It is true that the Church, one, holy, catholic and apostolic, advances in history amidst difficulties, because men do not always cooperate with God: human interests and misery, the abuses of the powerful, and also diabolical action have produced many episodes of disunity that disfigure the face of the Common Mother.
From the very beginning, disunity and confusion arose about Jesus Christ and the Church; later, two great schisms, that of the East in the 11th century, that of the West in the 14th century, and then the attempt at reform led by Luther, broke the unity. Peter was freed from his chains in prison by an angel while the Church prayed for him. Also in Rome, the chain to which Paul was subjected in his captivity is preserved, as a sign of the difficulties of the Church to live in freedom in so many places and mistreated by believers themselves.
That is why every year the Octave of the Union of Christians, from January 18 to 25, is a time of prayer to the Holy Spirit, of petition to the Virgin Mother of the Church, and of meetings between separated brothers to advance in ecumenism. Of course, it is not so much a question of recovering the past as of developing evangelization, embracing separated brothers, and attracting those who do not yet know Jesus Christ.
And God called Saul
Shaul, Shaul, lammah antha radef li? Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me?
And everything changed in the life of the young persecutor of the sect of the Nazarene. Saul bears the name of the first king of Israel and was born in Tarsus in Cilicia, a populous city with many thousands of inhabitants located in the south of the Anatolian peninsula, today Turkey, and in the bosom of a Jewish family.
At the age of five, he was already attending the House of the Book or synagogue school to begin learning the Law of Israel. Ten years later, when he was fifteen, he went to Jerusalem to be instructed in the exact observance of the Law of his fathers, at the feet of Rabbi Gamaliel. And twenty years later, he quickly traveled the 250 kilometers from Jerusalem to Damascus to put an end to that new sect.
He ran a lot, but off the beaten track, as Augustine, the bishop of Hippo, would say. And God tripped him up, momentarily closing his eyes so that he could open them to the reality of the Christian faith. He thus discovered that Jesus identifies with his Church and that he was counting on him for the mysterious revolution that he had accomplished on a Cross planted on Calvary.
Travel diaries
The diaries of his travels are available to anyone in the Acts of the Apostles and in his letters, showing with realism that the diffusion of the Gospel is not a task for timid people. This Jubilee Year of Hope that does not disappoint (Paul’s expression in his letter to the Romans) is a good opportunity to read slowly these Acts of his travels in the context of the first expansion of the Church from the Cenacle in Jerusalem, as if it were an immense chain reaction that will benefit the hearts of men forever.
Paul set foot on European soil on his second trip when he arrived in the city of Philippi in Macedonia, and there he ignited the faith of Lydia, a seller of purple and fearful of God. But Paul soon found out that religious freedom leaves much to be desired, and ended up in jail when someone saw his business as a fortune-teller in danger and stirred up the plebs. At midnight, while he was praying with his companion Silas, the doors of the prison miraculously opened and the jailer himself recognized that God was interested in the matter, going so far as to be baptized with his entire family.
The letters of St. Paul relate his travels and the doctrine that shaped the faith of the first Christian communities, evangelized by the apostles, including Peter at the head and also Paul. The Holy Spirit acts in them, multiplying the first expansion of that day of Pentecost: the entire Church was gathered in the Cenacle, where Jesus Christ instituted the Eucharist and brought forward the sacrifice of the Cross. They were all there with the Virgin Mary and the first women who followed Jesus and witnessed the Resurrection. It was the primordial nucleus of the expanding Church, and from then on it grew like the waves in a lake, expanding its vibration in favor of all men.
Conversion of the heart
The Decree on Ecumenism of Vatican II places it as one of the main purposes of the Council, because historical division openly contradicts the will of Jesus Christ and is an obstacle to evangelization. Since November 1964, much progress has been made on the path of unity, understanding, and comprehension between separated brothers.
This is not a diplomatic task, so to speak, but rather an urgent need to live in the one Church founded by Jesus Christ and driven by the Spirit as a path of salvation for all. It exhorts us to celebrate this annual Octave of prayer and conversion of hearts: “Authentic ecumenism does not occur without interior conversion. Because it is from interior renewal, from self-denial and from the most free outpouring of charity that the desires for unity spring forth and mature.”
The Twelve, with Peter at the head and Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles, developed the first Church and, since the first Council of Jerusalem, promoted unity, resisting disintegrating deviations. They continue to intercede before the Holy Spirit so that the genuine Church may reach the whole world without stagnation or mutation.
For this reason, in the Octave we try to live in unity with the Roman Pontiff, successor of Peter, Vicar of Christ, and we also look to Paul to learn from an exceptional saint and an unprecedented human leader, who spread the wonderful adventure of a life committed to faith that day when Jesus “tripped him up” on the road to Damascus. We remember him especially on the upcoming 25th, when the Church celebrates the conversion of St. Paul.
