This weekend Pope Benedict XVI is inaugurating a special = year in honor of St. Paul the Apostle. Historians believe that Paul was born sometime between the years 7 a= nd 10 AD, so the pope is setting aside this time, from now until next June 29,= as a year of jubilee, to give God thanks for the birth of St. Paul 2000 years = ago. There is a legend that Saints Pete= r and Paul were both martyred in Rome on this day around the year 67 AD. We celebrate the conversion of St.= Paul on January 25 each year, possibly because that was the day on which later Christians moved his remains from the catacombs to the basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls of Rome. We= have no idea on what day Paul was born. <= /span>This is his biggest feast, so the jubilee year will begin and end with this date= .

The bible tells us only a little about Paul’s early= life, and we can surmise more from the typical lives of his contemporaries. Paul was born in the city of Tarsu= s, which is still thriving today in Turkey.&n= bsp; Israel forms the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. If you go north from there and fol= low the coast as it starts to bend west, that’s where Tarsus is. Paul was born under the name of Sa= ul and was raised as a Jew, having been circumcised on the eighth day after his bi= rth, as was the custom. He says he= was born a Roman citizen. We don’t know how that happened, but it’s possible that his father= received Roman citizenship as an honor for some outstanding duty he had performed. Paul’s father would have bee= n his first teacher, but he credits a rabbi named Gamaliel as having an influence on his education.&n= bsp; The New Testament letters were written in Greek, so we know Paul spo= ke that language. He learned how= to make tents and work leather – probably from his father, and he valued employment and fair wages. Sa= ul would have been a young adult when Jesus died, but there is no indication he ever met Jesus at that time. = As a faithful Jew, he probably took offense at the belief that the Messiah had c= ome only to be killed on a cross. So he joined in the persecution of Christians, who held this belief. When Saint Stephen was martyred, S= aul stood by approvingly. All that changed when the risen Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus; Saul = was blinded by the light, but then opened his eyes to faith. After that, he was known as Paul.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> He is more responsible for the spr= ead of Christianity than anyone except Jesus.&nbs= p; More than one fourth of the New Testament is attributed to him.

In the Second Letter to Timothy, apparently written from = prison under the realization that he would soon die, Paul writes the famous lines = we heard in our second reading today: “I have competed well; I have fini= shed the race; I have kept the faith.”&nb= sp; He compares his efforts for the sake of the gospel to those of an athlete preparing for the race, following the rules of the course, and finishing as a winner.

The story of Saint Paul is the story of a man who grew up= as a strong believer, but who still underwent a conversion to become a better instrument of God. As we cele= brate this special year of jubilee, let us heed the words of Saint Paul, and also imitate his life. He did not = live for himself; he let Christ live in him.