On June 28th, His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, at Solemn Vespers celebrated at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Wall initiated the year-long jubilee year marking the 2000th birthday of the Saint. The year of Pauline study and prayer will conclude on June 29, 2009, the actual day assumed to be Paul's birthday.
At Vespers, Pope Benedict XVI reminded those present that Paul is much greater than a biblical personality of the New Testament. The Pope stressed that Paul was and continues to be a "teacher, an apostle and a herald of Jesus Christ."
Why a Jubilee Year? Besides the 2000th birthday celebration, His Holiness hopes that the year of a study and remembrance of the apostle and his writings will result in a "strong signal of Christian unity."
As anyone might sense from a reading of Paul's letters and the Lucan Acts of the Apostles, "repairing divisions is an urgent task." Paul understand our Church to be "the body of Christ" not another gathering of people.
Benedict is more concerned about what "the teacher of the gentiles in faith and truth" is bringing to our contemporary Church than to focus on historical events that are, in the Holy Father's words, "irretrievably passed." Benedict, the theologian, hopes that we will reflect upon how Paul's words served the development of theology.
Further, the Holy Father said of Paul, "His faith is not a theory, an opinion about God and the world. His faith is the impact of God's love on his heart. And so this same faith is love for Jesus Christ."
About Paul: Not one of The Twelve, this apostle was born in Tarsus which is modern Turkey. Scholars and historians estimate the year to have been 8 AD. He was brought to Rome Later, while in a prison in Caesarea, while writing his letter to Philemon, he attempted to secure a hearing before Nero who was in Rome. Paul was brought there where he was eventually martyred for the faith in the year 67 AD. His remains were found in a marble sarcophagus in the area beneath the main altar of the Basilica of St. Paul. Inscribed on the side of the marble sarcophagus were three words: Paul Apostle Martyr.
With this posting, Prayer on the Hill inaugurates what will be a Friday, Saturday and Monday presentation of reflections about St. Paul and his writings during the Jubilee Year.
Photo: Rembrandt
