Florida Catholic | Bishop Barbarito’s Column

The year of St. Paul – the year of our diocese

Published: 06.16.08

Soon our diocese will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its foundation on Oct. 24, 1984. We will begin our celebration with Mass at the Cathedral of St. Ignatius on Oct. 24 and continue to celebrate our 25 years of growth. Our celebration will be centered on the Eucharist. There will be four special anniversary Masses, one in each deanery, which I will be privileged to celebrate, as well as a program of Forty Hours devotion in each parish. Included among the many events for the year are a Mass and walk with our youths, a diocesan dinner dance and a concluding Mass at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, which will highlight the rich and varied ethnic diversity of our diocese. We have much to look forward to and to celebrate.

Our 25th year will coincide in part with two other significant anniversaries the universal church celebrates this year. One is the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady to St. Bernadette at Lourdes in France. This celebration began Dec. 8, 2007, and will conclude Dec. 8, 2008. The other is the “Year of St. Paul” announced by our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI at the first vespers of the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul last year on June 28, 2007. This significant jubilee year will begin June 28 of this year and will conclude June 29, 2009. The year marks the bimillennium of St. Paul’s birth which scholars place between the years A.D. 7 and 10.

The Pauline Year soon to begin is significant, especially as we prepare to celebrate our 25th anniversary. Twenty-five years next to 2,000 years seem insignificant. Yet the 25 years of our diocese is an integral part of the continuum which is the life of the church that goes back to the Lord, Jesus Christ, himself. St. Paul’s message and witness are a most significant one for us 2,000 years later in this particular area of southern Florida, as it is for the entire church at all stages of its history.

St. Paul was a devout and zealous man. However, his religious convictions were originally quite opposed to the message of Jesus Christ and to his church. Paul was a persecutor of the church, using all of his abilities to do everything he could to destroy it. Born in the town of Tarsus in the Roman province of Cicilia, he was both a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin and a possessor of Roman citizenship. He studied under the renowned rabbi Gamaliel and had a solid knowledge of the Torah with strong ties to Jerusalem. Because of his zeal, he became an enemy of Christianity and was involved in the death of the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen. He was on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians when he was struck from his horse through the light of Christ and underwent his thorough conversion.

Paul became a tireless preacher of the Christian faith, undergoing imprisonment and suffering for it. He preached his message courageously to the gentiles and is known as the first missionary. A good part of the New Testament – approximately one-third – are the Letters of St. Paul, from which so many of his words are read in the liturgy. His teaching on faith, baptism, the Holy Spirit, grace, the Eucharist and his exhortations to virtue and the spiritual life is truly one of the foundations of the church. St. Paul went to his death as a martyr in the year A.D. 67, in imitation of the one he originally persecuted. He was most likely beheaded under the Emperor Nero.

During this Year of St. Paul, especially as we prepare for and celebrate our diocesan anniversary, St. Paul has a great deal to say to us.

The first lesson St. Paul gives to us is that our focus needs to be exclusively on Christ. With this focus, all else falls into place. St. Paul was a marvelous example of this singular vision. Reading any of his letters always enables us to understand better his perspective, which is summed up well in his words, “More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of having 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 and be found in him” (Phil 3:8-9).

St. Paul gives us a great example in understanding the words of Jesus, “It was not you who chose me, it was I who chose you to go forth and bear fruit” (Jn 15:16). Pope Benedict XVI tells us that “the apostle to the gentiles repeats several times in his letters that his whole life is a fruit of God’s freely given and merciful grace (cf. 1 Cor 15:9-10; 2 Cor 4:1; Gal 1:15).”

Paul had many weaknesses, faults, and sins, which he freely and often admitted, but he allowed God to be the one who used him. Paul was even a poor speaker, but his total commitment to Christ and his personal involvement with the Lord spoke for themselves and converted others.

Finally, St. Paul reminds us of the need to sacrifice. He faced many obstacles and sufferings in his life and ultimately sacrificed his life for the sake of the Gospel. Our age is one that needs the witness of sacrificial love and St. Paul is a primary example of this.

One very good way to celebrate this Year of St. Paul is to read his letters. His words not only fortify faith and give hope, but also apply to each of us in our daily lives. Taking his letters and reading a small part of them on a regular basis is the best means to get to know this great saint, to know our faith and to encounter the person of Jesus Christ. As our diocesan jubilee will coincide with the Year of St. Paul, may he be a guide in helping us to know that we are part of a church founded on Jesus Christ who is always present to us in this church and, most especially, through the Eucharist.

St. Paul, pray for us!

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