"For I am the least of the apostles, who
am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of
God." (1 Corinthians 15:9)
Saint Apostle Paul, or Saul as he was called before
his baptism, was named so by his parents in honor of his ancient
ancestor king Saul. The apostle descended from the tribe of Benjamin and was the
child from quite a wealthy family. There is an interesting fact that although
Paul was a pureblood Hebrew, he had a Roman citizenship from his very birth. At
that time, it was a great advantage for the residents of such a big and
important city as Tars, where the future apostle was from.  |
| The Present day city or Tarsus (Tars) |
According to the writings that have survived to this
day, Saul was a disciple of Gamaliel, one of the most well known and educated
Pharisee of that time, at whose feet the future apostle was brought up and
taught the Law of Moses. Apostle Paul was a many-sided and well-educated person who was also familiar with the works of ancient philosophy and literature.
For the first time, Saul is mentioned on the pages of
Acts – in the episode about the stoning of the first martyr archdeacon Stephen.
It is known that Saul did not participate in that slaughter. Perhaps, the fact
that he was still a minor and could not take part in executions according to
the law was the reason for that. However, he was asked to watch the clothes of
the Hebrews who put it off for the execution. Thus we can see that Saul
approved the murder.
Later we see Saul as a participant of the persecutions
of the Church. The Book of Acts tells us: “As for Saul, he made havoc of the
church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them
to prison” (Acts 8:3). What is more, he even asked the archpriest for the
letters for the Damascus synagogues stating that anyone who would find the
followers of the apostolic teaching had to tie them and bring them to
Jerusalem. Right on his way to Damascus, his conversion to Christ happened.
When Saul was blinded with light, he fell to the ground and heard the voice: “Saul,
Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” Paul said, “Who are You, Lord?” – and then
he got the answer: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to
kick against the goads” (Acts 9:4-5). Paul went blind and was brought to
Damascus. There he spent three days in fast and prayer, until he was baptized
by Christ’s disciple called Ananias. The Lord appeared to him and ordered to baptize
the former persecutor of Christians for “he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear
My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15).
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| The Road to Damascus |
Saul was baptized, and at that very moment, he saw the
light both with his eyes and his soul and “Immediately he preached the Christ
in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God” (Acts 9:20).
Paul became one of the greatest apostles, who worked more than anyone else on preaching the Word of God and establishing Christian communities on the
territory of Asia Minor and Europe. It is worth
mentioning also that the largest part of the New Testament consists of 14 letters of Apostle Paul to various Christian churches. Although Apostle Paul was not
one of the Twelve Apostles and did not witness the life and miracles of Jesus
Christ as well as His Resurrection like other apostles did, the holy Church
honors him for all his works as a Holy and All-praised Supreme Apostle.
What St.
John Chrysostom says in his works:
“Blessed Paul, who gathered us today and enlightened
the whole universe, was once struck blind at the moment of his conversion. But his blindness
led to the further enlightenment of the universe. Since he looked at the world wrongly,
God blinded him so that he could recover his sight to good use. He both proved
His power by that, foretold the future sufferings and taught the way of
preaching – the way by which he had to close his eyes, reject himself and all
his previous life to follow Christ. This is why he exclaimed himself: “Let no
one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him
become a fool that he may become wise” (1 Corinthians 3:18). So, it was
impossible for him to recover well without rejecting those intentions that
bothered his mind and without devoting his life to faith.”
Reflections
in the Holy Church Traditions:
Thou wast
called from on high and not by mankind, when the earthly darkness had bedimmed
thy fleshly eyes, and by this blinding, had brought to light and shown forth
clearly the dismal gloominess of impiety, then the light from Heaven shined its
lightning radiance upon the eyes of thy mind, O Paul, thereby revealing to thee
the beauty of godly piety. Hence, thou didst come to know the One that doth bring
forth light out of darkness, yea, Christ our God. Do thou therefore entreat Him
to enlighten and to save our souls.
To be continued...
CONVERSATION