Paul the Preacher
It has become customary to speak of three “offices” that Christ fulfilled. He is prophet, priest and king. Put it in more descriptive language, they are the office of teaching, the office of sanctification, and the office of shepherding.
Christ has shared these offices with his Church, that she may continue to minister to mankind. They are treated individually in the Code of Canon Law, and appear in the Catechism, for example, in paragraph 1592. “The ordained ministers exercise their service for the People of God by teaching, divine worship and pastoral governance.”
But these tasks belong not only to the ordained ministers of the Church. They belong to every Christian baptized into Christ, only in different ways. The laity have their own way of expressing the prophetic, priestly, and kingly offices of Christ.
The Second Vatican Council spoke about this in its “Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity.” It said first of all that “The Church was founded for the purpose of spreading the kingdom of Christ throughout the earth …” It then said “All activity of the Mystical Body directed to the attainment of this goal is called the apostolate, which the Church carries on in various ways through all her members. “
The baptized are challenged to find what it means to be a prophet, priest, and king in their own lives.
If we consider only the first of those for now, we are reminded of the remark made by St. Francis of Assisi. “Preach the gospel always. If necessary use words.”
This quotation expands our idea of “preaching.” It’s more than the homily (reserved to the ordained ministry of deacon or priest). Preaching involves proclamation, evangelism, witness. It involves catechesis and Catholic education. It involves the profession of faith that we make formally or informally.
All this makes me think of St. Paul as a model for preaching – perhaps a kind of patron saint of preaching. He encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, and went away to Arabia for three years in order to meditate on it. And when he was finished, he came out like a whirlwind. It’s like he had an evangelical hot foot lit under him.
In three great, looping missionary journeys he covered the Mediterranean basin. He showed up in Samaria, Caesarea, Damascus, Syria, Galatia, and Corinth. It’s like a person with a message burning in his heart showing up in New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, and Los Angeles. He couldn’t sit still.
Why not? He is modest about claiming any credit for it. “If I preach the gospel, this is no reason for me to boast, for an obligation has been imposed on me, and woe to me if I do not preach it!” (I Corinthians 9:16).
Have you ever had something so wonderful happen to you that you couldn’t stop talking about it? You tell a stranger on the bus, you phone a friend, you text message your entire address book. The Gospel was burning within Paul, and he had to share the message.
Why are we so passive? How can we be so blasé? Perhaps we think we do not have the eloquence that a saint and apostle like Paul had. But he, himself, said he did not preach “with the wisdom of human eloquence (1 Cor 1:17).
He preached Christ crucified, and the message takes care of itself. All we have to do is deliver it.
