Today's first reading is a reminder to us that we are very much like the man we call, "Paul, the Apostle." He is a powerhouse in the early days of the Church's growth. He has been a powerhouse throughout the history of the Church. The story of Paul's life is indeed remarkable but what is truly noteworthy is the fact that Paul was not one of the Twelve, the Apostles, and that he had never met Jesus in the flesh. Yet Paul had come to know the Son of God like very few.
How did this come about? He teaches us that his knowledge of Jesus came to his heart and his own firebrand spirit from the testimony of those who preceded him. Some of those who came before him had been in Jesus' presence. It was their their shared experience and recollection of what Jesus was that captured Paul's heart and his determination.
Paul also learned from actually hearing Jesus speak to him. His conversion was primary among the times that Jesus seems to have spoken to him in the post Resurrection years.
Paul heard the voice and witnessed as well God's saving power in the lives of other people. What he learned first and foremost from those who came before him was the truth that Jesus Christ came, died for our sins, was raised from the dead and was then seen by the Apostles and then others, presumably even by Paul, himself.
This is the same truth entrusted to us, to our Church. It is the truth of the mission that each of us is to pass on to those who come after us. Our lives, like Paul, founded on this one truth, can become the pathway to a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ for others.
