In this Year of Bible Women in theFaith
Paul turns from persecutor to evangelizer of Faith
By Fr Anthony Magnante
T
he apostle Paul is a complex and at the same time fascinating character. He turns from being a persecutor of Christians to being an untiring harbinger of faith. The
could overwhelm the believer, but this not the case. We know that Christ has taken possession of Paul’s life, in fact he says: “Christ lives in me”, and soon he adds: “I live because of the faith of the Son of God”. This clarification by Paul allows us to understand in what sense Christ takes possession of the believer’s life. It is the unconditional surrender of the believer that allows Christ to penetrate and establish with him a deep relationship, which becomes a constant gift of reciprocal presence. This is the reason why Paul considers faith not as an assent of mind to a set of truths, but as an unconditional surrender to Christ. However, faith is not an irrational act because it is based on the very same action of Christ, who, as Paul says: “loved me and gave himself for me”. His historical action constitutes for Paul the solid foundation for the act of faith. Christ has sealed his love for us all with his supreme gift of his life and for this reason he has become the solid foundation for our faith. Even Matthew 20:28 and Mark 10:45 state that the Son of man has come “to give his life as a ransom for many.” Paul personalizes the expression and instead of saying “for our sins” (1Cor 15:3), or “for many” (Mt 20:28;
Christians at Galatia speak about his conversion as follows: “The one who once persecuted us is now proclaiming the good news of the faith he once tried to destroy”. (Gal 1:23). From being a persecutor he becomes “the evangelizer of faith” (Cf. Acts 26:11). He no longer tries to make Christians break their relationship with Christ, but he devotes himself to helping them reinforce and strengthen their faith. In the expression “proclaiming/evangelizing faith”, the word “faith” is not to be interpreted as a set of truths which are to be believed, but it is to be interpreted as a personal assent to the person of Jesus Christ. In this way Jesus becomes the central element that marks the entire existence of Christians. Paul expresses this conviction in the famous expression: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20). Paul here underlines with strength the interpersonal relationship between him and Christ as if they lived in a perfect symbiosis. His expression would make us think that Christ
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THE SEED - VOL 25, No. 8 AUGUST 2013