We are approaching the end of the Pauline Year, proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI. It is a time to reflect on the example of St. Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles, so that we may be revitalized in the practice of our Christian life.
The Holy Father, in the brief, beautiful prayer he proposed for this Pauline Year, asked St. Paul “to intercede in order that we may obtain a deep faith, a firm hope, a fervent love of the Lord, so that we may be able to say with you, ‘yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.’” (Gal 2:20)
St. Paul is one of the most accomplished saints: theologian, writer, preacher, hard worker, daring traveler, speaker of several languages and extremely capable to adapt to diverse peoples and cultures.
St. Augustine was correct when he said, “the heart of Paul is the heart of Christ.” As a sacred writer, the author of the most abundant body of texts in the New Testament, St. Paul has left us an enormous treasure of wisdom to better understand our Christian faith.
And as Pope Benedict XVI explains, the point of departure in his teaching is the radical change brought about by Christ for humanity: the understanding that we human beings are no longer “servants” or mere “creatures” of God: we are sons and daughters.
St. Paul, in fact, dares to write something fundamental and radical, inconceivable for both the Jews and the Greeks of the time: “when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption. As proof that you are children, God sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.” (Gal 4:4-7)
We must pause to reflect on the beauty and importance of the word “Abba.” St. Paul’s mother tongue was Greek, the language in which he wrote his letters. However, as a disciple of the great rabbi Gamaliel, he knew Aramaic, the language Jesus and his contemporaries in Palestine spoke. “Abba” is Aramaic and is an intimately affectionate term for “father” that means “dad” or “daddy.”
St. Paul, then, is saying something that was scandalous for the Jews and madness for the Greeks: that Jesus revealed to us that we are God’s beloved children. God the Father, the almighty, the creator of the universe, the one at whose shadow Moses could not even look directly, is not merely our father, he is our “daddy.”
In another passage, St. Paul refers again to the fact that we are children of God to the point of becoming “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ”: “you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, ‘Abba, Father!’” The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if we only suffer with him we may be glorified with him.” (Rom 8:14-17)
We are “joint heirs with Christ!” That is, we become brothers and sisters of our savior Jesus Christ, the second person of the blessed Trinity, incarnate for our salvation.
Many spiritual writers say that only St. Paul could dare to express this reality, that we are truly children of God, and that this relationship is neither a literary figure nor an illusion, but a reality.
The spirituality of divine filiation allows us to be sons and daughters of God, and therefore we act moved by love, not fear. We do not measure or calculate our commitment to love God as a servant or a hired worker would do. We love God and others without conditions because we are children of God and receivers of his infinite love.
In these last months of the Pauline Year, let us pray to St. Paul so we may appreciate the gift of being children of God and for the grace to live as God’s sons and daughters.