Burke’s Blog

Today the Catholic Church celebrates the conversion of St. Paul.  Originally named Saul, he was one of the worst persecutors of Christians in the first century.  Christians feared him.  Saul was one of the people who killed St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr.

His conversion story is familiar: On the road to Damascus, he was knocked off his horse and blinding scales covered his eyes. After three days the scales fell from his eyes, providing the reality and the allusion that he could now “see” in more ways than one.

Paul eventually was put in jail a few times and even killed because of the message that God gave him to carry.  I’m not so sure I have ever had that strong of a faith that I would die for it, although in theory I could say that I would. Paul wrote a big chunk of the the New Testament. His status as a Roman citizen allowed him to travel around the Mediterranean Sea and coastline spreading the message of Jesus, and he used his fine education as a way to keep in touch with all of the people he had met through letters.  These letters were copied and passed around to all of the Christian communities.  They were so widespread that they were declared divinely inspired and part of the Canon when the Bible was finalized by the Catholic Church in 382 AD.

One thing I have never been big on is picking apart each and every noun, verb, adjective, article, and preposition that Paul used in those letters to define my faith.  A lot of times you hear preachers on the radio doing that sort of thing, and if they are doing it in their own hearts to serve God, then I’m all for it- it’s just not my approach.

It is also important not to impose 21st Century ways of thinking onto the words of a 1st Century writer.  A lot of times if history or an understanding of Paul’s audience is not understood, then his real message gets cloudy.  For example, in one of Paul’s Letter to the Thessalonians he describes being a Christian in the terms of being a soldier.  One might think he is changing Jesus’ teaching to turn the other cheek.  But Paul is not encouraging us to be warlike - the historical reality is that he was speaking to people who were already soldiers.  He was using words that they could understand and metaphors that would be clear to their minds.

The Bible did not fall out of the sky.  It was put to paper over time by human beings, just like you and me, whose hands were guided by the Holy Spirit. If you read several of Paul’s letters, you really get a sense of the presence of his human moods and emotions.  Sometimes he gets really mushy writing about love, and then sometimes he appears to be extremely firm and forthright and directive.  What this should tell you is that no matter what you are feeling or thinking, if your faith and desire to serve God is your first priority, God can take the words and/or music that you write and use them to His own ends.