity towards the Christians

of Philippi (cfr. Phil 1: 24-25) through faith in Christ, till then, till the abandonment of every plan

and personal interest: "But if by continuing to live I can do more worthwhile work, then I am not

sure which I should choose. I am pulled in two directions. I want very much to leave this life and

be with Christ, which is a far better thing; but for your sake it is much more important that I

remain alive" (Phil 1: 22-24).

The Configuration to Christ

The theme of the configuration to Christ in the Pauline spirituality appears in the New Testament

in two distinct forms: in certain Pauline letters and in the Acts of the Apostles.


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The configuration to Christ in the Pauline letters

At times it seems that the awareness of a configuration of one's life to Jesus Christ, emerges also

in the conscience of Paul: "To include: let no one give me any more troubles, because the scars I

have on my body show that I am the slave of Jesus" (Gal 6: 17).

The cited passage has often been traditionally understood as if it refers to the gift of the stigmata

of Jesus in the body of Paul, as a diffused spirituality even popular has particularly venerated on

some saints of our time. Nevertheless, it deals about interpretations, as a sign of affection of the

personality, but decisively anachronistic rather than approximate if referred to Paul. Without

presuming that the verse and the expression would have been definitely cleared by the exegetes,

it seems similar to understand from the context that Paul may have understood the complex and

suffered difficulty in managing the situations of the Christian communities, bound to his

responsibility, such as the vicissitudes and the suffered hostilities during his activities asevangelizer, as if they are stigmata, i.e. the labeling used in his time to mark the slaves or

animals pertaining to someone. Paul himself presents different colts in his letters such as

"servant, more crudely "slave of Jesus Christ" (cfr. Rm 1:1etc.). in this sense, in the context of

Gal 6:17 Paul reminds the Christians of Galatia that whatever moral attack to his apostolic

ministry, whatever abandonment of the gospel of Jesus Christ, they would have been done to the

person of Jesus himself, because he, Paul, brings in his life, in his body, the mark of a slave

which pertains to his Lord, Jesus Christ. In the same period, writing a letter to the Christians of

Corinth, Paul interprets his vicissitudes and those who may work for Jesus Christ as experience

in which "the sufferings of Christ abound in us" (cfr Cor 1:5). To the Christians of Rome

expresses that the heredity of the divine salvation in Christ Jesus reaches to the fullness of

fulfillment "for if we share Christ's suffering, we will also share his glory" (Rm 8:17).

A similar interpretation seems to be visible in the letter of Paul to the Christians of Colossus, in

the valley of Lico in the north-occidental Turkey: "And now I am happy about my sufferings for

you, for by means of my physical sufferings on behalf of his body the church" (Col 1:24). This

new translation of the verse presents a formulation certainly clearer than the other traditional

records, so that the theme of the configuration to Christ emerges in the knowledge of Paul in

relation to the tribulations of the apostolic ministry, especially in favor of the Christians that

came from paganism.

In synthesis, to the conscience of Paul clearly remains, at least between the 54 and 60 A.D. that

the tribulations of his apostolic ministry also have to be included such necessary configuration to

the ministry of the suffering of Christ.


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The configuration to Christ in the Acts

The theme of the configuration to Christ in the life of Paul appears also in the Acts of the

Apostles, which they interpreted it in a slightly different context, but particularly important in the

effects of contemporary actualization of the Pauline spirituality. In this case, it is necessary to

remember that the Acts are writings pertaining to the Lucan school that is, organized at least

editorially as a continuation of the gospel of Luke. On the other hand, the Acts are a precious

source in order to know the life of Paul, especially in the absence of other sources, other than the

corpus paulinum, closer in time and more secure: nevertheless, their draft dates around 20-30

years after his death and they don't seem to have noticed the Pauline letters, or they don't even

seem to have known them, so that in such a way they could furnish important information about

the life and the ministry of Paul, not infrequently they coincide with the information extractable

from the letters. Furthermore, we noticed that the statements on the life and the and on the

Pauline ministry are in various cases stylized reconstruction according to the theological andeschatological principles which are no longer respondent to the epoch of facts, but to the

sensibility of twenty years later. Their nature of "Christian sacred history" makes the Acts a

structured theological document on the outline of a sequence of episodes and of speeches, of

which elaboration doesn't answer to the demands of a diary or of a chronicle in a modern

historical sense.

In the context of theActs, the "story of Paul" absolves the function to demonstrate concretely as

the testimony to the Lord Jesus, solicited by the Holy Spirit, starts effectively from Jerusalem so

to reach the boundaries of the world, realizing as such the words of Jesus himself (cfr. Acts 1: 6-

8). The Acts intend to guarantee that there is a substantial communion among the Twelve and

James, the relative of Jesus, while to Peter had the essential signs that mark the progress of the

testimony from Jerusalem for the Hebrews of the city and of the Diaspora, then in Judea and

afterwards to the Samaritans and then to the Hellenistic pagans. In this opera of witnessing,

solicited by the Holy Spirit, others also unite, Hebrews and Hellenistic.

Nevertheless, to go materially outside the "land of the fathers", the work of Barnabas should

have not been sufficiently representative, as that of Paul may come true. Both are by this time the

representatives of a new configuration of the apostolic authority: no longer in as much as official

witnesses of the life of Jesus from the baptism of John to the apparition of resurrected Jesus as

the Twelve, but continuator of a ministry that assists and develops that which of the Twelve, of

which more specific function remains unique and unrepeatable. Analogically new institutional

figures appear in the community of theActs, like the elders, the deacons, without which it had to

talk more about the apostles. The Church is in evolution in a flexible continuity and still not in a

rigid stabilized succession. The activity of Paul contributes to emphasize that the testimony to

Jesus are now being developed towards the pagans, even in their important cities, reaching out

men and women with no more reserve, traders, workers, executive officers, public and political


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authorities, representatives of the philosophical culture and simple people. The resistance of the

Jewish world doesnt lead to desist from the spreading of the gospel to the Hebrews. Yet, toward

the pagan religiosity there is no form of properly theological dialogue, while the effort toward

the culture, philosophy, institutional world and the Greco-Roman politics is well emphasized.

The emphasis given to these episodes, in spite of the eventual failures in this field of the

historical event of Paul, lets them rise to be announcement and dialogue models for the year 80

A.D.

On the other part, the testimony given to Jesus, in as much as solicited by the Holy Spirit, is not

included by the Acts simply as an uncontrollable and triumphal expansion of Christianize. The

testimony to Jesus is signed by oppressions, persecutions and by true and one's own martyrdom.

The border of the world, represented in the Acts in particular way from Rome, real epicenter of

the pagan world, are reached out by a prisoner Paul who always reproduces more in his life and

in his gestures a conformation to Christ Jesus: persecuted and prisoner, continues to heal thesick. To benefit, to realize the word and the promise of Jesus. Exactly in the context of a similar

stressed emphasis of the conformation to Jesus and to his word in Paul, the Acts of the apostles

close their singular theology of the mission of the Church of the years 30 - 60 A.D.: in Malta it

can just be seen a new dawn of the mission to the idolater pagans, polytheists and superstitious:

in an evangelization without word, but only done by gestures, pagans and Christians exchange

themselves for better enabling of offering themselves to each other. In Rome, in spite of the

Jewish resistance and of the imperial control on Paul, the word of God continues his journey.

Synthesis Proposal for a present Pauline spirituality

The New Testament, through the Pauline letters and the Acts, allows us to draw some elements

for Pauline spirituality realizable even in our times. Each one of us receives with baptism a first

fundamental calling, which comes specified in time as vocation, different for each one, since

equipped of gifts, charism, i.e. inclinations, attitudes and particular rather personal talents. We

might be mistaken, yet, if we should think that these charisms, eventually traceable to a

fundamental and structural element, may simply be developed putting them at the center of all, in

a way that the formation has to consist uniquely in supporting these gifts.

Every one of us brings with him a burden of limitations and negativity that could hardly

withstand alone, inside his own plans in life. On the contrary, it is only profound obedience to

the responsibility that life proposes concretely, to reach out even the depth of our limitations

making us also accomplish an itinerary, which could appear misleading with respect to the logic

of our attitudes. In fact this obedience results to be not only a healer, but also highly creative to

the point of leaving at times the more evident contributions of our service. The journey, that the

Lord makes us accomplish in this itinerary not only doesn't consist in a pure and simple human


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plan of ours, but it isn't even a supine adhesion to religious and even essential structures: The

faithfulness to the Lord, which paves the way in our conscience, can require a dialectic

confrontation, respectable and loyal, towards others and towards ourselves, so as to let the truth

emerge sometimes unexpected, but however always in the service of the whole Church.

The accomplishment of the vocation and of the charism given by the Lord are not entrusted to

the proper plan, that each one rightly formulates starting from his own capacities and attitudes, in

answer to the calling and to the gifts of the Lord. In fact, through circumstances at times deeply

hostile, which don't come from the divine initiative, the Lord can ask thru love a total

abandonment to the faith and to the hope in him, up to the renunciation of whatever personal

plan, so that the accomplishment do not consist in the realization of works or of the pastoral,

cultural, social or other similar enterprises, but in a surprising configuration to the mystery and to

the person of Jesus Christ. It doesn't deal about pleased self-awareness, but of an effective

analogy of situations, so that it is still and always the mystery of Christ to be testified with theword, with the works and with life.


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Spiritual Itinerary Aspects of St. Paul by Fr. Giovanni M. Rizzi, CRSP

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