10 Things You Didn't Know About St. Paul The Apostle | The Catholic Talk Show

hey everybody welcome back to another episode of the catholic talk show today we're going to be talking about saint paul and some really awesome facts about him yeah we're going to look at the apostle to the gentiles learn about his travels learn about things that he endured in his mission for christ and so much more there is possibly no greater evangelist next to saint paul with the exception of the blessed mother so i'm very excited about hearing the life of such a great apostle of jesus [Applause] [Music] all right guys let's jump right in this is a really great topic i love saint paul he wrote pretty much half of the bible so i mean like you know this is going gonna be something we're gonna really yeah saint paul wrote half of the bible and probably didn't use a single comma there was no punctuation that's true i remember reading a passage out of one of his letters and i'm like that's the longest sentence i've ever read in my life especially as a lector when you're up there at the ambo and you're reading saint paul it's like you've got to take a deep breath and start you know going through all of his lines i mean it's true it's like these run-on sentences that that's awesome though oh they're incredible yeah yeah you have to like re-read them and and look at them it's like okay what is he saying and what's being articulated here it's fascinating you know like one of the interesting things is that a lot of biblical scholars will say that parts of that were meant to be sung and that paul was almost including song lyrics because you'll see that you know in in the book of acts when paul's in prison that they're singing in in prison and it's not uncommon for songs to be in the bible and a lot of these were meant to almost be sung as like almost like a uh like a bard or a troubadour right or that those those lyrics you know ostensibly to a song would help them to be remembered and give them meter and context without the use of any sort of punctuation well he was jewish and a lot of the jewish religion was based on psalms absolute songs you know i have to say that's pretty interesting but you know what else is interesting what's that all of the content that we put on our social media channels facebook instagram and twitter if you're not following us follow us today we've got a ton of material that we put out there and most especially if you are watching youtube right now if you are listening in make sure that you're subscribing on all of our platforms if you are on youtube make sure you click the subscribe button and click that little bell next to it dude when you do put that little ding on it you're gonna get our run our incentives you're gonna get a lot of run on sentences that we are authors of so make sure you're subscribing on all of our platforms and if you're commuting make sure you know we're on a number of different forums so go to catholictalkshow.com there you'll see every way that you could listen in from google google play stitcher 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was there he was i think scripture says he was breathing venomous threats is that is the way to describe it um and saint paul was born in tarsus tarsus is in asia minor today turkey and it was an important roman province at the time and and paul was a roman citizen which is something that's really important in the ancient world right he had certain rights that others didn't have by the virtue of being a roman citizen and it was likely that his father was a roman was granted citizenship for one reason or another probably in the trades but paul then went would have went to jerusalem and trained under the pharisees right under the pharisees particularly uh boy this word's a tough one talk about reading paul but i think uh gemelli i i'm sure i butchered that i'm so sorry but paul was a pharisee you know and and pharisees in the new testament get such a bad rap and rightfully so because the culture of the pharisees was accusatorial it was very letter of the law it was very taylor marshall right it was there's also there's also you know senses of um affiliation to political and bureaucratic circles yeah and and you know when you look at administration and structures of administration it does play a part but when it gets to the point of of stagnation and almost like protection of the pharisees we're in a race to see who who can know the law better who could be who could be more austere who can have the longest phylactery who can no scriptures at each other to get a up on top exactly it's like a competitive like well oh it was almost like a cancel culture of first century judaism what a great connection that's a beautiful connection it really was because it's like ah but did you think of this scripture from job oh but did you think of this one from you know baruch or whatever well how can he be the pharisee above me if i know all this stuff doesn't make sense and so paul was reared in this by the great great government gamaliel right i'm not even attempting to do it i'm just kind of throwing out jesus and whatever there'll be different versions on the show was paul's basically his instructor in the pharisaical way um and obviously when he sees this totally heretical jewish sect following this failed messiah obviously he's like well this is my opportunity to show just how much i know the law and just how much these people are wrong and he was there you know the scripture says in acts at the martyrdom of the first martyr saint stephen let's go there yeah so saint stephen i mean his defense in that oh my goodness and his recounting of essentially all of salvific history absolutely amazing and i'm and it was actually funny too like he had a sense of humor during his martyrdom he was he was amazing saint stephen was amazing the name of my father absolutely just if you haven't read the testimony of stephen and wild do it because stephen really one of the most important early saints outside of the 12. yeah so you can start with steven's discourses you know the accusation starts in chapter six stephen's discourse goes into chapter seven of i highly recommend of the book of acts so that goes all the way down into stephen's martyrdom which begins at the 54th verse of chapter seven and when they heard this they were infuriated and they ground their teeth at him but he filled filled with his holy spirit after this beautiful discourse because people were like convicted at his eloquent speech and how convicted he was i mean stephen really one of the the first martyrs um you know in in that respect you know the fact that he was given this eloquence was through the power of the holy spirit so when they heard this they were infuriated they ground their teeth at him but he filled with the holy spirit looked intently to heaven and saw the glory of god and jesus standing at the right hand of god and she said and he said behold i see the heavens opened and the son of man standing at the right hand of god but they cried out in a loud voice covered their ears and rushed upon him together they threw him out of the city and began to stone him the witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named saul as they were stoning stephen he called out lord jesus received my spirit then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice voice lord do not hold this sin against them and when he said this he fell asleep um you know an interesting thing about stephen that likely was not his actual name steven's greek word which comes from the word for crown right and that crown is the crown of martyrdom and that's so his name likely wasn't stephen could have been but he was known then afterwards as stephen the crowned martyr right because you received the crown of martyrdom and the fact that he he forgave i mean like fell to his knees cried out in the louder lord do not hold this sin against them sounds like jesus on the cross man absolutely and what a witness to the same people the very next verse chapter 8 now saul was consenting to his execution you know like well that's all was there i mean saul for anybody out there who thinks that they're not a good christian and whatever they've done has driven you away from christ and that you don't belong in church and you're too you're too much of a bad person the guy who wrote the majority of the bible killed christians because that he thought that was his duty i mean no one is beyond the mercy of god how many people do you hear in your in your experience oh i could never go into a church the church would fall down and like you know holy water and that explodes yeah it's it's crazy it's a drag to them yeah like oh you know i gotta go to the church well not even that people who feel like that they're such they're so unworthy yeah you know that too yeah and that's true there is an unworthiness but there's also an apathy right which which they bring in that unworthiness too as well so there's people who really feel unworthy and there's others that usher that and i think that apathy is a shield of protection over their vulnerability because the vulnerability aspect of it is like this complete unworthiness because of whatever particular sin that you've committed and we know that too from from our own personal sinfulness it's like we isolate and we we hide away and we we shield ourselves with all sorts of external so that people don't see our sin but in the in the big reality of it you know when we see these conversion stories like we're about to dig into paul as we're seeing the very beginnings of the foundation of where he was coming from to now encountering jesus through the witness of stephen first martyr now you know and as we get into it what's going to be the very catalyst of paul's enthusiasm and his fire and his evangelization and his message to the gentiles is the fact that nothing should ever hold us back from the love of christ and being absolutely enthralled with the mission that he calls us that's a great point nothing should hold us back from the love of christ i mean those are beautiful words that he wrote and and and he himself lived that yeah he did he did well saint paul was nothing except for all in everything he did when he was a fierce truth he was all in when he was writing a sentence he was all in when he experiences conversion he was always he was preaching he like he was preaching and there was a guy that fell out of this second-story window what did he do when he was done reviving him he went back up and started preaching again wow like i'm serious like the guy was like a beast oh man i love it so his name would have been saul saul of tarsus at the time interesting thing about tarsus tarsus is the city where mark antony and cleopatra met each other about 50 years before paul was born uh cleopatra went to tarsus which is a big you know greek hellenic city dressed as aphrodite and you know hooked up with mark anthony and the whole you know roman civil war at the time about 50 years later um that's rapala and so you can see how it really number one jewish paul was but also how hellenized and romanized paul was he really encompassed all those three major cultures he spoke like a greek he spoke like a jew he was a roman citizen like a roman right there was you could not have found a more opportune confluence of cultures and educations and he had the intensity too right like he had the intensity in the ten cities he did and more he was double live in budapest so saul um he was a jew and he was a tent maker his father was a tent maker by trade um you know father rich i'm sure you know this ministry doesn't pay so much and a man's got to eat even paul so he made tents and the area of tarsus in in in that area there they had a particular kind of um goat that they made like world-renowned tents out of like he was a master craftsman as well like look he's making tents his tents are going to be the best right um and that product in that period of time was incredibly important oh very important it was shipped out worldwide he was worldwide i mean they had those tents at the catalina wine mix [Laughter] you know and also he was he was from the tribe of benjamin right and that's important to note because number one it shows that he was you know how he was related to the church i'm sorry the old testament fathers but it's likely he was named after king saul because king saul was also from the tribe of benjamin so he was probably in at least a tangential way related to king saul of the old testament you're saying he was like an elite jew too or well i mean he was a pharisee training under the most renowned rabbi like you know you could name somebody john or whatever right now and like but i mean are you saying like you know no he was definitely a lead he trained under the most respected rabbi he was a roman citizen he was you know his father probably gained citizenship because of how he respected he was in craftsmanship you know and he had to be probably kind of rich for his father to be able to afford to send him to jerusalem to train in the temple right so he again he had all these factors that would lead him to be very intense but very educated incredibly cultured and really in him was almost personified the crossroads of the world at the time yeah it is really important to realize that paul being this really cosmopolitan type of a figure in his own time he was absolutely in touch with all of the really known world and all the trade circles i mean this guy was very very well in touch and it's kind of interesting that along those same lines his conversion comes along the roadways as well and i think it would be kind of cool as we dig into saint paul st saul's conversion and then now paul you know saul to paul his conversion starts at chapter nine so if you want to follow this at home if you're if you're connecting with us if you want to do the bible in a year or a bible in a day yeah so here's the thing this is a bonus thing so mike schmitch which you are absolutely you are not but you are not even close but you're going to remind me there's nothing better than mike schmitz so mike schmitz has the bible in the air we've been encouraging father rich to take it you know bible in the day you can go on audible and the bible the new american bible is 19 hours so we are going to just totally jump the line and do the bible in the day they're going to load me up with some caffeine and you know some red bull and some coca leaves some cocaine no that sounds really good okay i learned from our brother john edwards it's not good a shout out to just a man in the pew just a guy just a guy all right so chapter nine saul's conversion acts of the apostles now saul's still breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the lord went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in damascus that if he should find any men or women belong to the way he might bring them back to jerusalem and chains on his journey as he was nearing damascus a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him saul saul why are you persecuting me he said who are you sir the reply came i am jesus whom you are persecuting now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do got chills the men who were traveling with him stood speechless for they heard the voice but could see no one saul got up from the ground but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing so they led him by the hand and brought him to damascus for three days he was unable to see and he neither ate nor drank it's a pivotal moment in paul's journey in world history yeah i think right so i think also the interaction of god in the world like i think as catholics we don't give god enough credit to act in our world we think that you know the democrats are taking over and they're censoring people at all the republicans are going to shut down the public kids doing this or whatever and it's just like that's everything everybody hears if they turn on the tv thank god i haven't turned on the tv in like months i feel great yeah but at the end of the day it's like if god can turn around one of the chief prox prosecuting officers of christians if god can turn hundreds hear me hundreds of years of death murder of christians hundreds of years what is this that we're living in right now like seriously is this really that bad like if it even gets worse like can't we refer back to the fact that god can act in our world well you know here's what i'd say about that is our time seem trivial in the dangers that we face but there's a say there's a verse in the saying of the desert fathers that i love and i think it's so instructive about exactly what you just said is that this monk goes up to the abbot of a monastery in the desert he says you know uh uh abba father you know because that's you know abbott um i have a vision that you know in the future men will barely pray they can barely fast for a day they're so weak and they're so limited they don't pray the office they don't fast they don't meditate and the abbot in his wisdom said well we now fight the devil chained and for us these practices are easy that in the future men will fight the devil unchained and furling about and that any sort of resistance is much more heroic than what we do now because we really are in our age fighting the devil completely unchained there is no limits to what people accept in evilness and wickedness and it's a lot different the morality the ethics of our culture is so radically different than what they would have considered at the time that we in a modern age in our softness don't give ourselves enough credit for the actual backbones that we do have that you could have faith in this world is almost the same accomplishment as having great faith in the old world and that was that so that's in the saying of the desert fathers and i always go back to that when i think i'm kind of a [ __ ] yeah and it's hard to judge it's hard to judge our own present day evils with those of the past and and it is it's it's challenging but i think what you're bringing up de la crosse is such a good point you know when we can actually detach from the world's evils and how we are being pulled in many different direction and how how the devil is just so footloose and fancy free and everything that that the devil is doing in our culture but that god is with us and that god can act in time and radically transform a singular moment the worst of our humanity absolutely everything that we point at yeah as being evil god can take one of those people and just move them forward down to the most worst murderous violent intent that's all yeah so paul to paul that he could reach down there and then draw out one of the greatest most prolific martyrs witnesses evangelists enthusiasts and proclaimers of jesus christ in the history of the church yeah and i'll go to my dying bed hoping in the lord yeah you know you know the fact that you know saul at this point on his journey is blinded is just so indicative of what the world will do to us in the universe with with with respect to political ties worldly initiatives economy power money sex drugs whatever it is it can absolutely blind us in respect to what is the path that i'm on and why am i on this path where am i going where is paul going why is he doing all of this is it because of the ties with the romans is it because of the ties with the pharisees it's because of the ties with both where is he trying to advance to in some type of worldly gain well now he's blind bro like nothing more jesus spoke to him and now his whole life's pursuit which he was very good at that's why he was going to damascus there it's come to an end you know and and that's what i love about god's mercy because sometimes it's painful yeah you know this would have happened in about the year 36 about three years after the resurrection and ascension um and you know something that i think is kind of interesting is that saul would i mean jesus called him saul you know and we call him paul but even in scripture those names were used interchangeably it's not like saul was only known as paul but he was and so saul you know he's named after the king saul but paul is almost like a pun and in hebrew hebrew scriptures and jewish scriptures are so filled with puns it's you know really really great um you know literary devices but paul basically means the smallest right paulus it means like small and so he went from saul this great exalted king in name to the littlest right and it shows that he was adopting his humility where he had been knocked down from being this educated uh you know educated by the most revered rabbi a member of the tribe of benjamin related to king herod right i mean he mentions in scripture that carried the great herodians were his kinsmen like this was a guy of influence which means in stature and now he's this guy who travels 10 000 miles in his life beaten almost killed multiple times you know jailed right you can actually read the humility that he has and it's profound way profound and way more profound than peter way more profound than james right they they both wrote beautiful letters because peter and james they were they were simple men to start paul had a lot of ways to go and fall off of that horse on the road to damascus yeah you know and that gives us hope too with with arrogance and kingship that that those people can and in humility god exalts that and not only exalts it but changes the world from it right so i mean you have a lot of potential with people right now that we're pointing at saying you're like yo the devil you know like there's always hope there's always hope you never know what god's gonna do you know what i mean and he could always lay the path for you straight in in respect to you know saul's next steps you know the the scriptures conclude continue in chapter 9 there was a disciple in damascus named ananias and the lord said to him in a vision ananias he answered here i am lord the lord said to him get up and go to the street called straight and ask at the house of judas for a man from tarsus named saul he is there praying and in a vision he has seen a man named ananias come in and lay his hands on him that he may regain his sight but ananias replied lord i have heard from many sources about this man what evil things he has done to your holy ones in jerusalem and here he has authority from the chief priests to imprison all who call upon your name but the lord said to him go for this man is a chosen instrument of mine to carry out my name before gentiles kings and israelites and i will show him what he will have to suffer for my name so ananias went and entered the house laying his hands on him he said saul my brother the lord has sent me jesus who appeared to you on the way by which you came that you may regain your sight and be filled with the holy spirit immediately things like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight he got up and was baptized and when he had eaten he recovered his strength wow ananias is a figure i wish i knew more about i wish there was more about anonymization you know and you know ananias is like hey man this is a trap right because i know this guy i've heard this guy's reputation but ananias baptized paul and i think that's really really cool so um here's a really do you know where he went after he went into the desert after he went and got those scales do you know where he went no it's very clear in scripture that he he stayed in damascus for for a little while immediately started preaching as you can imagine right so after this experience your enthusiasm for the name of jesus christ and and the fact that your blindness has been taken away your path is now straight you have a mission before the cause of that retreat it's like the passion that he had was immediately reverted or converted into the passion for christ yeah yeah and that's what you experienced that was a little bit dumb about it but yeah but but can you imagine how paul looks like can you imagine how paul looked like everyone's like oh delacrosse this guy's kind of a you know resolute or dissolute life and then all of a sudden he's talking about the eucharist like do we believe this guy well paul is killing christians and all of a sudden he's preaching it they're like come on man it's true i mean i experienced it too it's like it wasn't a warrior for like that no but you're excited you had a reputation did you not have a reputation i don't know of course you did i did too you did too you know the fact that the fact that his was so great i i think that's where we're going with it but but honestly his influence shifted his influence shifted very soon and people who were against christians you better believe they're going to be against paul now yeah you know absolutely it's just like anybody who has a conversion who's going to believe them right he's he's switching sides right yeah right it's not like he's like you know doing this and doing that and then all of a sudden he's like oh man jesus whatever it's like he was like killing christians now he's like all right i'm all about this no no doubt a little more intense it's it's it's extreme it's more extreme than you it's more extreme than me way more but the point is that he went out preaching immediately you know that's because he was like and that's what to shield's point that's the same thing that happened to you it's the same thing that happened to me you know i still remember i was preaching jesus they were like richie pagano is like preaching jesus i'll never forget the guy i played ball with derek he got locked up like the next week i saw him at walmart he's like oh richie found jesus and he's and he was busting my chops and i got in his face and i said derek you know you should think about it right yeah and then where'd derek end up yeah yeah but and and i still love him we still stay in touch he's still my boy but the thing is is you know it's it's hard to imagine when you're in a culture that that you're that you have a reputation in that immediately there's this massive transformation and now you're living a totally different lifestyle and i'm i'm talking about the the deep personal like conversion right like just the personal side not the the you know the side of like hey these are all my friends and then i have to make new friends and then i get cross friendship i'm talking about the passion which with he had was so big that he was actually killing people right and now he's experiencing something he's like i'm going out there and doing this now completely different direction it's like completely like warrior style exactly and that and that i think is perfect sense because you know he has that warrior spirit for politics yeah and now it's all for the name of jesus christ and humility and and humility in the spirit of humility yeah so you know it's very clear in the scriptures that he stuck around damascus for a little while preached and then that's where it kind of gets questionable did he did he go off to arabia did he go off to he was going for a while well arabia was a very broad term you know it's the great lands to the south right it's it's the other but this is where i love about saint paul it becomes legend yeah because people say he was in gaul he was in you know in the far east homeboy was made it to china to preach the gospel i mean like there are legends attached to paul reaching the furthest ends of the world to proclaim jesus christ and establishing communities all over the place you know ends mode yeah and i think it's pretty interesting that he went to arabia right some say he went to he went to find find mount sinai and pray and meditate there but it also seems very likely to me that he was going to an area that didn't know his reputation right to where he didn't have to where he could preach and learn his chops 40 days in the desert well yeah it could have been years really but still it was his like yeah it was withdrawing from it's like the seminary for a young man so then after that you know paul continues his preaching and and then later it talks about how he ends up meeting peter and john and james and meeting all the people who knew jesus in jerusalem it's again hilarious that's and that's wow so after a little section on saul preaching damascus the the line and accident this is what i love acts 9 23 after a long time had passed the jews conspired to kill him yeah so he's coming back with chops yeah yeah he's coming back with like and he's coming back to say look everything that that jesus has done everything that the power of the holy spirit has done in my ministry i'm bringing this back to jerusalem and we need to have a heart to heart yeah so yeah after he comes back from from arabia or wherever he wherever he's going he went to antioch okay and he probably spent eight or so years there preaching in antioch um this is before you met with peter peter and paul so basically he wouldn't have met peter for about 12 years after his conversion right which is crazy that's crazy was he like was he even like celebrating mass where could he have gone in 12 years but he comes back with this identification that he's an apostle right but he said that the others were he was apostle by what's the word he uses by basically personal invitation of christ yeah he counts himself as an apostle yeah and as equals with peter and john he wouldn't change i see anything less from him no because i mean again just all out and i love that he calls out peter i mean he's straight out he will call out peter and i mean if he was a christian he would have known council of jerusalem yeah and james and john these were jesus boy and here's this guy who didn't know jesus and he's going and calling out the people who knew jesus that's a bold move man saint paul was a bold guy and that was those are the characteristics you needed for so long they still knew him they still knew who he was you know but was he was he like doing mass or something and the thing is it would have been true and it's very possible if he was ordained by god as an apostle he could have been obtained by jesus you know what i mean like well i mean you can almost consider ananias like maybe an ananias was somewhat of a auxiliary bishop of damascus he was baptized by ananias he was accepted into christian communities in the diaspora in the greek speaking world whether he was in egypt you know in sinai so much more about right and you better believe that's the key and then an antibiotic paul's no ignorant human being oh no he knows exactly who he's persecuting yeah he knows all the stories he knows everything paul paul is a great point yeah he knows what's going on he knows exactly what's going on yeah and then on top of that you know the instruction that he gets from ananias the instruction that he gets from infused knowledge wisdom and understanding and counsel from the spirit in relationship to his encounter with jesus and if jesus is going to charge him like you said on other other shows too god doesn't call the equipped he equips those who are called you know jesus himself through the power of infused knowledge and wisdom and counsel specifically absolutely he's going to prepare and equip paul because he he does have such an important role in responsibility in the mystery of which was the church which was eventually manifested through the council of jerusalem yeah you know and paul being in antioch that's where peter was peter was the bishop of antioch not rome at the point right he wasn't the bishop of jerusalem or rome he was in antioch and i think where paul really shows up on the apostle level stage is where peter refused to eat a meal with gentiles because peter was still jewish you know so was paul they didn't they never considered themselves not jewish some of their first masses or first worship was in the jewish synagogue and they got kicked out yeah because they're just like what i mean this isn't working out you know and so they took some of that that part which was the old testament went went over here and just did the prayers it's in the dude again yeah so paul would have called out in that incident he said ah and maybe this is a little bit of that pharisaical muscle memory right well peter won't eat with gentiles but i know that you know in christ there is no greek no jew no gentile right no man no woman which is just so beautiful because what's on the chopping block is dietary law the fact that in the culture of where they were living antioch all throughout turkey jerusalem all throughout judaism in this very concentrated area which necessarily the apostles have to kind of wrestle with in respect to who are we in the context a lot of their worship a lot of their practices was still taking place around synagogues and jewish gatherings a lot of their rituals were still our rituals today have very judaistic roots so you know what they were doing who they were they were still tr in that process of self-discovery well paul through the power of the spirit drives out to the furthest diaspora so he's coming back with this whole sense of like hold on y'all are still talking about yeah oh like the spirit of god like radically evangelize thousands of people wherever he's gone he's preaching in the spirit so he's coming back with that so on the chopping block it's not only dietary you know restrictions it's also circumcision circumcision chopping block very good shopping basically it was it wasn't building up for that basically this incident at antioch where paul he even wrote i called out peter to his face over not eating with gentiles and saying you know you're forcing gentiles to live like a jew but you know so this was basically the first catholic church drama right this is the first situation where an ecumenical council was required and paul probably instigated so you know you've got these these apostles who knew jesus and then you got this guy who used to be a pharisee and killing christians and all of a sudden he's calling them out it's like hey man are we in schism here what's going on so that was like hey we got to call an ecumenical council and that was the first council of jerusalem and they said well do gentiles have to behave like jews do they have to refrain from do they have to keep the jewish dietary costumes and do they have to be circumcised because that's a big one right it's like hey do you believe in jesus you have all this yeah great one little point of contention be a vegan but what that's a hard bill of sale and also that's a very hard pill but also that is a sign of the the the covenant between abraham and jesus right that was like that sign of the covenant this is the new covenant so this whole situation basically is catholic political turmoil right and they have to call this council and the council essentially sides with paul against the pope this is crazy right and they said that really the only things that they have to do is um refrain from eating meat from strangled animals and um they don't have to follow the jewish dietary customs and they don't have to be um circumcised this is a big win this is why paul was called the apostle to the gentiles and he was jewish now we know church politics we know church politics now probably not too different from back then people as people right but what happens to paul after that he doesn't go back to antioch he doesn't bishop peter doesn't take him back right i mean you got problems so what do they do you know they you know they ship them off to guam to go you know study a case you know yeah they take paul to catch cannalaska right but that's when paul really never goes back to antioch he now starts his four apostolic journeys it's not like he wasn't accepted back but it's like okay paul you're right you're a bit much dude you're stepping on a bunch of toes we got this i think let's take that energy and focus it yeah yeah yeah yeah i got to say the other side of that is like hey man you really need to be on the road yeah yeah you can't be housed up that's your gift right that's your gift is being on the road and that was my that was my challenge in respect to diocesan life or the religious life of being an itinerant preacher and like going out right and it's like you know where do i find my identity where do i find my gifts like god what are you calling me to and you know i'm always in a constant state of discernment and i think that's very healthy um because we have to be but we want to fulfill god's plan and clearly now saint paul who's kind of this um loose charismatic cannon in a way now is entering into the universal church and now thank god given structure yeah thank god because now we can actually track some of his contact with some of the most important communities in christendom that we have in the scriptures right and some of the most important people to the catalyst of evangelism evangelizing that happens in the apostolic deposit and we've talked about this on other shows about how books of the bible were considered and discerned and becoming the canon right part of that was this connection that he had to peter and to the apostles when he sent a letter back it was like they trusted him right and that trust was promulgated through the next you know people that they laid hands on and laid hands on and so that that trust was there so the council of jerusalem for this guy was divinely inspired and literally became the the bulwark of our our scripture through the trust that they had with him as he went out now i don't want to i don't want to kind of sidetrack but i do want to just give a shout out and i know we've done a show on saint peter but what a beautiful disposition saint peter has in all of this you know and and he had to have learned that firsthand from jesus and his receptivity you know i was like i mean yeah he's making decisions understanding yeah man even taking fraternal correction you know i mean like what a receptivity and that shows his growth from you know from the ascension until then where he really is this more austere you know he truly is a vicar of christ and not a vicar amongst himself right i mean he he is taking to prayer all these things and discerning and deciding and not you know i mean it was like jesus himself said like you know the least will be you know first among me you know like he was there for that you know so i mean this all this stuff sunk in so some of the places that you know that we know he visited uh cyprus pamphilia pasidia lyconia asia minor you know there are lessons in spain because he says he went to the far reaches yes to the west and that was spain absolutely uh you know pacifi we already talked about like uh antioch antioch was a very very important place central we have to keep that in mind iconium lystra derby uh ephesus you know everywhere we were talking like five thousand miles i mean ten thousand miles yeah ten thousand miles when you calculate the trips that he took over ten thousand miles and man there was no cars so if this is the case i got you on that this is this is the thing you're saying really about the amount not the this is the this is the argument in respect to paul you know homeboy had like 12 years of unknown travel look at what he did in like known travel dude could walk man was he fired up and that was immediately after his conversion where god led him and how he got there and what he preached in the in the spirit when you think about i think his greatest his greatest ministry was probably unrecorded and undocumented you know it's just fascinating to think about and when you think about you know i don't want to drive 30 minutes to see my mom yeah about that yeah so on all these trips paul's going and sharing all these you know letters he's founding churches the letters that he writes to those churches after he leaves become those epistles become those books of the bible um but eventually he makes his way back to jerusalem and he gets in some trouble and a bunch of the the jews of jerusalem vowed not to eat or drink until paul was dead and assaults paul's sister's son so his nephew found out about the plot because they were still really politically converted and warned paul so paul's nephew warren paul and he skipped dodge right he he he um yeah he snuck out and then he um basically the roman governor felix had him incarcerated but then paul invoked his right as a roman citizen and said because felix was going to send him back to the jews and the jews were going to have him killed right the the you know pharisees and the scribes and whatever so he invoked his right as a roman citizen and a roman citizen can only be given that punishment by the emperor so that's why he was sent to rome and then there's the whole you know the the taking paul to rome and the shipwreck in malta which is awesome saint paul is super cool but then he was taken to rome and basically kind of you know house arrests you know waiting trial and that's where he met peter you know he met peter in roman and you know now it's it's whole different story you know oh yeah peter's now the bishop of rome and it's it's a different situation than it was ten years earlier and um they probably weren't even talking about hey are you the bishop of brown yeah no they were no they were it's very that's actually an important distinction peter had already been there right and the person who goes there is you know the bishop that's the one who found the church peter founded the church there and paul is there you think paul should be obviously the next in line after peter but peter appointed linus as his successor not paul even though paul was there so paul was probably not a bishop maybe you can kind of consider him in today's world bishop because he's an apostle you know maybe like an auxiliary bishop but he was not the bishop of rome he was not the co-bishop of rome he wasn't even the appointed successor linus was above him he was kind of almost like a like an ordinary yeah he was honestly like a religious you know like a religious religious charismatic itinerant like he was not a diocesan he wasn't a diocesan priest that's for sure right he wasn't um so then you know he was in prison there's he writes letters from prison you know um he's awaiting his trial and ultimately he was he was beheaded by nero in the persecutions and but we've talked about in another episode about the maritime prison and you know how paul and peter came together in that in that imprisonment and you know it's it's such a beautiful thought that in prison for the sake of christ together these two very different charisms in the church come together preceding their own execution like it's just it's so fascination they took those crazy different paths and different missions yeah and in that divine irony they ended up in the same place like amazing so cool um so yeah paul was beheaded because you know peter we know crucified upside down because he was not a roman roman citizen but a roman citizen could not be crucified yeah it was it was almost like a an accommodation for a roman citizen to be beheaded as opposed to crucifixion which is more of a barbaric torturous it's torturous and they wouldn't torture a roman citizen they got the mercy of a beheading now an interesting one he was he was beheaded outside of the city of rome absolutely because i don't think you could you couldn't kill a roman citizen inside the city walls that's why because his main church is saint paul's outsiders um there's and that's also the site of his crucifixion is trey fontaine abbey and we've talked about this before about several times we all want to go we all want to go but when they decapitated him his head bounced three times and from each place where it bounced the spring of water came up and i i've got to say again one of the most impressive places i've ever prayed even from being on the bus driving on the driveway into the place you feel it it's a very very powerful place of prayer and as you walk around and you see these fountains you can literally see them it is very striking to consider that in these places where his witness hit the ground founds that can be used for baptism and have been used for baptism for countless generations his ministry continues in the church today in the same type of enthusiasm and the same type of passion and when you when you think about how grateful are you for the person of jesus christ in your life how grateful are you for the gift of faith you know is your ministry going to last like that what's your deposit of faith going to be you know when we follow god and and and detach ourselves in humility and and live passionately for the name of jesus and proclaim his name you better believe that our work is going to last and thank god that we're the inheritors of of the giants that have went before us so after his beheading paul's remains were taken two miles out you know along the the via ostia in rome and that's where that church st paul outside the walls that's why it's different than trey fontaine abbey and he was there was a rich christian woman there and that's where he was interred and as early as in the second century we have people saying if you go along the way of ostia you'll see the trophies of saint paul and also of saint peter um which you know refers to that like you know his relics are there in 2002 they were doing a a renovation at the basilica of saint paul outside the walls and they found a sarcophagus inscribed with the words of uh paulo apostolo marty right paul the apostle and they did um you know examination of it and inside they found um pieces of incense purple and blue linens which would have been like the tequila of jews right that that royal purple uh which wouldn't be found there it wouldn't be found there uh small bone fragments and other things and then in 2009 pope benedict said that um the vatican said these support that these really are the relics of paul that have been there since time immemorial since the probably the day of the execution paul has been there at saint paul outside the wall so that's you know if you're ever in rome do not miss that spot because that's you know the vatican is the one pillar st paul's outside the walls is the other pillar of the church of rome and by extension the church throughout the world wow so that's our episode about paul this is this was this has been a great episode like i'm immensely blessed by and i was so blessed to um be present for a liturgy celebrated by pope benedict xvi that you just referenced on june 29th which is the feast of saint peter and paul and that they share a feast day in common that's crazy i mean you think that hey these two important saints should have their own day because you know you want to steal real estate you can have two parties inside of one but it's like no all their life's work in jesus christ came together and they're martyrdom and there's no that's the honor and it's no competition like who has a greater feast day or whatever it's these two who take these different paths peter and paul the pillars of the church different paths different origins called different martyred different buried in different places in different ways and here they are both pillars their bones holding up rome in the church and both of them sharing a feast day edges just incredible it's beauty it is beautiful my brothers and it's beautiful to connect with you in this way realize that you are the pillars you are the pillars you're the pillars of your family as a father as a mother as an older brother as an older sister as a seminarian as a priest whomever you are wherever you are in your journey just realize that you also have a call to the deposit of the faith and let us take inspiration from these beautiful men of witness they're also men that are broken men that fell short did terrible acts in the world before god and man but god in his mercy truly transformed both peter and paul and today as we reflect on the life of saint paul let's have enthusiasm to passion for proclaiming the name of jesus christ in our day in our circumstances in the communities that we are in and let's continue this good work so that the work that we do may last in the same way that saint paul's is continuing in this beautiful way the in in his own ministry at trey fontaine and the saint paul's outside the wall and far into the places that we know nothing about we want to thank you so much for connecting with us make sure that you're subscribing on all of our platforms thank you for the support and we want to say a special thank you to our sponsor halo halo is one of the greatest apps that you could ever download for your phone and it is the 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Channel: The Catholic Talk Show

Views: 20,422

Rating: 4.9412842 out of 5

Keywords: Catholic, Catholic Podcast, Catholic Talk Show, Ryan Scheel, Ryan DellaCrosse, Father Rich Pagano, Catholic Radio, Catholic TV, Catholic Show, Matt Fradd, Mike Schmitz, Robert Barron, Catholic Answers, Bishop Barron, Saint Paul The Apostle, Saul of Tarsus, Paul, Apostle of Christ, Saul, Conversion of Paul

Id: r5oICFshh2g

Length: 55min 14sec (3314 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 08 2021