Paul: Hard-headed, not hard-hearted

May 13, 2019
Vatican News
 
In his homily at Mass in the Casa Santa Marta in Vatican City on May 10, Pope Francis invited Christians to be docile to the voice of the Lord, after the model of St. Paul.
 
Taking his cue from the conversion of St. Paul on the road to Damascus, narrated in the first reading at daily Mass, Pope Francis said the apostle to the Gentiles was hard-headed but not hard-hearted.
 
The Holy Father said the moment of his conversion “marked a change in the course of Salvation History.” It exposed the church’s universality and its openness to “pagans, Gentiles, and those who were not Israelites,” which, the Pope said, the Lord permitted because “it was important.”
 
Reflecting on St. Paul’s character, Pope Francis called him “a forceful man” who was “enamored with the purity of the law,” saying he was “honest” and “consistent”, though he had “a difficult character.”
 
“First of all, he was consistent, because he was a man open to God. If he persecuted Christians, it was because he was convinced that God desired it. But how can that be? Never mind how: he was convinced of it. This is the zeal he carried for the purity of the house of God, for the glory of God. A heart open to the voice of the Lord. And he risked all, and charged ahead. Another characteristic of his actions is that he was a docile man – full of docility – and was not hard-headed.”