15/02/2026

"In those days", i.e. less than 25 years after the Resurrection.

St Paul together with all the Apostles and first disciples has become aware that the Resurrection is the final revelation of how we can access God's free gifts to live lives in conformity to his will.

Today we read from his first letter to the Corinthians and note that he is repeating Jesus' declaration before Pilate. "My kingdom is not of this world" when he tells them "Among the mature we do impart wisdom though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away".

Up until Jesus stopped him on the road to Damascus; stopped and blinded him with the light of the same glory that had also been revealed to Moses, Paul had been a prayerful Pharisee who was devoted to the Law. 

He had delighted in the matchless intellectual purity  that was worshipped with unquestioning trust in IAMIAM, absolutely undivided, source of all being and ruler of heaven and earth. Heaven could be seen in the sun and stars that always followed the same orbits and on earth a Jew could be rewarded  to the extent he followed the Law that had been revealed to Moses. God loved the Jews and they loved him.

After his Christophany, the matchless way in which St Paul lived out his missionary life and the teaching we still revere in his letters show us that he recognised that in the human life of Jesus Christ, IAMIAM had revealed himself to be IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT and he, Paul, himself opened his heart to become a truly  sinless vessel, a living temple for the Holy Spirit.

All human wisdom which does not include the sincere belief that Jesus is the Son of God is bound to pass away and achieve nothing. The Incarnation has to be welcomed by all mankind. It is the perfect foundation on which each one of us can construct the lifetime of righteousness that can become the living prayer of a soul sincerely devoted to Our Father and thus ready to be welcomed into the Eternal Moment when we become part of :

What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,

nor the heart of man imagined, 

what things God has prepared for those who love him.