Morning Offering:
O Jesus, through the most pure heart of Mary, I offer you all the
prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day for all the intentions
of your divine heart, in union with the holy sacrifice of the Mass. I
offer them especially for the Holy
Father's intentions:
Pope Benedict's general prayer intention for December is: "That,
faced by the growing expansion of the culture of violence and death, the Church
may courageously promote the culture of life through all her apostolic and
missionary activities".
His
mission intention is: "That, especially in mission countries, Christians
may show through gestures of brotherliness that the Child born in the grotto in
Bethlehem is the luminous Hope of the world".
Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, Joseph (B)
Sunday in the Octave of Christmas
Prayers
this week: The shepherds hastened to Bethlehem, where they found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. (Luke 2: 16)
Father, help us to live as the holy family, united in respect and love.
Bring us to the joy and peace of your eternal home. We
ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the
Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever.
(December 28) The Holy Innocents
Herod “the Great,” king of Judea, was unpopular with his people because
of his connections with the Romans and his religious indifference.
Hence he was insecure and fearful of any threat to his throne. He was a
master politician and a tyrant capable of extreme brutality. He killed
his wife, his brother and his sister’s two husbands, to name only a
few. Matthew 2:1-18 tells this story: Herod was “greatly troubled” when
astrologers from the east came asking the whereabouts of “the newborn
king of the Jews,” whose star they had seen. They were told that the
Jewish Scriptures named Bethlehem as the place where the Messiah would
be born. Herod cunningly told them to report back to him so that he
could also “do him homage.” They found Jesus, offered him their gifts
and, warned by an angel, avoided Herod on their way home. Jesus escaped
to Egypt. Herod became furious and “ordered the massacre of all the
boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under.” The horror
of the massacre and the devastation of the mothers and fathers led
Matthew to quote Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah,/sobbing and
loud lamentation;/Rachel weeping for her children...” (Matthew 2:18).
Rachel was the wife of Jacob/Israel. She is pictured as weeping at the
place where the Israelites were herded together by the conquering
Assyrians for their march into captivity.
Twenty
babies are few, in comparison to the genocide and abortion of our day.
But even if there had been only one, we recognize the greatest treasure
God put on the earth—a human person, destined for eternity and graced
by Jesus’ death and resurrection.
"Lord, you give us life even before we understand" (Prayer Over the Gifts, Feast of the Holy Innocents). (AmericanCatholic.org)
click on centre arrow
Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14 or Gn 15:1-6; 21:1-3; Ps 128:1-5; Col 3:12-21; Luke 2:22-40 or 2:22, 39-40 (click here for readings)
When
the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been
completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the
Lord. When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of
the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. And
the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the
grace of God was upon him. (Luke 2:22, 39-40)
It
is surely agreed by all that one’s own family is the most important
reality in one’s life. If in any particular case this is not so, then
all would understand that there is something deficient there.
People long to have a good family life and where this is so it provides
some of the greatest joys in
life.
Sadly, all too often this is not so. As the years proceed, tensions and
difficulties not only remain but increase and as the children grow up
and disperse, perhaps the situation is gradually accepted with regret.
Perhaps it is felt that nothing much can be done to redress and remedy
the problem. But how they wish it were otherwise! Family life is
profoundly rooted in the nature of man and is deeply connected with his
earthly happiness. Inasmuch as God is the author of nature, the fact
that nature bespeaks the importance of the family shows that he wills
that family life be a central contributor to human happiness. Well now,
let us notice this. At the dawn of history, God created Adam and then
gave to him Eve his wife. That is to say he gave man family life
which would be a principal source of his happiness. But what
happened? Together the man and his wife turned away from God and thus
sin entered the world, and with sin death. Out of the family life which
God brought into the world to give to man his happiness came untold
suffering flowing from deliberate sin. Ever since then, which is to say
from the dawn of human history, family life has remained the source of
man’s deepest joys and at the same time the source of man’s greatest
sorrows. The spark of the divine imprint has remained in the family but
the terrible presence of man’s sin and its results has also remained.
So the cry arises from the heart of broken man: If only family life
could be made new! If only there could be regained what had come from
the hand of God at the beginning! If only something of this could
appear on the earth, be manifested, and then shared with mankind! The
good news is that this has indeed happened.
God
so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son not to condemn
the world for its sin but to save it and to give to it life
everlasting. This gift of grace and eternal life is intended by God to
make man new and his family life new. The hope of mankind for a
profound renewal and for a release from the bondage of sin has been
answered in the coming and in the mission of Christ. At the heart of
God’s answer to sin is his gift of grace to the family. God the Son in
becoming man was born into a family (Luke 2:22, 39-40).
That family, so humble, so lowly, so hidden, so very ordinary, so
immersed in the humdrum of life common to the vast family of man, was
filled with grace and free of sin. At its centre was the holy child,
the holy youth, the holy young man, Jesus Christ. He, the fount of
divine life and grace, was the heart of this holy family. In him was
present God himself, God the Son made man. His mother Mary was, as the
Angel had addressed her, full of grace. The Lord was with her without
qualification. She was preserved free of sin from the instant of her
very conception, and this by the power of grace won for her by her
future son. And how holy must have been her spouse, Joseph the
foster-father of the Christ-child! We have in that holy family the
sparkling jewel of mankind, a great pearl hidden in the field. We
must do all we can to gain that pearl, bringing Jesus, Mary and Joseph
into our life. Jesus is the Lord of lords and King of kings. Mary is
his mother, and Joseph is his foster-father. Both are now with Jesus in
heaven. The inspiration of this holy family remains with the Church and
all her members till the end of time and is celebrated every year. How
the heart of our Lord must have been interwoven with theirs and how his
happiness must have been nourished by the life of his holy family! As
he hung on the cross, Mary his mother was with him to the end. His own
family was a deep support, by then in the main out of sight but
certainly not out of mind.
Today
is the feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Out of this
family came the Redeemer of the world and the gift of the Holy Spirit
to mankind. It is the model family, the perfect family. There has been
in history a perfect family. That family was the family of Jesus Christ
- himself the son, Mary his earthly mother and Joseph her spouse
and his foster father. Grace filled the life of that family. The same
grace has come to each of the baptized, enabling each to aspire to a
family life of holiness involving the conquest of sin. Let us then
resolve to contemplate the Holy Family a great deal, to live by the
grace that reigned in them, and to make our way gradually to holiness
in Christ especially in our family life.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 529, 2214-2233
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The
fruitfulness of silence! All the energy I see you waste with those
repeated indiscretions is energy taken from the effectiveness of your
work.
Be discreet.
(The Way, no.645)
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September 3, 2008, Benedict XVI continues with the third of his Wednesday talks on St Paul
In the Acts of the Apostles, Saint Luke recounts for us the dramatic episode on the road to Damascus
which transformed Paul from a fierce persecutor of the Church into a
zealous evangelizer. In his own letters, Paul describes his experience
not so much in terms of a conversion, but as a call to apostleship and
a commission to preach the Gospel. In the first instance, this was an
encounter not with concepts or ideas but with the person of Jesus
himself. In fact, Paul met not only the historical Jesus of the past,
but the living Christ who revealed himself as the one Saviour and Lord.
Similarly, the ultimate source of our own conversion lies neither in
esoteric philosophical theories nor abstract moral codes, but in Christ
and his Gospel. He alone defines our identity as Christians, since in
him we discover the ultimate meaning of our lives. Paul, because Christ
had made him his own (cf. Phil 3:12), could not help but preach the
Good News he had received (cf. 1 Cor 9:16). So it is with us.
Transfixed by the greatness of our Saviour, we - like Saint Paul -
cannot help but speak of him to others. May we always do so with joyful
conviction!
(Continuing)
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The fifth day in the Octave of Christmas (Monday)
(December 29) St. Thomas Becket (1118-1170)
A strong man who wavered for a moment, but then
learned one cannot come to terms with evil and so became a strong
churchman, a martyr and a saint—that was Thomas Becket, archbishop of
Canterbury, murdered in his cathedral on December 29, 1170. His career
had been a stormy one. While archdeacon of Canterbury, he was made
chancellor of England at the age of 36 by his friend King Henry II.
When Henry felt it advantageous to make his chancellor the archbishop
of Canterbury, Thomas gave him fair warning: he might not accept all of
Henry’s intrusions into Church affairs. Nevertheless, he was made
archbishop (1162), resigned his chancellorship and reformed his whole
way of life! Troubles began. Henry insisted upon usurping Church
rights. At one time, supposing some conciliatory action possible,
Thomas came close to compromise. He momentarily approved the
Constitutions of Clarendon, which would have denied the clergy the
right of trial by a Church court and prevented them from making direct
appeal to Rome. But Thomas rejected the Constitutions, fled to France
for safety and remained in exile for seven years. When he returned to
England, he suspected it would mean certain death. Because Thomas
refused to remit censures he had placed upon bishops favoured by the
king, Henry cried out in a rage, “Will no one rid me of this
troublesome priest!” Four knights, taking his words as his wish, slew
Thomas in the Canterbury cathedral. Thomas Becket remains a hero-saint
down to our own times.
No one becomes a
saint without struggle, especially with himself. Thomas knew he must
stand firm in defence of truth and right, even at the cost of his life.
We also must take a stand in the face of pressures—against dishonesty,
deceit, destruction of life—at the cost of popularity, convenience,
promotion and even greater goods.
In T.S. Eliot's
drama, Murder in the Cathedral, Becket faces a final temptation to seek
martyrdom for earthly glory and revenge. With real insight into his
life situation, Thomas responds: "The last temptation is the greatest
treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason." (AmericanCatholic.org)
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He
was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon
him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not
die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went
into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to
do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his
arms and praised God, saying: Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you
now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your
salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light
for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel. The
child's father and mother marvelled at what was said about him. Then
Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: This child is
destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a
sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts
will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too. (Luke 2:22-35)
the long
awaited Object of the Old Testament and its prophecies. We may say that
the elderly Simeon who features in our Gospel scene today and who,
moved by the Holy Spirit went into the temple courts, was an example
of those of the Old Testament our Lord referred to. Consider his
holy life. Born many decades before our scene today, he grew up
faithful to his calling as a child of Israel. He was profoundly united
to Yahweh and he longed for the Messiah, and it had been revealed to
him that this longing would be granted. He, then, is in the line of the
prophets (such as Deutero-Isaiah and Daniel) pointing to the Messiah.
In a real sense he is a forerunner of the Messiah in the way John the
Baptist was a forerunner. That is to say, John announced the arrival of
the Messiah and pointed him out. Some thirty years before a prophet
before him had done the same. That prophet was Simeon and his prophecy
ought be situated among the Messianic prophecies. Simeon was led by the
Holy Spirit into the temple courts. The Holy Spirit was upon him. He
sought out the Child, approached his mother and her husband Joseph,
took the Child into his arms and prophesied over him. This Child, he
said, addressing God in the presence of Mary and Joseph, is “your
salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light
for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” He
is the salvation which God has prepared for all. He will be the light
of the world, Gentiles and Israel alike. He would bring God’s
revelation to them and would be the glory of his people. Mary and
Joseph separately had been told by the angel that the Child was the
Messiah, the Saviour. Simeon was now confirming this.
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If you were more discreet, you would not be troubled by the bad after-taste left by so many of your conversations.
(The Way, no.646)
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September 10, 2008, Benedict XVI continues with the fourth of his Wednesday talks on St Paul
We
turn to Saint Paul’s view of what it means to be an apostle of Jesus
Christ. Though he did not belong to the group of the Twelve, called by
Jesus during his ministry,
Paul nevertheless claims the title for himself because he was chosen
and transformed by the grace of God, and shared the three principal
characteristics of the true apostle. The first is to have seen the Lord
(1 Cor 9:1) and to have been called by him. One becomes an apostle by
divine vocation, not by personal choice. The second characteristic also
underlines the divine initiative: an apostle is someone who is sent and
therefore acts and speaks as a delegate of Christ, placed totally at
his service. The third characteristic is dedication to the work of
proclaiming the Gospel and founding Christian communities. Saint Paul
can point to his many trials and sufferings that speak clearly of his
courageous dedication to the mission (cf. 2 Cor 11:23-28). In this
context he sees an identification between the life of the apostle and
the Gospel that he preaches; the apostle himself is despised when the
Gospel is rejected. Saint Paul was steadfast in his many difficulties
and persecutions, sustained above all by the unfailing love of Christ
(cf. Rom 8:35-39). May the example of his apostolic zeal inspire and
encourage us today!
(Continuing)
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Sixth Day in the Octave of Christmas, (Tuesday)
(December 30) St. Egwin (d. 717)
You say you’re not familiar with today’s saint? Chances are you
aren’t—unless you’re especially informed about Benedictine bishops who
established monasteries in medieval England. Born of royal blood in the
7th century, Egwin entered a monastery and was enthusiastically
received by royalty, clergy and the people as the bishop of Worcester,
England. As a bishop he was known as a protector of orphans and the
widowed and a fair judge. Who could argue with that? His popularity
didn’t hold up among members of the clergy, however. They saw him as
overly strict, while he felt he was simply trying to correct abuses and
impose appropriate disciplines. Bitter resentments arose, and Egwin
made his way to Rome to present his case to Pope Constantine. The case
against Egwin was examined and annulled. Upon his return to England, he
founded Evesham Abbey, which became one of the great Benedictine houses
of medieval England. It was dedicated to Mary, who had reportedly made
it known to Egwin just where a church should be built in her honour. He
died at the abbey on December 30, in the year 717. Following his burial
many miracles were attributed to him: The blind could see, the deaf
could hear, the sick were healed. (AmericanCatholic.org)
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Scripture today: 1 John 2:12-17; Psalm 96:7-10; Luke 2:36-40 (click here for readings)
There
was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of
Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years
after her marriage, and
then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple
but worshipped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at
that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to
all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. When
Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord,
they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. And the child
grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God
was upon him. (Luke 2:36-40)
Luke’s
account of the infancy of Jesus situates him in the midst of some very
holy persons whose moral perception, powerfully assisted by the action
of the Holy Spirit, enables them to understand the identity and
greatness of the Child Jesus. The Child
has
been brought to the Temple by Mary and Joseph. The elderly Simeon,
filled with the Holy Spirit, has come to the couple and taken the Child
into his arms and prophesied over him and over his mother. Now there
appears a new personage, elderly as was Simeon. Simeon had spoken under
the influence of the Holy Spirit and so at that moment had acted as a
prophet. But Anna is explicitly referred to by Luke as a prophetess,
implying that she had at various times spoken under the influence of
the Holy Spirit and was characteristically led by the Spirit of God.
She is led by the Spirit to come upon them at this point, the point at
which Simeon had just finished speaking of the Child in his arms, and
she too recognized in the Child the One who had been promised. She
recognized in him the Redeemer, and she gave thanks to God for his
arrival, and spoke of him to those who looked forward to the redemption
of Israel. Those who heard her testimony were also looking forward to
God’s saving action. It implies that there were in fact many holy
persons in Israel and the providence of God connected some of them to
Christ during the days following his birth. Today we think of Anna. All
her long life she had loved and served God. Presumably in her mid-teens
she had married and after seven years was left a widow. She was now in
her mid-eighties, a very advanced age for the times, and, given over to
God, was living constantly in the Temple. Perhaps the parents of Mary
had known her well (and Simeon too), and had introduced their holy
child to her. Simeon and Anna, Zachary and Elizabeth, each of whom had
prophesied of the Child, all exemplify the holiness of the Old
Testament at its best.
Yes
indeed, we have in Anna a wonderful exemplification of the Old
Testament, the dispensation prior to and preparing for that which
would come in Christ. In Anna we have a truly holy person, possessed of
and led by the Spirit of God. As a beautiful embodiment of the Old
Testament, she was led by the Spirit of God to the Child Jesus and
exulted in his presence. Her bearing witness to him before others who
longed for the redemption of Israel illustrates the purpose of the Old
Testament. It points to Jesus and Jesus is its fulfilment. Another
would do the same. I refer to John the Baptist. While Simeon and Anna
bore witness to Jesus, John had done so even before his birth. At
Mary’s arrival, Luke tells us that John leapt within the womb of
Elizabeth his mother, and she herself in the Spirit then spoke of Mary
and her Child. Thirty years later, the same John, the last and greatest
of the prophets, spoke of Jesus. We could say that he, his own parents
and Simeon and Ann, all of whom spoke of Jesus, together made up a
magnificent embodiment of the Old Testament and as such pointed to
Jesus. But let us who have been baptized into Christ remember a further
point. Our Lord said that no one born of woman had been greater than
John the Baptist but that the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater
than he. That is to say, great as was what God had done in the Old
Testament prior to the coming of Jesus, much greater still was what he
would do in Jesus. Great as were the gifts bestowed on the children of
Israel, greater still are those bestowed on those who are in Christ.
The Child in whom Anna exulted and about whom she spoke to those
awaiting God’s salvation was the bearer of tremendous blessings for
those to come. We are the beneficiaries of those blessings. The great
blessing is the gift of the Holy Spirit. Blessed are the eyes that see
what you see, our Lord told his disciples. We are blessed because we
have the greatest of blessings, the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ.
In him, as St Paul writes, is found every heavenly blessing. This is
what Anna bore witness to in our Gospel scene today. (Luke 2:36-40)
As
we think of Anna coming upon the Child Jesus and rejoicing in the
wonder of him, let us share in that rejoicing. Let us ask God for a
deep sense of the grandeur and unique treasure that is the person of
Jesus. He came to give us life, life in abundance, as he said on one
occasion. That life is none other than himself. Union with him gives a
share in that life. It is God’s life, eternal life, and it is just what
the world is hungering for. Christ is the answer to the need of man,
and our Gospel scene today reminds us of this.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Don't seek to be 'understood'. That lack of understanding is providential: so that your sacrifice may pass unnoticed.
(The Way, no.647)
Seventh Day in the Octave of Christmas (Wednesday)
of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not
understood it. There came a man who was sent from God; his name was
John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that
through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he
came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to
every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though
the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. He
came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to
all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the
power to become children of God — children born not of natural descent,
nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. The Word
became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory,
the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace
and truth. John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, This
was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because
he was before me.' From the fulness of his grace we have all received
one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace
and truth came through Jesus Christ. No-one has ever seen God, but God
the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known. (John 1:1-18)cares
to begin. Perhaps John had in mind the “beginning” as in the Book of
Genesis. In the Book of Genesis both at the point of creation and prior
to it, there was God. The creation of the world is explained but there
is no attempt to account for the presence of the Creator. He the
Creator was simply there. That is all that can be said: at whatever
point the reader of the inspired text wishes to begin, God was there.
So, God was, God is, and God ever will be. St Paul writes in one of his
Letters that before the world began, God chose us in Christ to be full
of love in his sight. Again, God is simply a given. He was and ever is.
A similar perspective is adopted at the beginning of John’s Gospel and
yet now there is an altogether new revelation expanding the old.
Another was with God in the beginning. He was with God in the
beginning. He was the Word of God. He was with God, and at the same
time he was God. As is well known, in English translation there is not
preserved the subtlety of the Greek sentence that makes these solemn
assertions. In Greek, “theos” means God, and John writes that the Word
was with “ton Theon” - the accusative of “ho Theos” - which contains
the definite article. We might translate it as “The” God, meaning “the
one only God”. So the Word was with the one only God. At the same time
the Word was “Theos” (without the article), indicating that the Word
was God - divine. So there is the one only God but a distinction of
persons. The Word was God but not the Person of “ho Theos”, the Father.
Christ is identified as the Word of God, as with God from all eternity,
and as himself God. As the Gospel will reveal, God is one being, but
three persons: the Father, his Son the Word, and the Spirit of them both.Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God
Prayers this week: The shepherds hastened to Bethlehem, where they found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. (Luke 2:16)
Father, help us to live as the holy family, untied in respect and love.
Bring us to the joy and peace of your eternal home. We ask this through
our Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God
for ever and ever.
(January 1) Mary, Mother of God
Mary’s divine motherhood broadens the Christmas spotlight. Mary has
an important role to play in the Incarnation of the Second Person of
the Blessed Trinity.
She consents to God’s invitation conveyed by the angel (Luke 1:26-38).
Elizabeth proclaims: “Most blessed are you among women and blessed is
the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother
of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:42-43, emphasis added). Mary’s
role as mother of God places her in a unique position in God’s
redemptive plan. Without naming Mary, Paul asserts that “God sent his
Son, born of a woman, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4). Paul’s
further statement that “God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts,
crying out ‘Abba, Father!’“ helps us realize that Mary is mother to all
the brothers and sisters of Jesus. Some theologians also insist that
Mary’s motherhood of Jesus is an important element in God’s creative
plan. God’s “first” thought in creating was Jesus. Jesus, the incarnate
Word, is the one who could give God perfect love and worship on behalf
of all creation. As Jesus was “first” in God’s mind, Mary was “second”
insofar as she was chosen from all eternity to be his mother. The
precise title “Mother of God” goes back at least to the third or fourth
century. In the Greek form Theotokos (God-bearer), it became the
touchstone of the Church’s teaching about the Incarnation. The Council
of Ephesus in 431 insisted that the holy Fathers were right in calling
the holy virgin Theotokos. At the end of this particular session,
crowds of people marched through the street shouting: “Praised be the
Theotokos!” The tradition reaches to our own day. In its chapter on
Mary’s role in the Church, Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the
Church calls Mary “Mother of God” 12 times. (AmericanCatholic.org)
Results! Always looking for 'results'! You ask me for photographs, for facts and figures.
the
flesh, we no longer know him in that way" (2 Cor 5:16). Here the
Apostle does not claim that he knew Jesus during his earthly ministry,
but rather that he once considered Jesus from a merely human
standpoint. Significantly, Paul’s knowledge of Christ came from the
preaching of the early Church. Both his initial rejection of Jesus and
-- after his conversion on the road to Damascus -- his preaching of the
glorified Christ were based on the Gospel as proclaimed by the first
Christian community. In his Letters, Paul refers explicitly to the
facts of Jesus’ earthly life, as well as to his teaching. His Letters
also reflect many central themes and images drawn from the preaching of
Jesus. Paul’s teaching on the Jesus’ identity as the Son of the Father,
in whom we receive redemption and adoptive sonship, is clearly derived
from the Lord’s own experience and teaching. In a word, Paul’s
knowledge of Jesus and his proclamation of the risen Lord as God’s Son
and our Saviour, was grounded in the life and preaching of Jesus
himself.