St. Paul understood his mission clearly. From the moment of his Baptism following his conversion Christ commissioned him to go to the whole world and proclaim the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the good news and from this time on the desire and compulsion that filled Paul’s soul was to fulfill the mission Christ had given to him.

Over the next few months as we celebrate the bi-millennium of the birth of St. Paul we will study this man, this Saint raised up by God and truly a spiritual giant. We will see how his life unfolded following his conversion as we study his writings and his legacy to the Church that Jesus Christ founded.

His missionary zeal can be seen as we reflect especially on the descriptions of events that are recorded in the Book of Acts. No wonder Holy Mother the Church every year, following Easter and through to Pentecost annually uses Acts of the Apostles as our Scriptural reflection during the celebration of the Mass. We read of the days following his conversion where Paul begins to proclaim Christ and is immediately threatened with violence against his person. He escapes from Damascus by being secretly lowered in a basket over the walls in the dead of night.

There follows a time of deep prayer where Christ himself teaches and prepares him for his mission. Paul speaks of this in 2 Cor. 12:2-4 I know a man in Christ who, fourteen years ago, whether he was in or outside his body I cannot say, only God can say - a man who was snatched up to the third heaven. I know that this man - whether in or outside his body I do not know, God knows- was snatched up to Paradise to hear words which cannot be uttered, words which no man may speak.

On his return to the world, even the Apostles were wary of him knowing his reputation as one who persecuted the Church. See Gal. 1: 23-24.

Thankfully Barnabus a convert to Christianity ( Barnabus means " Son of encouragement") takes Paul under his wing and presents him to Peter who affirms Christ's call on Paul's life, and he is sent to preach the Gospel. In Paul's letters we repeatedly see him beginning the letter by affirming this call by God to be an Apostle. Gal 1:1 Paul , an apostle sent not by men or by any man, but by Jesus Christ and God his Father... Even though Paul knows his calling he still submits to Peter the one chosen by Christ to be head of the Church upon earth. Incidentally "apostle" means one who is sent.

At the back of most Bibles you will find a number of maps of Israel and the Eastern Mediterranean. Get your family bible down from the shelf, blow the dust off and look for these maps. trace with your finger these journeys that St Paul undertook throughout Asia Minor and Europe. Not with the modern conveniences of aircraft, automobile or luxury cruise ships, but on foot, mile after mile, cramped in fragile ships subject to storms and shipwreck.

In 2 Cor 11: 24-27 he lists his trials endured as he travelled and persevered in preaching the Word.

Five times at the hands of the Jews I received forty lashes less one: ( 40 lashes was a death penalty) three times I was beaten with rods: I was stoned once, shipwrecked three times; I passed a day and a night on the sea. I travelled continually, endangered by floods, robbers, my own people, the Gentiles; imperiled in the city, in the desert, at sea, by false brothers; enduring labor, hardship, many sleepless nights; in hunger and thirst and frequent fastings; in cold and nakedness.

Yet still he persevered with the footgear of zeal to spread the Gospel of peace Eph. 6:15.

We read in Acts 16: 9 where in a vision Paul sees a man from Macedonia appealing to him to, " Come over to Macedonia and help us". This is a call to come to Europe and Paul's obedience to this call will change the whole face and future of Europe. The Gospel is proclaimed first in Greece ( Macedonia) and Christianity is established in this new continent and will spread west to Spain and North to Germany, Scandinavia, Russia, and the farthest parts of the Roman Empire to England and eventually Ireland through great missionaries who followed in the footsteps of Paul.

our own Baptism to be witnesses for Christ in our day and age. Pope Paul VI wrote a profound encyclical in 1975 entitled " Evangelization in the modern world". Here he reminds us that the Church exists to evangelize, it is her very identity." We no less than Paul are likewise called and commissioned through our Baptism to go forth and spread the Gospel in our homes, our workplaces, and in our travels transforming the world from within, touching every strata of society that our prayer made through Christ will come about. 'Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

St. Paul, pray for us.