September 2008
On Paul and the
Other Apostles
"He
Insists on Fidelity to What He Himself Has Received"
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today I would like to speak about the relationship between St.
Paul and the apostles who preceded him in the following of
Jesus. These relationships were always marked by profound
respect and by the frankness that in Paul stemmed from the
defense of the truth of the Gospel. Although he was practically
a contemporary of Jesus of Nazareth, he never had the
opportunity to meet him during his public life. Because of this,
after the dazzling light on the road to Damascus, he saw the
need to consult the first disciples of the Master, who had been
chosen by [Christ] to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
In the Letter to the Galatians, Paul elaborates an important
report on the contacts maintained with some of the Twelve: above
all with Peter, who had been chosen as Cephas, Aramaic word that
means rock, on which the Church was built (cf. Galatians 1:18),
with James, the "Lord's brother" (cf. Galatians 1:19), and with
John (cf. Galatians 2:9). Paul does not hesitate to acknowledge
them as the "pillars" of the Church. Particularly significant is
the meeting with Cephas (Peter), which took place in Jerusalem.
Paul stayed with him for 15 days to "consult him" (cf. Galatians
1:19), that is, to be informed on the earthly life of the Risen
One, who had "seized" him on the road to Damascus and was
changing his life radically: from persecutor of the Church of
God he became evangelizer of faith in the crucified Messiah and
Son of God, which in the past he had tried to destroy (cf.
Galatians 1:23).
What type of information did Paul obtain on Jesus in the three
years after the encounter of Damascus? In the First Letter to
the Corinthians we find two passages, which Paul had learned in
Jerusalem and which had been formulated as central elements of
the Christian tradition, the constitutive tradition. He
transmits them verbally, exactly as he has received them, with a
very solemn formula: "I delivered to you ... what I also
received."
He insists, therefore, on fidelity to what he himself has
received and transmits faithfully to the new Christians. They
are constitutive elements and concern the Eucharist and the
Resurrection. They are texts already formulated in the [decade
of] the 30s. Thus we come to the death, burial in the heart of
the earth and resurrection of Jesus (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4).
Let's take one at a time: the words of Jesus in the Last Supper
(cf. 1 Corinthians 11:23-25) really are for Paul the center of
the life of the Church. The Church is built from this center,
being in this way herself. In addition to this Eucharistic
center, from which the Church is always reborn -- also for all
Paul's theology, for all his thought -- these words have a
notable impact on Paul's personal relationship with Jesus. On
one hand, they attest that the Eucharist illumines the curse of
the cross, changing it into a blessing (Galatians 3:13-14), and
on the other, they explain the breadth of the very death and
resurrection of Jesus. In his letters, the "for you" of the
institution becomes the "for me" (Galatians 2:20), personalized,
knowing that in that "you" he himself was known and loved by
Jesus and, on the other hand, "for all" (2 Corinthians 5:L14):
this "for you" becomes "for me" and "for the Church" (Ephesians
5:25), that is, also "for all" of the expiatory sacrifice of the
cross (cf. Romans 3:25). By and in the Eucharist, the Church is
built and recognizes herself as "Body of Christ" (1 Corinthians
12:27), nourished every day by the strength of the Spirit of the
Risen One.
The other text, on the Resurrection, transmits to us again the
same formula of fidelity. St. Paul wrote: "For I delivered to
you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ
died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was
buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with
the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the
Twelve" (1 Corinthians 15:3-5). Also in this tradition
transmitted to Paul he again mentions the expression "for our
sins," which underlines the gift that Jesus has made of himself
to the Father, to deliver us from sin and death. From this gift
of himself, Paul draws the most moving and fascinating
expressions of our relationship with Christ: "For our sake he
made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might
become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). "For you
know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was
rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty
you might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9). It is worthwhile to
recall the commentary with which the then Augustinian monk
Martin Luther accompanied these paradoxical expressions of Paul:
"This is the grandiose mystery of divine grace toward sinners:
by an admirable exchange our sins no longer are ours, but
Christ's, and the righteousness of Christ is no longer Christ's
but ours" (Commentary on the Psalms from 1513-1515). And so we
have been saved.
In the original kerygma -- proclamation -- transmitted from
mouth to mouth, it is worth pointing out the use of the verb
"has risen," instead of "rose" which would have been more
logical, in continuity with "died" and "was buried." The verbal
form "has risen" has been chosen to underline that Christ's
resurrection affects up to the present the existence of
believers: We can translate it as "has risen and continues to be
alive" in the Eucharist and in the Church. Thus all the
Scriptures attest to the death and resurrection of Christ,
because -- as Hugh of Saint Victor wrote -- "the whole of divine
Scripture constitutes only one book, and this book is Christ,
because the whole of Scripture speaks of Christ and finds its
fulfillment in Christ" (De Arca Noe, 2, 8). If St. Ambrose of
Milan can say that "in Scripture we read Christ," it is because
the Church of the origins has reread all Israel's Scriptures
starting from and returning to Christ.
The enumeration of the Risen One's apparitions to Cephas, to the
Twelve, to more than 500 brethren, and to James closes with the
reference to the personal apparition received by Paul on the
road to Damascus: "Last of all, as to one untimely born, he
appeared also to me" (1 Corinthians 15:8). Because he had
persecuted the Church of God, he expresses in this confession
his unworthiness to be considered an apostle, at the same level
as those who preceded him: but God's grace has not been in vain
in him (1 Corinthians 15:10). Hence, the boastful affirmation of
divine grace unites Paul with the first witnesses of Christ's
resurrection. "Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and
so you have believed" (1 Corinthians 15:11). The identity and
unity of the proclamation of the Gospel is important: both they
and I preach the same faith, the same Gospel of Jesus Christ
dead and risen who gives himself in the most holy Eucharist.
The importance that he bestows on the living Tradition of the
Church, which she transmits to her communities, demonstrates how
mistaken is the view of those who attribute to Paul the
invention of Christianity: Before proclaiming the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, he encountered him on the road to Damascus, and
met him in the Church, observing his life in the Twelve, and in
those who had followed him on the roads of Galilee. In the next
catecheses we will have the opportunity to go more profoundly
into the contributions that Paul has made to the Church of the
origins; however, the mission received on the part of the Risen
One in order to evangelize the Gentiles must be confirmed and
guaranteed by those who gave him and Barnabas their right hand,
in sign of approval of their apostolate and evangelization, and
of acceptance in the one communion of the Church of Christ (cf.
Galatians 2:9).
We understand, therefore, that the expression -- "[f]rom now on,
therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even
though we once regarded Christ from a human point of view, we
regard him thus no longer" (2 Corinthians 5:16) -- does not mean
that his earthly life has little relevance for our maturing in
the faith, but that from the moment of the Resurrection, our way
of relating to him changes. He is, at the same time, the Son of
God, "who was descended from David according to the flesh and
designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of
holiness by his resurrection from the dead," as St. Paul recalls
at the beginning of the Letter to the Romans (1:3-4).
The more we try to follow in the footsteps of Jesus of Nazareth
on the roads of Galilee, so much the more will we understand
that he has taken charge of our humanity, sharing in everything
except sin. Our faith is not born from a myth or an idea, but
from an encounter with the Risen One, in the life of the Church.
[Translation by ZENIT]
[At the end of the audience, Benedict XVI greeted pilgrims in
several languages. In English, he said:]
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In today's catechesis we turn again to the life of Saint Paul
and consider his relationship with the Twelve Apostles. In his
letter to the Galatians, Paul speaks of his visits to Jerusalem
where he consulted Peter, James and John, reputed to be the
"pillars" of the Church. Paul's mission to the Gentiles needed
to be confirmed and guaranteed by those who had been disciples
of Jesus during his earthly life, and they offered to him and to
Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. Paul passed on the living
tradition that he had received: the words of Jesus at the Last
Supper, his death and resurrection, and his appearances to Peter
and to the Twelve. Paul emphasizes that Jesus died "for our
sins", he offered himself to the Father in order to deliver us
from sin and death. And now that Jesus has risen from the dead,
he is living in his Church and in the Eucharist, where we
continue to encounter him. Just as Paul's teaching is rooted in
his experience on the road to Damascus, and in his knowledge of
Christ acquired through the Church, so too our faith is
grounded, not on myths or pious legends, but on the words and
deeds of Jesus of Nazareth, and on our encounter with the risen
Lord, present in the life of his Church.
I offer a warm welcome to all the English-speaking pilgrims and
visitors here today, including the choir from New Zealand and
the groups from Britain and Ireland, Scandinavia, Africa,
Australia and the Far East. I greet in particular the new
students from the Venerable English College and the priests from
Ireland who are taking part in a renewal course. May your
pilgrimage renew your faith in Christ present in his Church,
after the example of the Apostle Saint Paul. May God bless you
all!
Copyright 2008 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
