Maddenation
Saint Paul
There is no doubt that Saul of Tarsus had a great conversion story, what with his being knocked off his horse and all. After that, however, his life seemed to settle down until he was imprisoned. Then his life really got uninspiring. How he managed to get so much play in the liturgy of the word is beyond me.
Today’s reading is a typical example of the kind of “huh?” theology Paul inspires. After the first reading (the famous fable from Genesis where Abraham bargains with God to save Sodom if there are 50, 45, 40, 30, … innocent people there) Paul’s reading starts out: “You were buried with him in baptism…” What? He continues:
…in which you were also raised with him
through faith in the power of God,
who also raised him from the dead.
And even when you were dead
In transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
He brought you to life along with him,
Having forgiven us all our transgressions;
Obliterated the bond against us, with its legal claims,
which was opposed to us,
he also removed it from our midst, nailing it to the cross.
Even assuming you understand any of that, I think it’s fair to say that it’s not very inspirational. And while I’m not a biblical scholar or historian, I don’t think it was very inspiring to the Colossians two millennia ago. (Colossians sounds like “galoshes,” and I find it hard not to imagine these people living in a land of constant rain, walking around in puddles all the time.)
Priests usually avoid talking about Paul’s readings, preferring to focus on the gospel and sometimes the Old Testament reading. Today was no exception. It’s much more fun to talk about Abraham negotiating with God than to than to discuss what it was like walking around in a state of “uncircumcision.” Or consider today’s gospel reading, in which Jesus teaches his disciples the Our Father and talks about the value of persistent prayer. This is much better material for a homily than Paul’s fixation on death and nailing obliterated bonds to the cross.
Of course, Paul also wrote the wonderful passage on love; his masterpiece. “Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast…” Now that’s inspiring. Too bad Paul wasn’t in that zone very often.
Dad • Observations • 07/25/04 • 1 comments
Comments
Patrick • 07/30/04 • 10:30 PM:Partly, Paul was making a metaphor from baptism. I know churches differ on how baptism should be done, but it was always clear to me (even when I was younger) that back in the day, baptism was a dunking in the water. So Paul is saying that baptism is symbolic of death, burial (being under water), and resurrection (in addition to a “washing”). The rest of the passage is straight atonement explanation: that Christ’s sacrifice, properly accepted and put to work, pays the price for our sins.
I don’t know if he’s all that inspiring, but it’s good to have different ways of saying the same thing. As for Paul getting so much focus in the Mass, it’s because he was either the most prolific letter writer, or the one whose letters survived the best (he wrote to the people with good libraries). And maybe it’s good that he was a convert.
I do think that Paul’s writings have done more to splinter Christian groups than any other NT writer’s. But maybe he was not “on” all the time doctrinally either.
By the way, did you know that scholars believe the author of the book of James was Jesus’ (half-)brother, not the apostle James, son of Zebedee? Not sure why they think that, but there are a couple of spots in the NT that refer to Jesus’ brother James. Could be.
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