A presentation by Archbishop Charles Chaput, Archbishop of Denver. As a way of introduction, let us recall very briefly some comments that the Pope himself made in his Homily for the inauguration of the Pauline year on June 28, the feast day of St. Peter and Paul. Quoting the
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second chapter of the letter to the Galatians, Benedict XVI pointed out that Paul's faith coincides with "the experience of being loved by Jesus Christ in a very personal way. It is awareness of the fact that Christ did not face death for something anonymous but rather for love of him - of Paul [...] Paul's faith is being struck by the love of Jesus Christ, a love that overwhelms him to his depths and transforms him. His faith is not a theory, an opinion about God and the world. His faith is the impact of God's love in his heart. Thus, this same faith was love for Jesus Christ." We believe that these words by the Pope are very significant for our current predicament as Christians in front of a culture that often tries to deny or reduce the content of our faith. It is not by chance that so many people who have desired to question the truth of Christianity over the last two centuries have started by trying to separate Jesus and Paul. Often St. Paul has been described as the first "ideologue" of Christianity, the man who took the teachings of Jesus and turned them into a doctrine, a systematic religious theory. As the Pope points out, nothing is further from the truth because St. Paul is all about Jesus; he is all about something that happened to him unexpectedly, something that happened "before." He was surprised by a love that he neither knew, nor expected. By organizing these presentations we would like to suggest that St. Paul's experience points to something truly crucial for our own faith and for the presence of the Church in today's society. Presented by Crossroads Cultural Center and the American Bible Society Date: Wednesday, May 6, 2009 Time: 7pm Location: The American Bible Society Auditorium 1865 Broadway (corner of 61st Street), New York
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