25/01/2022

The strength of St Paul is a spiritual strength reinforced by visions and direct communication with the Lord. The story of his complete conversion in the Acts is one of God / Father, Son and Holy Spirit/eternity touching our world directly to reinforce the teaching/ example of the Son and to found the organisation that is the Church.

It is not easy to believe that God put so much trust in one man. Paul had the whole Roman Empire to convert and each day he must have been aware of the Holy Spirit supporting him in his mission first to the Synagogues and then directly to the Pagans. Of course the other Apostles were doing the same but their preaching is largly unrecorded as in preserving the Scriptures the four evangelists had precedence with the letters written by Paul preserved for his teaching and the strength of his encouragement.

The people who heard the Good News must have had many different reactions to it. Basically these Jews from Palestine were telling them that the Son of their God had been living as a man and teaching a new form of their traditional belief and this had caused the priests of their only Temple to instigate a case against him. After his Crucifixion the dead and buried Son had resurrected in a new form of body, (it was definitely a body but not controlled by the laws of our physical universe) and continued to teach and inspire them to pray to his Father and live according to his example. To give them the spiritual strength to live his way he had left his body in the form of bread and wine to be created and consumed during a ceremony that was a meeting of believers with love for another.

Paul's teaching is still an inspiration but where are the signs and wonders promised? There are some Evangelical groups who claim that these signs are still with them but I have never seen them. St Thomas did not believe until he saw and touched.

Dear Lord in my mind I can think thoughts of you in Palestine, walking and teaching the crowds who flocked to see the miracles you performed but in this moment you seem to be far away and my soul an insignificant blob of chemicals in the vastness of a universe. I believe that you the creator made not only the universe but also all atoms that make up my body. And I believe that the unseen world of spirit is also in your care. Thank God for the wonder of my being and for the Love that I have done nothing to deserve. Protect us all this day and inspire me to the Faith that can sincerely Hope in your Love.