17/09/2024

I don't know whether or not St Paul was the first to use the image of our own human bodies to explain the relationship we have with each other in any organisation, but his image has been the most widely known. He had been forced into thinking about what had been happening within the groups in various locations throughout the Middle East since he and the Apostles had "gone out to the whole world" in response to the commandment of the Resurrection.

We all know that each one of us is a different unit with personal attributes that we all share but to different degrees. St Paul knew that he had to know, love and serve God. I expect that he began each day with the  prayer of the People of God. 

"Listen, Israel IAMIAM one God and you shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and strength."

He may not have used the exact words but he was, as Jesus and all the Apostles,  a Jew with a yearning to know God and do nothing but his will on Earth. He had been unceremoniously stopped in his tracks on the Road to Damascus and totally converted to become a servant of Christ Our Lord and nothing was able to separate him from the unforgettable intensity of the moment he had seen IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT and lived.

I think that in a short time he became shocked by the realisation that his one track mind was not duplicated in those to whom he had preached and so he had been forced into creating a reliable "organisation chart" so that his converts could know how to remain together as one body in the Lord.

It was Jesus who founded "the Church" on St Peter which guided by St Paul soon become the Hierarchical Institution that it has remained to this day. St Peter knew that he had been given a special task to prepare for the "Second Coming", but Jesus' enigmatical answer to his "What about this man?" question about St John reveals that he suspected that his "Church" was not the exclusive way to Salvation that later worldly Clergy have claimed it to be.

Dear Lord, I am here 2000 years after your Resurrection and still focused on your revelation of New Life, of Salvation by the forgiveness of sin and the Eternal Life which will be ours at the end of time. Help me to live with the "Last things" as taught by your servant St Robert never forgotten. May I find my way to the grace that is your response to the prayers of Mary, Angels and Saints and we sinners still on Earth. Let us share grace with the Holy Souls who in Purgatory are secure that after your justice has run its course they will be welcomed into the Joy for which we have all been created. Amen