FIRST
JOURNEY
{From
La Chiesa Delle Origini Negli Atti degli Apostoli E nei Loro Scritti
“The Early Church in the
Acts of the Apostles and in their Writings” By the MIMEP 1972}
The rapid expansion of Christianity among the pagans at
Antioch and the special revelation which he had personally, received,
brought home to Paul the vastness of the field of labor presented by
the pagan world. In this, his first missionary activity of wide
range, Paul was not satisfied with limiting his efforts to pagans who
lived in the area of Jewish influence, but went directly to seek them
out. The wonderful results, which he achieved among them, again brought
to a head the problem of the way in which they were to be received into
the new Christian community. That problem was to be finally resolved by
the Council of Jerusalem that, in the plan of the Acts, represents the
conclusion of Paul's first missionary journey.
Paul and Barnabas receive their commission
Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers,
Barnabas, Symeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a
member of the court of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they
were worshipping the Lord and fasting, The Holy Spirit
said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have
called them." Then after fasting and praying they laid their
hands on them and sent them off.
Cyprus
So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to
Seleucia; and from there they sailed to Cyprus. When they arrived
at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the
Jews. And they had John to assist them.
When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came
upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet, named Bar-Jesus.
He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who
summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of
God. But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his
name) withstood them, seeking to turn away the proconsul from the
faith.
But Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with The Holy Spirit, looked intently at him "
and said, "You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full
of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the
straight paths of the Lord?
"And now, behold, the- hand of the Lord
is upon you, and you shall be blind and unable to see the
sun for a time."
Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him and he went about seeking
people to lead him by the hand. "
Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was
astonished at the teaching of the Lord }
She lived as a hermitess there for the next seventy-two years and died
there (or in Rome, where she was miraculously transported when she
found that Paul had died and was later buried near his tomb). The tale
had tremendous popularity in the early Church but is undoubtedly a
pious fiction and was labeled apocryphal
by St. Jerome. |
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From
St Paul's
Second Letter to Timothy
The Neronian persecution of the
Christians was raging.
Beginning
in Rome in 64 it
spread with varying degrees of speed and violence in the Eastern
provinces of
the Empire.
St
Paul had
been arrested while he was at
Troas, probably in the summer of the year 66.
Taken
to
Rome by virtue of
his status as a Roman citizen, he had the benefit of a regular trial
that went
on for a long time. But he had no
illusions: this time he felt he was near the end. In these
circumstances he
wanted to have the company of Timothy, his faithful disciple
from the
first years of his apostleship, and wrote this letter in which he does
not fail
to include valuable advice but in which he frankly opens his heart in a
retrospective survey of his long and arduous apostolic work. Worthy of
note is
the exhortation at the end of the Introduction: 'Guard the truth that
has been
entrusted to you': now the apostolic teaching has been completed and
constitutes a 'deposit', that is a treasure entrusted to the successors
of the
Apostles, which must be preserved by them and handed on to future
generations. Revelation is thus not
entrusted solely to the written word (Holy Scripture) but also to oral
teaching
(Tradition) handed on by the Apostles to those who carry on their work.
Introduction
Second Letter to Timothy
(1, 1-14)
Paul, an
apostle
of Christ Jesus by
the will of God according to the promise of the life that is in Christ
Jesus, To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God
the
Father and
Christ Jesus our Lord.
I thank God whom I serve with a clear
conscience, as did my fathers, when I remember you constantly in my
prayers. As I remember your tears, I
long night and day to see you that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith
that dwelt first in your
grandmother Lois and your
mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you. Hence I remind you to rekindle the gift of
God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did
not give
us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self
control. Do not
be ashamed then of testifying to our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but
take
your share of suffering for the gospel in the power of God, I who saved
us and
called us with a holy calling, not in virtue (A our works but in virtue
of his
own purpose and the grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus ages ago,
land now
has manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who
abolished
death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. For this gospel I was appointed a preacher
and apostle and teacher, and therefore I suffer as I do.
But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have
believed, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that Day what
has been
entrusted to me. "Follow the
pattern of the sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith
and love
which are in Christ Jesus; "guard the truth that has been entrusted to
you
by The Holy Spirit who dwells within us.
Tradition and Holy Scripture
Second Letter to
Timothy
(3, 10-17)
Now you
have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my
patience,
my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions, my sufferings, what befell
me at
Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra, what persecutions I endured; yet
from them
all the Lord rescued me. Indeed all who
desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while
evil men
and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceivers and deceived. "But as for you, continue in what you
have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it
"
and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred
writings which
are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. "All scripture is inspired by God and
profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training
in
righteousness, "'that the man of God may be complete, equipped for
every
good work.
Timothy was the son of a Jewess who had
become a Christian
(see No. 45) In the previous section, 136; St Paul praises his
mother,
Eunice, and also his grandmother, Lois. From them Timothy had learnt from his
earliest years the Sacred History of the Old Testament.
Here St
Paul
records the common
teaching of all the Apostles, based on Jesus' attitude to the Sacred
Books of
the Jews: they are 'inspired' by God and intended to lead men to
salvation. St
Peter too gives the same teaching (see No. 156). The
'inspiration, of the Sacred Books implies that their human
writers (prophets, wise men, historians) were God's instruments to make
known
to the religious community (Israel and later the Church) his will and
his Plans
for salvation.
The sacred writers did not write in
ecstasy
or under divine
dictation but were inspired by God in conceiving and writing their
works. Therefore Holy Scripture is
'veracious',
that is, it contains without error those truths, which God wished to
convey for
the salvation of men.
Holy
Scripture attains its
maximum value when it is read in the milieu of the Church, in the
light of
the apostolic teaching handed on by the Tradition (see No. 137 above)
to which
St Paul refers in the words 'continue in what you
have learned and firmly
believed, knowing from whom you have learned it'.
Spiritual testament
Letter to Timothy (4, 1-8)
I charge you in the presence of God
and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his
appearing and his kingdom: preach the word, be urgent in season and out
of
season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in
teaching. For
the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but
having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to
suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth
and wander into myths. As for you, always be steady, endure
suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
For I am already on the point of being sacrificed; the time of my
departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the
race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me
the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will
award to men on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have
loved his appearing.
As in the first letter so also
in the last, the thought of Christ's 'glorious coming' or 'Parousia' at
the end of time is present and paramount (see Nos. 55 -and 58).
St Paul feels that death is
near and thinks of it as the last act of a sacrifice. Libation
consisted of pourino wine from a goblet on to the altar: similarly St
Paul thinks of his life as being poured out in fighting and striving
entirely and solely for the Lord. He fears neither death nor his
meeting with Christ as Judge, for he looks for his reward as the
‘crown’, which is awarded to victors.
Latest news 139 Second Letter to Timothy (4, 9.22)
Do your best to come to me soon. For Demas, in love with this
present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has
gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me. Get
Mark and bring him with you; for he is very useful in serving me.
Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. When you come, bring the cloak
that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the
parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord
will requite him for his deeds. Beware of him yourself, for he
strongly opposed our message. At my first defense no one took my
part; all deserted me. May it not be charged against them!
But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength to proclaim the word
fully, that all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from
the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil and
save me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory for ever
and ever. Amen.
Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus. Erastus
remained at Corinth: Trophimus I left ill at Miletus. Do your best to
come before winter. Eubulus sends greetings to you, as do Pudens
and Linus and Claudia and all the brethren.
The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.
St Paul had been arrested at Troas; in his unforeseen forced departure
he had not been able to take his few possessions with him. He
wants his books and above all his precious 'parchments' on which the
Bible was written- he also thinks of his cloak, for winter is
approaching. The lawsuit against Paul has already begun; the people who
have not come forward to take his part are not his disciples, who
indeed are all far away, but influential
people, powerful friends who have feared to compromise
themselves. St Paul knows that only the Lord can save him: yet he
will not save him in this world, but rather “in his heavenly kingdom".
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PAUL: THE APOSTLE TO
THE GENTILES