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           The letters of Paul can be read and analyzed for their theological content, but for me they are of special interest as revealing the spiritual journey of the great apostle.  Only the confessions of the prophet Jeremiah give us a comparable insight into the soul of a religious giant. 
            These personal outpourings are embedded in the unique historical context of Paul’s life and work.  Earlier in the chapter we find his polemic against Christians who agree to remain part of God’s covenant with Abraham by acccepting circumcision ( v. 2).  Today, when Christians and Jews are discovering and celebrating what we have in common, this is, to say the least, a non-issue. 
            Moveover, Paul himself does not want to turn his back on his religious heritage.
Although he claims the true circumcision for those who worship God in spirit and glory in Christ Jesus (v. 3), he acknowledges that he himself was circumcised on the 8th day  and boasts of his membership in the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin (v. 5).  He is, he declares, “a Hebrew born of Hebrews, as to the law a Pharisee, as to righteousness under the law, blameless” (v. 6). 
            But these blameless credentials led him to persecute the church (v. 6), of which he is now a member.  Although he speaks of “forgetting what lies behind” (v. 13) and counting as “refuse”  (v. 8) what he has lost through accepting Christ, he remains torn between where he has come from and where he is going. 
            I am reminded of the French Jewish mystic Simone Weil, who was powerfully drawn to Catholicism and yet declined to be baptized, remaining, as she said, like a bell which summons others to church, while remaining itself outside.
            Human life is never static; we are always on the move.  As soon as we think we have resolved one crisis, another crisis presents itself.  Cardinal Newman has written, “To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.” 
            Paul denies that he is perfect (v. 12). and in this he is in agreement with C.G. Jung, who proposes the goal of completion rather than the illusion of perfection. 
            Our Old Testament lesson today shows us another man on the move, the prophet Jonah. Most people think of the Book of Jonah as the greatest fish story ever told, but it is really the narrative of a spiritual journey, in which the reluctant prophet, forced by God and his shipmates to preach to the hated Ninivites, comes painfully to learn the meaning of the divine mercy.

September 28, 2008

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