Here’s a reminder from St. Paul about the sin of sloth, offense against the Tenth Commandment (“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, you shall not covet
your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his
ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is your neighbor’s”) and a rebuke against the welfare state and all “social justice” Catholics.
2 Thessalonians 3:7-12
Brothers and sisters: You know how one must imitate us. For we did not act in a disorderly way among you, nor did we eat food received free from anyone.
On the contrary, in toil and drudgery, night and day we worked, so as not to burden any of you. Not that we do not have the right. Rather, we wanted to present ourselves as a model for you, so that you might imitate us.
In fact, when we were with you, we instructed you that if anyone was unwilling to work, neither should that one eat.
We hear that some are conducting themselves among you in a disorderly way, by not keeping busy but minding the business of others. Such people we instruct and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to work quietly and to eat their own food.
St. Paul was indefatigable in bringing the Word of Christ to both Jews and Gentiles. Through his missionary activity and writings he eventually transformed religious belief and philosophy around the Mediterranean Basin.
Paul’s missionary travels — preaching and establishing Christian nodes and communities — can be grouped into three. As seen in the map above, he traversed the Mediterranean region, in a time when travel was arduous, laborious and dangerous.
The 14 letters (Epistles) attributed to Paul in the New Testament were written during 10 years of his missionary journeys. It is possible that Paul also traveled to other countries like Spain and Britain. Among the writings of early Christians, Clement of Rome said that Paul was “Herald (of the Gospel of Christ) in the West” and that “he had gone to the extremity of the west.”
That is why St. Paul is called the “Apostle to the Gentiles.” Without the work of Paul, formerly the sinful Saul of Tarsus, you and I might not be Christians.
Paul was beaten, arrested and imprisoned on more than one occasion. Neither the Bible nor other sources say how or when Paul died, but Ignatius, probably around 110, writes that he was martyred. According to Christian tradition, St. Paul was beheaded in Rome during the reign of Nero, on June 29, AD 67 — the same day as St. Peter was crucified upside down.
Shortly before he was martyred, St. Paul had written to St. Timothy these famous words:
“I am even now ready to be sacrificed, and the time of my dissolution is at hand. I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith. As for the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice which the Lord, the just judge, will render to me in that day: and not only to me, but to them also that love His coming.”
For all these reasons — the sinful pre-conversion Saul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, teaching us about Jesus’ New Covenant — I love St. Paul with all my heart. I hope that, should our time darken to that point when Christians are persecuted as in the days of the early Church, I too will “finish my course,” “keep my faith,” and stand “ready to be sacrificed.”
For the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, see “The saint whom Christ struck blind.”
~Eowyn