BIBLICAL PASTORAL FORMATION

VERBUM DEI FAMILY-MANILA

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Pauline Letters

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The conversion of St Paul

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Sources?

1.Pauline letters (5)2.Deuteropauline (Eph 3, 1-12/1 Tim 1, 11b-17)

3.Acts of the Apostles (Acts 9/22/26)

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Accounts of his conversion in Pauline letters

• Life of St Paul

• 1 Cor 9, 1-18• 1 Cor 15, 1-11• 2 Cor 4,6• Gal 1, 11-16• Phil 3, 2-14

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‘Conversion’

• What does it mean by conversion?

• We have presuppositions –the horse!

• Let us examine the different texts individually

• Draw some conclusions for our own lives

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1 Cor 9, 1-18

1Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? …16If I preach the gospel, this is no reason for me to boast, for an obligation has been imposed on me, and woe to me if I do not preach it!

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1 Cor 9, 1-18• Written 20 years after Damascus

• Paul describes a vision – have I not seen the Lord?• It is a rhetorical question!

• “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel” (1 Cor 9,16)

• It is the moment of his apostolic investiture

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1 Cor 9, 1-18

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1 Cor 15, 1-11

• …that he appeared to Kephas, then to the Twelve. 6After that, he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7After that he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me. 9For I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective. Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them; not I, however, but the grace of God (that is) with me. 11Therefore, whether it be I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

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1 Cor 15, 1-11

8 Last of all … he appeared to me

9 not fit to be called an apostle I persecuted the church

10 by the grace of God

10 I toiled harder than all of them

• APPARITIOAPPARITIONN

• UNWORTHYUNWORTHY

• GRACEGRACE

• WORKWORK

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2 Cor 4,6For God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to bring to light the knowledge of

the glory of God on the face of Jesus Christ.

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2 Cor 4,6

• Criticized for preaching obscure Gospel• “It is veiled for those who are perishing!”

For God who said, "Let light shine out of For God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to bring to darkness," has shone in our hearts to bring to light the knowledge of the glory of God on the light the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of Jesus Christface of Jesus Christ

• Light and creation

• Renewal

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2 Cor 4,6

Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new creation (2 Cor 5,17)

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Galatians 1:11-16

• 11Now I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel preached by me is not of human origin. 12For I did not receive it from a human being, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ. 13For you heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it, 14and progressed in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my race, since I was even more a zealot for my ancestral traditions. 15But when (God), who from my mother's womb had set me apart and called me through his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him to the Gentiles

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Galatians 1:11-16

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Phil 3, 2-14

• 7whatever gains I had, these I have come to consider a loss because of Christ. 8More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ…13Brothers, I for my part do not consider myself to have taken possession. Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, 14I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God's upward calling, in Christ Jesus.

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Phil 3, 2-14

• ConversionConversion• A change of values

• ‘Transvalutation’

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Summary

• 1 Cor 9, 1-18

• 1 Cor 15, 1-11

• 2 Cor 4,6

• Galatians 1:11-16

• Phil 3, 2-14

• VisionVision

• ApparitionApparition

• New creationNew creation

• RevelationRevelation

• ConversionConversion19

Summary• Not a conversion from bad to good, but good to Christ like.

Conversion not to Christianity but to Christ• Paul the persecutor becomes an apostle. • It was the same God Paul had always served• He did not immediately understand the implications• Unexpected revelation, a gift, a grace• Call needs response• Hard to express• He often goes back to that experience• It drives him to preach the Gospel• And to keep running the race

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””A truly apostolic life is an A truly apostolic life is an abundantly contemplative one”abundantly contemplative one”

Rev. Fr. Jaime Bonet

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