JUNE 29TH 2009 MARKS THE CLOSING OF THE 2000TH JUBILEE YEAR CELEBRATION OF THE BIRTH OF ST. PAUL
Pope Benedict XVI states "Christ needs Apostles like St. Paul, today."
As we have traveled with St. Paul for more than a year now we truly realize that"…I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me. Therefore, I am content with weaknesses… for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor 12:9-10). He also says in Phil 1:21 "for to me life is Christ." We have tried to focus on what he says to us in this jubilee year "Be imitators of me as I am of Christ" (Corinthians 11:1).
As we come to the close of the Jubilee Year we can recall the way St. Paul himself bid farewell to those whom he loved. In Acts of the Apostles, chapter 20 verses 18-38 "you know how I lived among you the whole time from the day I first came to the province of Asia. I served the Lord with all humility and with the tears and trials that came to me because of the plots of the Jews, and I did not at all shrink from telling you what was for your benefit, or from teaching you in public or in your homes. I earnestly bore witness for both Jews and Greeks to repentance before God and to faith in our Lord Jesus."
But now, compelled by the Spirit I am going to Jerusalem. What will happen to me there I do not know, except that in one city after another the Holy Spirit has been warning me that imprisonment and hardships await me. Yet I consider life of no importance to me, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to bear witness to the gospel of God's grace.
But now I know that none of you to whom I preached the kingdom during my travels will ever see my face again. And so I solemnly declare to you this day that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you, for I did not shrink from proclaiming to you the entire plan of God.
Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you overseers, in which you tend the church of God that he acquired with his own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come among you, and they will not spare the flock. And from your own group, men will come forward perverting the truth so to draw the disciples away after them.
So be vigilant and remember that for three years, night and day, I unceasingly admonished each of you with tears. And now I commend you to God and to that gracious word of his that can build you up and give you the inheritance among all who are consecrated.
I have never wanted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. You know well that these very hands have served my needs and my companions. In every way I have shown you that by hard work of that sort we must help the weak, and keep in mind the words of the Lord Jesus who himself said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."
When he had finished speaking he knelt down and prayed with them all. They were all weeping loudly as they threw their arms around Paul and kissed him, for they were deeply distressed that he had said that they would never see his face again. Then they escorted him to the ship.
They found in the face of Paul the face of Jesus and they wept because they do not want their friendship with Paul to end.
The farewell address of St. Paul is so like the Last Supper discourse that it really shows us that St. Paul lived his life as a true imitator and witness of Jesus Christ.
With his love for us I believe we can expect continuing miracles through the intercession of St. Paul for us through our entire life, not just this his jubilee year as proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI but through eternity.
As we embrace the invisible beauty that has been shown to us through the witness of the glorious Apostle St. Paul, let us sing the praises of God as we join in escorting St. Paul to the ship.
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