“It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your heart your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle. It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.”
~ Pope John Paul II
This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who He is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with Him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with Him!
~ Παῦλος, The Least of The Apostles, in Romans 8
Παῦλος (Paul), a joyous bondservant of El Elyon, and Jesus – The Christ, The Son of The Living God.
To Ἰωάννης, a brother as dear to my heart as to our Beloved Jesus. Oh John! I have held you as a true brother since you and James and Cephas commissioned me to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles. Your guidance to remain humble (for 14 years in the desert can be forgotten in just one night in Athens), to work hard, to remember the poor, and to LOVE people are always with me. My prayers sing out from my inner man as I remember how you walk – dare I say dance – in the חֶסֶד (Chesed: unfailing, covenant, persistent Love of God)! I recall the eternal depth in your eyes as you described the sweet smell of the empty tomb. How you were in ecstasy when you spoke of the impact marks in the rock from The Light of The World that rolled back the stone on that morning of mornings! You no longer believe. You are convinced of our Living Lord Christ! Oh John, I sense that He has more to reveal to you after many sufferings and persecutions. The JOY that floods my soul when I think of it!! May The Living Christ, King over All Creation, and The Sweetness of our inner man, be exalted above kingdoms, thrones, powers and dominions – through the sacrifices you will make. Know that I will pray for you always – whether in this Roman prison, or in the great cloud of witnesses from the stadium of the saints!
But until then, remember the moments you leaned on our Sweet Jesus’ breast. You had such a clear head about allowing yourself to be Loved by Love Himself. Oh brother! For so many years my mind ran hot with doctrine and before, its perverted relative: politics! So many times my letters ran hot (perhaps it was my duty in Christ), but my in passions – I always heard your now ageless voice calling me back to the real issues of our faith: To Abide, to believe, to Love, to forgive, and to hope. You always reminded me that The Father had utterly forgiven me for the vile, pretentious fool I had been in persecuting The Way.
Somehow, John, you helped me see it. We are not just forgiven: we are embraced by this same Jesus as His own brother. This launched so many conversations with the Holy Spirit as I struggled mightily to put together my letter to the Romans. Yes, I have the training to write so formally, but this work was a mighty struggle. It seems as if this letter will be important to the Church for a long time. I felt the weight of centuries of students crushing me with their questions. I felt the Apostolic duty to help avoid the heresies that will always come with the devil prowling about, seeking to kill and steal and destroy. You are in this letter, John. You were the sharpest of iron – perfected love, fearless – for you realized that fear was just unbelief. And brother – you believe!
Soon I will finish the race He has set before me, and let me testify to this now: I am ready. I believe. I have done the works He had prepared in advance for me through His matchless and empowering Grace. Nero has signed my death warrant. He has always been under the sway of the prince of the power of the air. Even now I pray for this man. OH! what a trophy of Grace Nero would be! For our God is able to do exceedingly and abundantly beyond and above what we ask. Even so, it is for each of us choose to surrender to the Great Love of The Great Lover of Our souls, or to attempt to enter forever on our own merits./p>
Run, John! Run the race He has set before us! I will save a seat in the stadium of the saints for you. We have a lot of people to pray for until that great moment where our King establishes what has encouraged our people’s prayers since Abraham’s dread vision; the night where The One promised us He would be with us to the end!
Over the time remaining, I have been preparing a number of thoughts and notes to leave behind for you. I do not say that all of it is directly from God. It is more thoughts I had on how your teachings influenced me over the years; simply as a gift to a friend. I will pass them back to the council in Jerusalem if the Roman officials will allow it. I am now in a thin place. The veil between heaven and earth grows translucent for me. The visions He gave me in the past now become evermore real before the eyes of my inner man. Perhaps a few of the things I notice, will help us all to know Him better.
O Holy Spirit! Master Weaver! You took a Pharisee breathing murder and a fisherman who once smelled of fish and nets, and You made us sing in perfect harmony. What a God we serve! What a Savior! What a Comforter You are! I go to see Him soon — the One we both love more than life. Tell the brothers not to mourn too long. Tell them the Lion and the Lamb are the same. Tell them the best is yet to come. Until that Day, I remain, Your grateful fellow bondservant and brother, Paul — once the least, now soon to be the first to see His face.
Stay tuned for updates from Paul in the future!
It appears the Roman ministry of prisons has approved the transfer of his notes to the Church Council in Jerusalem…
