Tuesday in the 27th Week of Ordinary Time, October 4, 2022

The Feast of St. Francis of Assisi

Galatians 1, 13-24

Brothers and sisters: You heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I persecuted the Church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it, and progressed in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my race, since I was even more a zealot for my ancestral traditions. But when he, who from my mother’s womb had set me apart and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him to the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were Apostles before me; rather, I went into Arabia and then returned to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to confer with Cephas and remained with him for fifteen days. But I did not see any other of the Apostles, only James the brother of the Lord. (As to what I am writing to you, behold, before God, I am not lying.) Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. And I was unknown personally to the churches of Judea that are in Christ; they only kept hearing that “the one who once was persecuting us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” So they glorified God because of me.

“You heard of my former way of life in Judaism.”  St. Paul’s own words about his conversion and early years as a follower of the Lord Jesus make for fascinating reading.  Looking at the details in his Greek text helps make his account even more vivid.  For instance, here he says, “You heard”, as distinct from “I told you”.  The Gentile Galatians would not likely have heard of the early deeds of St. Paul through the news that occasionally came to the cities and towns there by way of travelers and merchants.  Even if someone had told them about it, no one in that region would have been interested in the affairs of the distant land of the Jews.  It would seem that they learned of Saul of Tarsus from a visiting Apostle, probably Peter, for he was the most active of the Apostles in terms of work outside of Judea and Galilee, and was the first to preach to the Gentiles.  The other Apostles seem to have remained in Jerusalem to this point, possibly still expecting the Lord to return there within their lifetimes.  They remained even after the martyrdom of St. Stephen (36 A.D.), when so many other Christians had fled, and we see them still there in 48 A.D. when Paul and Barnabas went there to consult them about the need to circumcise Gentile converts: “They were received by the Church and by the Apostles” (Acts 15, 4).  Paul speaks to the Galatians of his “former way of life”, for the practice of Judaism meant more than making sacrifices to the gods on the prescribed days, as was the case with the Gentiles.  He confesses that he persecuted the Church “beyond measure”, beyond even what he was officially appointed to do.  “And progressed in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my race, since I was even more a zealot for my ancestral traditions.”  Paul says this in order to show the power of his encounter with Jesus on his way to Damascus.  He does not describe this experience here but gives us enough imagination to understand what happened to him.  It is the same case as when we determine the height of the sun in the daytime sky by measuring the shadows it casts.  “He, who from my mother’s womb had set me apart and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me.”  Paul says this in order to show that his situation and that of the Galatians was the same.  God had also called them from their mother’s wombs and set them apart from the rest of the world and called them through his grace, revealing his Son to them.  And just as God did this so that Paul might minister to the Gentiles, he did this for the Galatians so that they might minister to one another and to other Gentiles.

“I did not immediately consult flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were Apostles before me.”  Here we run into an apparent conflict with what St. Luke reports in Acts 9, but this is solved by understanding that two people are relating the same sequence of events according to what is important to the point they are making.  Luke wants to give the details about Paul’s conversion and what he did immediately afterwards: this serves his purpose in preparing his readers for Paul’s extraordinary labors.  Paul, on the other hand, wants to emphasize how he learned the Gospel from Jesus himself, and that he spent time meditating on it and praying in Arabia before beginning the bulk of his missionary work.  “Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to confer with Cephas and remained with him for fifteen days.”  it is not clear how much time he spent in Arabia and how much in Damascus, but the amount came to three years.  He seems to indicate that he taught in Damascus in the synagogue for some time.  Since he had no family or business ties to Damascus, this would only make sense if he had spent some time there already, as Luke tells us he did right after his conversion.  Then he went to “confer” with Cephas (the Greek transliteration of the Aramaic Kepha which Jesus had renamed Simon the fisherman).  The Greek word translated here as “confer” actually means “to get acquainted with”.  Paul had not yet met Peter and wanted to do so before he began his missionary work.  He spent fifteen days with Peter.  It would be wonderful to know what they talked about and how they got along: the erudite Pharisee and the former fisherman.  “But I did not see any other of the Apostles, only James the brother of the Lord.”  James the son of Zebedee had been dead some years.  This was the son of Alphaeus.  The other Apostles, whom Paul notes he did not meet either were preaching in other parts of Jerusalem or in the towns of Galilee and Judea.  “As to what I am writing to you, behold, before God, I am not lying.”  This seems like a strange interpolation: why would Paul lie about meeting Peter and seeing James?  The answer can only be that he is claiming to have received the Gospel from the Lord Jesus himself at the time of his conversion.  “Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.”Paul continues with his itinerary after his conversion, this time mentioning the first targets of his missionary activity after his work in Damascus.  The Roman province of Syria was located in approximately the same place as the modern state, though including more of modern Turkey.  Cilicia was situated on the south coast of Asia Minor, bordering Syria in the east and Galatia in the north.  Paul’s point is that he went to the Gentiles rather than continue preaching to the Jews in their synagogues.  “And I was unknown personally to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.”  Paul mentions “churches” in Judea, which would have existed outside of Jerusalem.  We know very little of these, and it is interesting to hear that there were several of these by the time of Paul’s conversion (dated as early as 33 A.D.)  The fact that he was “unknown” to them reminds us that Paul lived much of his early life in Tarsus, in Syria.  It also tells us that he did not preach in those places.  He mentions these churches at all in order to underline again for the Galatians his mission to the Gentiles, rather than to the Jews.  “So they glorified God because of me.”  This brings to mind the saying of Jesus that, “There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent” (Luke 15, 7).  By implication, Paul is telling the Galatians that there is more joy in heaven over their conversion from their pagan way of life than over the Jewish Christians who continued to live righteously.

Today we celebrate the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226).  Like St. Paul, he was a convert to Christ: Paul from Pharisaical Judaism and Francis from a secular worldview.  We ask his intercession for the graces needed by the Franciscan professed religious to live out their vows, and for the renewal of our own pagan age to one in love with God.