| 6/23/2009 3:06:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | The Jubilee Year to the Apostle Paul
 | THE TEACHING OF CHRIST
By Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl
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This week the Church Universal will observe the conclusion of the Year of St. Paul the Apostle. Pope Benedict XVI had proclaimed this special Pauline year to commemorate the 2,000th anniversary of St. Paul's birth. The dates were set to run from June 28, 2008 to June 29, 2009, which is the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul.
What about Paul was so significant that an entire year was held in his honor? His response to Christ's call to him. Paul's life was changed entirely by the direct call he received from Christ as he made his way to Damascus. As he traveled on the road to that city, the risen Lord Jesus appeared to him and called him to be "the apostle to the Gentiles."
This was the beginning not only of a call to conversion, but of a confirmation of a revelation that you and I now take for granted as a matter of faith. Jesus and the members of his Church are one. This is the revelation that Paul would return to over and over again in his Letters to the Corinthians, to the Ephesians, to the Galatians and to the Romans.
Jesus did not hesitate to identify himself with his Church. As he sent the disciples to preach in his name, he said: "He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me" (Luke 10:16). To those who did deeds of charity for his little ones, he proclaimed: "As you did it for one of the least of my brethren, you did it to me" (Matthew 25:24). At the Last Supper he spoke of the intense unity that makes him one with those who are united by faith and love to him: "I am the vine, you are the branches" (John 15:5). The vine and branches are one living reality. So it is also with Christ and his Church.
Just as salvation and grace come to us through Jesus, they continue to reach us through his Church. That is why Christ founded his Church. We do not relate to God solely as individuals, but also as members of his family united with Christ. It is through Christ who is present and manifest in his Church that we come to God. The mediatorship of Jesus continues in the visible communion that we identify as the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
After his call, Paul began an intense ministry of evangelization. He took up or returned to the work of tent making so that he would not be a burden to the communities he served. He went to Jerusalem to meet with Peter, James and John, the leaders of Jesus' Church. He presented himself to them as one called to bring others to Christ. We recognize in Paul an enormous commitment to share his experience - his encounter with Jesus. From that point on in his life, he was consumed with sharing the good news. Paul's ministry was missionary evangelization, which he exercised with great effect. He established communities of faith in many major cities of the Roman Empire such as Ephesus, Corinth, Philippi and Thessalonica.
It was as if he simply could not stop. He had to tell others the wonderful news that Jesus was risen, was Lord, and called us to be a part of his family.
In the last decade of his life, Paul not only continued his missionary activity but also wrote letters to the communities he founded and to those that were already initiated in the faith. The letters afforded Paul an excellent means to stay in touch with these communities. Particularly touching are his First and Second Letters to Timothy and his Letter to Titus. These were his disciples whom he then commissioned to head churches and to continue his work.
Paul sets an example for us. We, too, have been enormously blessed with the gift of faith. We have been baptized into new life in Christ, we walk in the light of the Gospels, and we look forward to the fullness of the gift of the Spirit when we pass through this life into a life that will never end.
St. Paul - for our archdiocese that will try to follow his missionary outreach and for the Church Universal that just celebrated the Year of St. Paul - is a reminder to all of us of the grace of God at work in our world and in our lives. We are blessed to receive the gift of faith as did Paul. We are blessed to recognize Jesus in his Church, as did Paul. And we are called to share that faith with others as did Paul.
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