On the Year of Saint Paul

At today's Mass in the seminary, Monsignor Callaghan spoke of the Year of Saint Paul. He dove into the way Saint Paul shaped Christianity in brining countless gentiles to the Faith.

I could not help but think of the homily that Pope Benedict XVI gave on the Solemnity of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (June 29) earlier this year. Here are the concluding paragraphs:

“Lastly, this brings me back once again to Saint Paul and his mission. He expressed the essential aspects of his mission as well as the deepest reason for his desire to go to Rome in chapter fifteen of the Letter to the Romans in an extraordinarily beautiful sentence.

“He knows he is called ‘to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the Gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit’ (15: 16). In this verse alone does Paul use the word "hierourgein" - to administer as a priest - together with "leitourgos" - liturgy: he speaks of the cosmic liturgy in which the human world itself must become a worshiping of God, an oblation in the Holy Spirit. When the world in all its parts has become a liturgy of God, when, in its reality, it has become adoration, then it will have reached its goal and will be safe and sound.

“This is the ultimate goal of Saint Paul's apostolic mission as well as of our own mission. The Lord calls us to this ministry. Let us pray at this time that he may help us to carry it out properly, to become true liturgists of Jesus Christ.”

Take care, -Jeremy