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Conosciamo la Bibbia - Lettere di Paolo - I Lettera ai Romani
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[Music] [Applause]
A warm greeting to the viewers, let's
begin with this conversation a
new series of presentations of the biblical books,
we have already seen the four Gospels and the
Acts of the Apostles,
now let's consider the
letters of the apostle Paul
in the New Testament, the collection of
Pauline letters occupies a large part, there
are 14 texts linked to the apostle,
the first of the letters that the canon of the
New Testament presents to us is the
letter to the Romans, the longest, the most
substantial of the Pauline inscriptions and it is
precisely from the letter to the Romans that
we want to begin our knowledge
of the apostle of the Gentiles, a convinced Jew, a
practicing Pharisee committed to the
study of the law, a doctor of the law,
law,
Saul of Tarsus was born between 5 and 10 AD, he
lost a city in
Cilicia, today we would say in southern Turkey,
Turkey,
but he grew up in Jerusalem at the school of
Rabbi Gamaliel, one of the great
figures of the Pharisaic school, he was
educated in the most rigid observance of
Jewish laws, perhaps he met Jesus
during his earthly life but only
fleetingly meeting him a few times in the
temple he could be someone like Paul
that teacher of the law who asks Jesus
Jesus
about the commandments on the most important of the
commandments or on other
similar questions but the meeting with Jesus did not
happen during the earthly life of the
master but after his resurrection and Paul
Paul
at first or God with all his
strength the preaching of the apostles
considered them stupid ignorant gullible
people who had followed an
impostor and inflamed in the defense of the
Jewish traditions he fights them with
all his strength a fierce persecutor
we today could even
define him as a fundamentalist
if not a terrorist a
religious man but with a
wrong religious attitude so attached
to his own ideas that he becomes violent
in the name of faith and the defense of
his opinions he persecuted the apostles he
organized the killing of Stephen he
even wants to carry out roundups of other
Christian disciples who were
abroad in Damascus for example
and it was precisely on the road to Damascus that
the Lord Jesus entered his life with
force on that occasion Saul of Tarsus
met the risen Jesus and his life changed.
changed.
It was a moment that made him realize that
Jesus was right and therefore that he
was wrong. He needed a few
years to refocus on the situation
because it was
a complete change. It was a question of
resetting all of one's doctrine from scratch.
A Pharisee who converts to the
Gospel message, a doctor of the
law who becomes a disciple of Christ,
must completely change his
perspective. However, that baggage of
theology, culture, and sacred scripture
that he knew so well will serve him
to become the doctor of the Gentiles, to
be the first great theologian of the
Christian tradition.
A few years after his shocking
vocation, Paul was rescued by
Barnabas who introduced him to the community
of Antioch and initiated him into the
Christian ministry. Paul began to train
other people to pass on his
experience from Antioch. His mission
opened up to the world and began first with
Barnabas and Mark, then with Silas, Timothy, and
Luke. Apostolic journeys to found
new communities and in various cities of
Cyprus, Anatolia, and the In Greece,
Paul created Christian groups
that rapidly grew and
strengthened their faith. We can
date his conversion to the year 36,
but the writing of the letter to the
Romans can be dated
to the winter between 57 and 58. This means
that more than twenty years have passed since
that dazzling moment on the road to Damascus.
Damascus.
Paul is a man who is over 50 years old,
mature and has been involved in
preaching the gospel of Christ for more than twenty years, with
many problems because he encountered
much resistance, especially from
those Christians who came from the Jewish world. We
must not forget, because it is a
fundamental element, that Paul is a Jew, a
convinced Jew and an expert in
Jewish doctrine, belonging to the most
conservative current of the Jewish tradition,
and yet he developed this
not deny Judaism, or we could
say the Old Testament, the revelation
of God to the people of Israel, but he understood
that the revelation of Jesus Christ
completed, realized, brought to
definitive fulfillment what had been
said in the past. another thing
but the fulfillment of the promise for which
Paul continues to consider himself
perfectly Jewish completely Jewish
because he met the one who fulfills
the promises to the people of Israel
not everyone however had his ability
not protectors capable like him of understanding
that the innovations were not a
total reversal but the
definitive clarification and therefore Paul had to
confront and even fight for a long time with
people who were unable to understand that they did
not have his critical capacity for in-
depth analysis and therefore found themselves
blocked by certain situations by certain
choices several times verbally he had the opportunity to
confront these situations in
Jerusalem around the year 49
a kind of council was also convened a
meeting of the apostles with Paul and
Barnabas to discuss the line to
follow and the pillars of the church Peter
James John gave their right
to Paul and Brno
but leaving them carte blanche to
continue that type of ministry
recognizing that they were right that they
could continue like this because it was the
correct line Paul had never been to Rome
Rome
Rome was the capital of the empire the
largest city of the ancient world was the
pole of attraction of all the culture
of every movement it was almost inevitable
that even the apostles of Christ
tended towards the centre of the
fundamental point of the civilization of the
ancient Mediterranean so it is logical that
Paul wishes to reach the capital of
the empire and wants to bring the message
of Christ there too however when Paul
writes to the Romans
in Rome there is already a Christian community it
is not he who founded the other
letters because the letter to the Romans
is not the first that Paul writes the canon he
collected them in order of length not
in chronological order Paul had
written up to that moment only to
communities of his foundation that is people
he knew well to resolve
particular situations to deal with
specific cases that arose precisely at that moment
with the letter to the Romans instead we
find ourselves faced with a
slightly different situation because the recipients are not
completely known to Paul and
above all the Christian community of
Rome was not founded by him we do not
know exactly by whom it was founded
however when Paul writes in 57 he says that
Christian preaching has long been in Rome and there
exist groups of Christians it
was probably simple believers
those who Today we would perhaps call lay people
a couple Andronicus and Julia who
brought the Gospel to the capital
of the empire starting from the
Jewish synagogues. There were many
Jews in Rome
and it was precisely the Jews of Rome who
welcomed the preaching of Jesus
recognized as the Christ. Many
Jews in the capital
became Christians. Some synagogues
became Christian and however, creating
discussions within them,
quarrels and separations,
domestic communities were born,
those which in Latin will be called
domus ecclesiae, that is, houses of the church
where by church we mean the people.
People who gather in a house
which is a private house, a house
belonging to some
wealthy person who has a spacious building
with some rooms that he makes
available to the community.
They hold their celebrations there,
they meet for Sunday mass,
almost certainly celebrated on Saturday
evening. On the night between Saturday and
Sunday it becomes the occasion of a
common dinner during which
the paschal supper of Jesus
Christ is remembered in his mystery of death and
resurrection and during that meeting
the animator, the apostle, explains the
Scriptures form people to an
ever more intense communion with the
Lord Jesus. Groups are created, therefore
in Rome there are different communities of Christians.
Christians.
Today we would call them parishes. They
were not yet organized in this sense.
They were organized by house and there were as
many people as could fit in
a private house. 50, 60 or more. It is
difficult to imagine a meeting in a
private environment.
These groups meet in the houses
of some available people and form
the various units of the Christian group. It
is easy to imagine that these
groups can discuss some
issues without being in complete agreement.
The starting nucleus is made up of
Jews but in the meantime
many others have joined who are not Jews. Therefore
mixed communities are formed that have
different opinions
in this sense. There are some that
are more conservative and believe that
the law of Moses must be observed
in all its details [Music].
[Music].
Others, however, are in favor of
overcoming the letter and
the application of the Mosaic law.
According to them, it does not include the observance
of all the particular decrees, taking into
account the mentality of Christ who
opened up and overcame certain taboos,
for example the distinction between
pure and unpure meats, these different ones.
Opinions can lead to clashes
or at least discussions. Paul,
even though he doesn't know the community as a whole,
whole,
knows many
Christians who live in Rome.
The last chapter of the
letter to the Romans, chapter XVI, is a
list of names. It's a splendid text where
there is no theology but simply a
series of greetings with which the apostle
shows how many people he knows in the
capital of the empire. It's a subtle way
to underline these relationships that
he has with people. With sweetness and
finesse, the apostle enters their lives
by proposing his gospel. He writes this
letter to the Romans to introduce himself and
prepare for his trip to the
capital. However, he writes to
address precisely those discussions
that were taking place in the various
Christian groups in Rome. He writes in a period
of tranquility.
The previous year had been a very tiring year for Paul,
heavy and full of problems, troubles, worries,
fears, even
upheavals and lire. Now the
storm is over.
Paul arrives in the city of Corinth
towards the end of the year
57 AD. It's a beautiful seaside city, the
climate is excellent and the apostle
spends his time there. Winter is a guest in the house of
a certain Gaius,
he says so, this letter is said to
a scribe named Tertius. We have a lot of
information, even on the details. These are
minor but interesting aspects because they
help us understand how these
letters were born from the life and
concrete reality of people in Gaius' house
during that winter. Paul thinks
and I imagine myself walking, he dictates
his reflections to Tertius,
trying to summarize his position
towards the law, showing the
difference between the mentality of the Pharisee
and the mentality of the Christian. Ultimately,
Paul is talking about himself, he is recounting
his conversion, the change
that has occurred in his mind because
he was the first to have had to make this change.
The mentality of the Pharisee is that of the
religious person who is convinced that he can
achieve salvation and
with his own strength, with the effort of his
own will.
The religious person thinks he can
obtain good results. Paul was
like this as a young man, he grew up with this
rigid mentality, when he met Christ he suffered
a catastrophe, one would say in
apocalyptic language, a change from this to
this, his mentality changed from Pharisee to
apocalyptic, he became Christian,
that is. He understood that without God's intervention
nothing can be achieved. It is not
good will, man's effort,
the observance of the law that achieves salvation.
salvation.
Salvation is a free gift from God. Paul
understood that all his
previous efforts would have been in vain
without Christ. It is only by relying on
Christ's grace that he understood that his
life became fruitful and fruitful.
Ultimately, he continued to do what he did before,
before,
but his perspective changed. He realized that
that
morality was not the cause but the effect. He
understood that at the origin there was the event of
grace operated by the person of Jesus
Christ. It is the human person who encounters
Christ who is transformed, made capable
This is the gospel that Paul announces.
In the first part, when after greetings
to the community of Rome,
the apostle presents the theme of his
writing, he says: "I am not ashamed of the
gospel because it is the power of God for the
salvation of everyone who believes." He says of judo
first and then of Greek, it is in it that
the justice of God is revealed. From faith to
faith, as it is written: "The just shall live
by faith."
and so in this initial formula Paul
compares the two great
themes of justice and faith.
The gospel, the good news of Jesus
Christ, is the salvation brought about by God.
Paul says not to be ashamed of the
gospel because, after all, accepting the
gospel means recognizing that I can't
do it alone,
so I might even be ashamed to say it.
I can't do it. I'm structurally
bad and I can't do good with
my own strength.
Admitting that I need someone else
to save me can be humiliating, so I might be
ashamed of this good news.
Paul says I'm not
ashamed. I recognize that salvation
comes from someone else. It's the power of God
that saves, that saves anyone who believes.
That anyone is important,
regardless of race or
Every person needs to be
saved, and salvation comes on the basis
of faith, and it's a continuous transition from
faith to faith, from trust to trust.
God's justice is revealed precisely in this way.
The just will live by faith, he who is just, he
who does the works. Paul says, quoting a
prophet from the Old Testament,
as if to say it had already been said that the
just is the one who trusts in faith.
God entrusts himself to him, not to him, he
leaves himself to be saved, he who
entrusts himself to God will live,
this is the great theme of the letter to the
Romans, in the next few meetings
we will address and delve into this topic
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