20180125
ST PAUL A MODEL FOR ECUMENISM
25 JANUARY, 2018, Thursday, The Conversion of St Paul, Apostle
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: White.
EITHER:
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First
reading
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Acts 22:3-16 ©
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Paul said to the people, ‘I am a Jew and was born at Tarsus in
Cilicia. I was brought up here in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was
taught the exact observance of the Law of our ancestors. In fact, I was as full
of duty towards God as you are today. I even persecuted this Way to the death,
and sent women as well as men to prison in chains as the high priest and the
whole council of elders can testify, since they even sent me with letters to
their brothers in Damascus. When I set off it was with the intention of
bringing prisoners back from there to Jerusalem for punishment.
‘I was on that journey and nearly at Damascus when
about midday a bright light from heaven suddenly shone round me. I fell to the
ground and heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” I
answered: Who are you, Lord? and he said to me, “I am Jesus the Nazarene, and
you are persecuting me.” The people with me saw the light but did not hear his
voice as he spoke to me. I said: What am I to do, Lord? The Lord answered,
“Stand up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told what you have been
appointed to do.” The light had been so dazzling that I was blind and my
companions had to take me by the hand; and so I came to Damascus.
‘Someone called Ananias, a devout follower of the Law
and highly thought of by all the Jews living there, came to see me; he stood
beside me and said, “Brother Saul, receive your sight.” Instantly my sight came
back and I was able to see him. Then he said, “The God of our ancestors has
chosen you to know his will, to see the Just One and hear his own voice
speaking, because you are to be his witness before all mankind, testifying to
what you have seen and heard. And now why delay? It is time you were baptised
and had your sins washed away while invoking his name.”’
OR:
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Alternative
First reading
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Acts 9:1-22 ©
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Saul's
call
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Saul was still breathing threats to slaughter the Lord’s
disciples. He had gone to the high priest and asked for letters addressed to
the synagogues in Damascus, that would authorise him to arrest and take to
Jerusalem any followers of the Way, men or women, that he could find.
Suddenly, while he was travelling to Damascus and just
before he reached the city, there came a light from heaven all round him. He
fell to the ground, and then he heard a voice saying, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you
persecuting me?’ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ he asked, and the voice answered, ‘I am
Jesus, and you are persecuting me. Get up now and go into the city, and you
will be told what you have to do.’ The men travelling with Saul stood there
speechless, for though they heard the voice they could see no one. Saul got up
from the ground, but even with his eyes wide open he could see nothing at all,
and they had to lead him into Damascus by the hand. For three days he was
without his sight, and took neither food nor drink.
A disciple called Ananias who lived in Damascus had a
vision in which he heard the Lord say to him, ‘Ananias!’ When he replied, ‘Here
I am, Lord’, the Lord said, ‘You must go to Straight Street and ask the house
of Judas for someone called Saul, who comes from Tarsus. At this moment he is
praying, having had a vision of a man called Ananias coming in and laying hands
on him to give him back his sight.’
When he heard that, Ananias said, ‘Lord, several
people have told me about this man and all the harm he has been doing to your
saints in Jerusalem. He has only come here because he holds a warrant from the
chief priests to arrest everybody who invokes your name.’ The Lord replied,
‘You must go all the same, because this man is my chosen instrument to bring my
name before pagans and pagan kings and before the people of Israel; I myself
will show him how much he himself must suffer for my name.’ Then Ananias went.
He entered the house, and at once laid his hands on Saul and said, ‘Brother
Saul, I have been sent by the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on your way here
so that you may recover your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’
Immediately it was as though scales fell away from Saul’s eyes and he could see
again. So he was baptised there and then, and after taking some food he
regained his strength.
He began preaching in the synagogues, ‘Jesus is the
Son of God.’ All his hearers were amazed. ‘Surely’ they said ‘this is the man
who organised the attack in Jerusalem against the people who invoke this name,
and who came here for the sole purpose of arresting them to have them tried by
the chief priests?’ Saul’s power increased steadily, and he was able to throw
the Jewish colony at Damascus into complete confusion by the way be
demonstrated that Jesus was the Christ.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 116(117) ©
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Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good
News.
or
Alleluia!
O praise the Lord, all you nations,
acclaim him all you peoples!
Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good
News.
or
Alleluia!
Strong is his love for us;
he is faithful for ever.
Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good
News.
or
Alleluia!
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Gospel Acclamation
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cf.Jn15:16
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Alleluia, alleluia!
I chose you from the world
to go out and bear fruit,
fruit that will last,
says the Lord.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Mark 16:15-18 ©
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Jesus showed himself to the Eleven and said to them:
‘Go out to
the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation. He who believes and is
baptised will be saved; he who does not believe will be condemned. These are
the signs that will be associated with believers: in my name they will cast out
devils; they will have the gift of tongues; they will pick up snakes in their
hands, and be unharmed should they drink deadly poison; they will lay their
hands on the sick, who will recover.’
ST PAUL A MODEL FOR ECUMENISM
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ACTS 22:3-16 or ACTS 9:1-22; PS 117:1-2; MK 16:15-18
]
The feast of
the Conversion of St Paul is designated as the conclusion of the celebration of
Unity Week with our Christian brothers and sisters. This is very
appropriate because his conversion exemplifies how Catholic Christians and
Protestant Christians are called to work together as disciples of Christ for
the transmission of the Good News. Reflecting on his conversion story, we
can extract the kind of disposition, the approaches that we must adopt to work
together in one common mission for the spread of the gospel in obedience to the
Lord’s command. “Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all
creation. He who believes and is baptised will be saved.”
Indeed, the
last prayer of our Lord for His Church was that the Church be one. He prayed, “Holy
Father, keep them in thy name, which thou hast given me, that they may be one,
even as we are one.” (Jn 17:11) Again, He said, “that they may all be
one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in
us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. The glory which thou
hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I
in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world
may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved
me.” (Jn 17:21-23)
What, then,
is the way to unity among Christians? Firstly, sincerity is a
pre-requisite. St Paul sought to clarify his position. “Brethren and
fathers, hear the defense which I now make before you.” (Acts 22:1)
He wanted to share with them his conversion experience of how he, once a
persecutor of the Christians, had now become a disciple of Christ. With
truthfulness, he shared his conversion story with them. When we are
sincere in sharing our personal experiences without imposing our views on
others, then we will get a better reception. That is why the fostering of
unity must begin with personal sharings rather than a debate over
doctrines. Without sincerity in seeking to make ourselves understood, as
opposed to seeking to win an argument, it will be difficult for us to win the
trust of our audience.
Secondly, St
Paul immediately identified himself with his fellow Jews, their culture and
their aspirations. He wanted them to know that he was one of them and one
with them. He spoke their language. “And when they heard that he
addressed them in the Hebrew language, they were the more quiet.” (Acts 22:2)
He also expressed his zeal for the Law. “I am a Jew and was born at
Tarsus in Cilicia. I was brought up here in this city. I studied under Gamaliel
and was taught the exact observance of the Law of our ancestors. In fact, I was
as full of duty towards God as you are today. I even persecuted this Way to the
death, and sent women as well as men to prison in chains as the high priest and
the whole council of elders can testify, since they even sent me with letters
to their brothers in Damascus.” Identifying with our audience is
necessary if we are to engage them.
Thirdly, St
Paul did not engage them on matters over doctrines because it is
divisive. He appealed to their hearts, not their heads. Hence, he
began with the sharing of his conversion experience. In engaging with
Christians from different traditions, including non-Christians, it is best that
we, too, begin by sharing our conversion experience and our religious
encounters with the Lord. When we begin with experience, there can be no
room for dispute. It calls for faith and trust. This must also be
our approach. This is what the Lord asked of Paul. Ananias said to
him, “The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see the Just
One and hear his own voice speaking, because you are to be his witness before
all mankind, testifying to what you have seen and heard.” This is what is
required.
What about
unity in doctrines? Is there no place in ecumenism? If we are
divided over doctrines, how can we speak of unity? Doctrines of course are
important, but what are doctrines? They are the human formulation of a
Christian religious experience or our encounters with the Lord; and the ensuing
logical conclusions that are derived from such experiences.
So before we
can even enter into a theological discussion, we need to enter into each
other’s religious experiences. Unless we can encounter God from the perspective of a
particular Christian tradition, we will be talking in the abstract and this
explains why we cannot agree because our presupposed religious experience is
not shared. In other words, we need to appreciate the different Christian
traditions, how they originated and how such religious experiences were
expressed according to the cultural, theological, historical and even political
context; and how they were further developed and refined in the process of
articulating their faith experience. So in our relationship with
Christians from different denominations, without understanding their history,
we cannot understand the theological formulation of their religious experience.
Secondly,
because theological developments are complex, it would be more manageable if we
first begin with what we have in common. We need to focus on what is
fundamental to the Christian Faith before divergences take place in interpretation because of
different philosophical, cultural and theological background. Indeed,
Pope Francis wrote, “The biggest problem is when the message we preach then
seems identified with those secondary aspects which, important as they are, do
not in and of themselves convey the heart of Christ’s message.” (GE 34)
“Pastoral ministry in a missionary style is not obsessed with the disjointed
transmission of a multitude of doctrines to be insistently imposed. When we
adopt a pastoral goal and a missionary style which would actually reach
everyone without exception or exclusion, the message has to concentrate on the
essentials, on what is most beautiful, most grand, most appealing and at the
same time most necessary.” (GE 35)
“All revealed truths derive from the same divine source and are to be believed
with the same faith, yet some of them are more important for giving direct
expression to the heart of the Gospel. In this basic core, what shines
forth is the beauty of the saving love of God made manifest in Jesus Christ
who died and rose from the dead. In this sense, the Second Vatican Council
explained, “in Catholic doctrine there exists an order or a ‘hierarchy’ of
truths, since they vary in their relation to the foundation of the Christian
faith.” (EG 36)
Thirdly, this
means that we are called to affirm our brotherhood and sisterhood in Christ. Like Ananias when he
met Saul, his first greeting was, “Brother Saul, receive your sight.” We
must affirm that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ by virtue of our
common faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, sharing in one common baptism and filled
with His Holy Spirit. “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were
called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one
baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all
and in all.” (Eph 4:4-6) This one faith we profess in common when we
recite the Apostles Creed or the Nicene Creed.
Fourthly, we
share also in the one mission of proclaiming the Good News to all
creation. We do this not by expounding doctrines, especially the secondary
doctrines that divide us, but by demonstrating our common faith in the Risen
Christ through the signs that He works through us, namely, miracles, healings,
deliverance from the Evil One and eradication of falsehood spread by the Devil.
Indeed, the Good News is more than mere words. It is about the
Risen Christ that continues to work in our lives, showing forth His glory, His
mercy and His love through us, in our words and deeds. So we will be
better off as Christians working together in manifesting the power of Christ at
work in our lives, through preaching the name of Jesus, manifesting His mercy
and love in miracles and healings.
Finally,
ecumenism is completed through charity, dialogue and prayer. Differences in doctrines are
often due to different world views, linguistic and cultural divergences.
So the truth must be reformulated through dialogue, as what was done in the
doctrine of “Justification by Faith” with the Lutherans. Today, most
Christian communities, Anglicans, Methodists, the Reformed Churches, together
with the Catholic Church, recognize that we are no longer divided in this
fundamental doctrine. This dialogue must continue with the help of
the Holy Spirit who is the source of Christian unity. He will lead us to
the truth by enlightening us as we continue this dialogue in truth and in love.
Let us speak the truth in love and with charity without ridiculing and
misinterpreting the doctrines of others. In the final analysis, the
best means in the promotion of Christian unity is prayer, in imitation of our
Lord.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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