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00:00Listen my dear brother, well we have now reached the final part of our journey with Saint Paul,
00:25in which we have learned through his example and especially his presentations, how to be an excellent Christian.
00:33Our first course will remind you that it left us on the banks of the Jordan, ready to begin our journey with Jesus.
00:41Now that we are fully formed Christians, the Lord invites us to follow him and above all to be good disciples.
00:48But in addition to being a good disciple, we must have the desire to share everything we have learned with others.
01:00Keeping it would be a very selfish act on our part.
01:04We also have now that, like Paul, what he had received, he now has to give back.
01:10We recall that Jesus' final command to his disciples before ascending to heaven,
01:17We found it clearly expressed and it is absolutely for everyone.
01:22And it is found in absolutely all the gospels.
01:28And that is to go out into the world and preach the gospel.
01:33Jesus' idea is to make disciples.
01:37Why? It's very simple.
01:40Because only in this way will we be able to spread the message of Jesus.
01:47And only in this way will we be able to experience this wonder that we call the kingdom of heaven.
01:55Jesus was very clear.
01:58If you look at your Bible, let's go to chapter 28 of Matthew.
02:02So that we can read there directly what the final message is that Jesus leaves us before ascending to heaven.
02:10Jesus says,
02:40In those few verses, as we could also see in the gospel of Mark, and also in that of Luke and in that of John.
02:51Each one according to the theology they use, because it depends on the audience they have.
03:00But in all of them, Jesus, in all of them Jesus urges us, calls us to go and take the good news to others and spread it throughout the world.
03:14We can say that we have been called to this, to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to all our brothers and sisters.
03:24That is the reason for the church and in some way it is also something inherent in our Christian life.
03:31That is why we now want to follow not only the teachings and Christian life that Saint Paul showed us so radically, but also to be like him, capable of forming new communities of disciples who will continue the work of Jesus Christ.
03:54But to understand this, we need to see where all this comes from. I think it will become more or less clear to everyone that it comes from an encounter, as we have said before, a personal encounter with Christ.
04:11That's where it all begins. That's where our desire to teach others the word of the Lord must have arisen, and must be arising, too.
04:19And in Pablo, this experience was dazzling, perhaps unique, but it was decisive.
04:30If we examine it, we will see that something similar has happened to us as well.
04:36In each one certainly in a different way and with perhaps different elements, but the process is the same.
04:47Let's look at its beginnings.
04:49In them we first talk about his encounter with Christ and we will discover in him that the scripture tells us that this encounter transformed Paul's life.
05:04In the book of the Acts of the Apostles, as we have seen at other times, chapter 9 tells us about this encounter.
05:12When Saul was near the city of Damascus, a light from heaven suddenly shone around him.
05:28And Saul fell to heaven and heard a voice saying, Saul, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
05:40Saul asked, "Who are you, Lord?"
05:43The voice answered him, "I am Jesus, the same one you are persecuting."
05:49The first thing we notice in this encounter, as we have already seen at other times, is the fact that Saul is blind, that is, he does not know the Lord.
06:07This represents, as we have already discussed at another time, the pagans, the Jews who have not yet discovered the loving presence of Jesus in their lives.
06:17Brother, my sister, if you realize, well, this first stage is the one we, well, lived in the Jordan.
06:27Even though we are already standing before the Lord, and have accompanied John the Baptist, our brother or sister,
06:36who has accompanied us during those nine months, even when we finished, we don't really know who the Lord was.
06:43We have even had to do this second stage to reinforce some ideas, and above all to learn more deeply who the Lord is.
06:54We could say, perhaps, that we haven't yet had intimacy with Him.
07:01This, then, is something we will have to discover little by little, like Saint Paul, in order to fall more and more in love with Him each day.
07:12If we continue reading this passage from Saint Paul in the book of Acts of the Apostles, we will notice that Paul was blind for three days, that is, in darkness.
07:25I've already mentioned this at another time; it represents the days that the Lord was in the tomb, where he was preparing himself, for what?
07:33For Easter, to bring now, so that the message could spread, there was this period of darkness, this period in which Jesus was also blind, was separated from the light like Paul.
07:50This represents the great renewal of life to be reborn.
07:58After that moment, Paul will finally begin his journey as a new man, which is what evangelization needs.
08:06New men and women like you and me, new men and women who are willing to carry the message to others, with our own lives, but also with our testimony, with our words.
08:20If we realize it, after this encounter with Saint Paul, his life changed completely.
08:28He ceased to be that Jew passionate about his religion, willing to persecute and imprison the members of this strange sect who were the followers of Jesus,
08:37to become one of the greatest defenders and promoters of the faith throughout almost the entire known world of his time.
08:47He went from being a persecutor to now being an apostle.
08:55We may not have been persecutors of Jesus, it's true, but it had little importance in our lives.
09:03We did not know his message, we did not know the new life.
09:07Pablo didn't know her either, but when he met her, he decided that everyone else had to meet her too.
09:14It is something that also happens in our lives, the desire to share the good news.
09:22Because, really, what happened in Pablo's life?
09:27Pablo, well, it seems to me, right?, that the truth is that Pablo had found a treasure, the hidden treasure.
09:38Something incredible.
09:41I had found that precious pearl that Jesus tells us about.
09:45That pearl for which he would be willing to give up everything and everything, even his own life, to have it.
09:53Look, you, who have already crossed the Jordan, you, who are now finishing this second stage following in Paul's footsteps.
10:04Brother, sister, could you say that you are already, or has been, the experience of your life in encountering and walking with Christ?
10:16This pearl meant a new life for Pablo.
10:24A life that he will describe later in the Letter to the Romans, where he speaks of the kingdom of heaven,
10:32which is not food and drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
10:38This is, in reality, the newness of the Gospel, the newness of the Christian life.
10:47And well, this is what we've been talking about all along, about life in abundance.
10:55That is why Saint Paul goes so far as to say in the Letter to the Philippians,
11:00For me, life is Christ, and everything else I consider a loss.
11:05For you, this is the truth.
11:12You would give up your sports and a number of other things that aren't bad today, they're good,
11:19But you would leave them for Christ.
11:22Would you give up those moments you have to bring the word of the Lord to another brother or sister?
11:29This is the experience that also changed my life.
11:36And I'm sure it was the same for Saint Francis, for Saint Ignatius
11:41And for all the great evangelists who were always burning with the fire of the Spirit
11:47that had been lit in that Jordan.
11:50In this wonderful moment that transformed the lives of each and every one of us.
11:57It's time to ask ourselves, has this flame truly consumed your life?
12:06Has it transformed your life?
12:10Does this feel like it's burning you?
12:12Do you need someone else to know it and experience it the way you know and experience it now?
12:18This is the captivating question of the gospel.
12:21And this is what happens when we have not been evangelized,
12:25when we have not made a personal choice for Christ,
12:28So what does it matter to us whether the neighbor, the father, the brother, has it or not?
12:32Well, I don't have it, I don't even know what it is.
12:34I can't invite anyone to a place I don't know.
12:38that I don't even know exists.
12:41Now you know it exists.
12:42It is true that we must fight to avoid losing it,
12:46But you know it exists.
12:50The precious pearl is already in your life, in your heart.
12:55Would you give up something to serve your Lord, your Master, your brothers?
13:01Okay, then, let's think about it for a moment.
13:04We'll be back later to continue our chapter for this week.
13:10Following in the footsteps of Saint Paul.