John Chrysostom
here gives eloquent praise to the passionate love of Christ that drove St. Paul
to face persecution and hardship with joy and leave behind the honors and benefits
of the world. It is read each year on January
25, the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, persecutor turned apostle.
Paul, more
than anyone else, has shown us what man really is, and in what our nobility consists,
and of what virtue this particular animal is capable. Each day he aimed ever higher;
each day he rose up with greater ardor and faced with new eagerness the dangers
that threatened him. He summed up his attitude in the words: “I forget what is behind
me and push on to what lies ahead.”
PAUL REJOICED
IN SUFFERING & WEAKNESS
When he saw death
imminent, he bade others share his joy: “Rejoice and be glad with me!” And when
danger, injustice and abuse threatened, he said: “I am content with weakness, mistreatment
and persecution.” These he called the weapons of righteousness, thus telling us
that he derived immense profit from them.
Thus, amid the
traps set for him by his enemies, with exultant heart he turned their every attack
into a victory for himself; constantly beaten, abused and cursed, he boasted of
it as though he were celebrating a triumphal procession and taking trophies home,
and offered thanks to God for it all: “Thanks be to God who is always victorious
in us!”
This is why he
was far more eager for the shameful abuse that his zeal in preaching brought upon
him than we are for the most pleasing honors, more eager for death than we are for
life, for poverty than we are for wealth; he yearned for toil far more than others
yearn for rest after toil. The one thing he feared, indeed dreaded, was to offend
God; nothing else could sway him. Therefore, the only thing he really wanted was
always to please God.
HIS GOAL –
CHRIST’S LOVE
The most important
thing of all to him, however, was that he knew himself to be loved by Christ. Enjoying
this love, he considered himself happier than anyone else; were he without it, it
would be no satisfaction to be the friend of principalities and powers. He preferred
to be thus loved and be the least of all, or even to be among the damned, than to
be without that love and be among the great and honored.
To be separated
from that love was, in his eyes, the greatest and most extraordinary of torments;
the pain of that loss would alone have been hell, and endless, unbearable torture. So too, in being loved by Christ he thought of
himself as possessing life, the world, the angels, present and future, the kingdom,
the promise and countless blessings. Apart from that love nothing saddened or delighted
him; for nothing earthly did he regard as bitter or sweet.
PAUL’S SCORN
OF THE WORLD
Paul set no store by the things that
fill our visible world, any more than a man sets value on the withered grass of
the field. As for tyrannical rulers or the people enraged against him, he paid them
no more heed than gnats. Death itself and pain and whatever torments might come
were but child’s play to him, provided that thereby he might bear some burden for
the sake of Christ.
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