In an instant, the “tough-guy” meets “know-it-all” image I had of Saint Paul shattered. My relationship with him changed almost as radically as his own conversion on the road to Damascus. I was a college sophomore studying broadcast communications and film, just starting to dip my toes into discerning religious life. Someone encouraged me to read the Acts of the Apostles and Saint Paul’s letters, so I took up the challenge. Soon, I realized that so many of the Scripture passages I loved came from the same person.
After devouring the Acts of the Apostles, I reached the letters to the Corinthians and my eyes fell on the phrase: “For though you have countless guides to Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you then be imitators of me” (1 Corinthians 4:15-16).
Tears filled my eyes. I suddenly saw that Paul had been walking with me toward Christ all along. He wanted me to know him, to trust him. Paul desired to be my spiritual father, guiding me closer to Jesus.
It was no longer a coincidence that my home parish was St. Paul the Apostle, or that my dad shared his name, or that the sisters I’d just discovered were the Daughters of St. Paul. It was all part of the same beautiful image coming into focus: I had a spiritual father in St. Paul.
