As the Year of St. Paul draws to a close and Catholic Christians reflect upon his legacy to the church, we turn our attention to two brief, seemingly inconsequential epistles which are rich in teaching how faith communities and individuals can live lives guided by the Spirit.
At 25 verses, Paul’s epistle to Philemon is among the shortest of New Testament writings. And its theme, the treatment of Philemon’s runaway slave Onesimus, might appear to have no relevance today. But its subtle handling of the demands of brotherhood, insofar as they surpass the requirements of justice, speak to every era, including ours. Paul observed that, though he could command Philemon to do the right thing, he would much rather allow the Spirit to lead him to choose the loving way.
Philemon, a wealthy Christian, lost a valuable asset when Onesimus fled his household after defrauding him. Having come to know Paul, Onesimus sought asylum with him in prison and there became a Christian (“whose father I have become during my imprisonment”).
According to Roman law, fugitive slaves had to be returned to their masters; anyone harbouring a fugitive slave was subject to a fine. Paul sent Onesimus back to Philemon bearing this letter. In it, he asked Philemon to accept Onesimus “no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother.” Receiving Onesimus as a brother implied that Philemon had forgiven Onesimus a debt at Paul’s request. This led Paul to muse aloud to Philemon about how much he owed Paul for the gift of faith!
Philemon’s dilemma pitted his rights against letting himself be led by love’s demands. Though Paul did not recommend the abolition of slavery (a major social institution of his time), he urged his fellow Christians not to treat a slave as property but as a human person. Paul also left him free to make his own decision in love.
We do not know how Philemon handled the dilemma handed him by Paul. But an early tradition tells of a bishop named Onesimus, which may account for the preservation of this brief Pauline letter.
The New Testament contains three epistles ostensibly sent by Paul to his successors in the apostolic ministry: two epistles to Timothy and one to Titus, close collaborators of Paul. Since the late 19th century, scholars have argued about the authenticity of these missives, collectively known as the “Pastoral Epistles.” They are dismissed by some as the church’s attempt at domesticating the charismatic Paul, rendering his Spirit-filled teaching into bourgeois nostrums. Others, more recently, have upheld Paul as their author.
In a recent commentary, Fr. Michel Gourgues at Ottawa’s Dominican University College suggests the problem issues from not considering each work on its own merits. Scholars have tended to write about themes in the Pastoral Epistles (widows, ministries, etc.), rather than take note of the particularities of each writing.
After detailed study, Gourgues argues for the authenticity of the introduction (1:1-2:13) and conclusion (4:6-22) of Second Timothy: they comprise the last letter of Paul. The rest of Second Timothy (2:14-4:5), as well First Timothy and Titus, he sees as the expansion of Paul’s heritage and its adaptation to newer circumstances that arose after Paul’s death.
The life and witness of Paul may be understood, then, as a living reality to be appropriated in subsequent ecclesial generations. So moving from the Year of Paul to the Year of the Priest is not unlike the movement from Paul to the post-apostolic church, which may have begun in the Pastoral Epistles.
Paul regularly stressed the supernatural origin of his vocation and in Second Timothy recalls his own role in Timothy’s vocation “through the laying on of my hands.” Through this commissioning God gave — and gives — the church’s ordained ministers not a “spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.”
In the last verses of Second Timothy, Paul used dramatic images to symbolize the nearness of his death. “I am already being poured out like a libation” is an allusion to the wine poured out upon ritual temple sacrifices. “The time of my departure” evokes impressions of breaking camp or letting a ship loose from its moorings, both common euphemisms for death in antiquity. Paul also expressed a serene sense of accomplishment, one deriving not from his strength alone but something he had been enabled to achieve with Christ’s power (“the Lord stood by me and gave me strength”).
Two athletic images lead into a concluding, religious summary of Paul’s ministry: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” All that remained for Paul was to accept God’s final gift, the culmination of a life of blessings freely bestowed, “the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that (last) day,” the day of “His appearing” in glory.
Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, S.J. is a noted Scripture scholar and writer. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Fordham University, Master of Divinity and Doctor of Theology degrees from Toronto School of Theology and a Licentiate in Theology from Regis College. Archbishop Prendergast taught in Halifax at Atlantic School of Theology from 1975-1981, then was Rector of Toronto's Regis College from 1981-87 and Dean of Theology from 1991-1994. For 10 years he wrote a weekly column on Scripture for The Catholic Register.
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As the Year of St. Paul draws to a close and Catholic Christians reflect upon his legacy to the church, we turn our attention to two brief, seemingly inconsequential epistles which are rich in teaching how faith communities and individuals can live lives guided by the Spirit.
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