For the next several weeks we will be reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Church in Rome. Unlike his other letters, for example to the Corinthians or the Galatians, he did not know the Romans. This letter was to serve as an introduction since he was planning on visiting. (The arrest by the Roman authorities sped up the process.) The letter lays out Paul’s approach to the faith since he knows that his reputation has preceded him and he wanted people to judge him for what he actually believed instead of what people said he believed. He begins the letter by introducing himself: Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus,
called to be an Apostle and set apart for the Gospel of God and adds a few verses later through Jesus Christ our Lord we have received the grace of apostleship, to bring about the obedience of faith. Paul wants the Romans to know that he is not just another bloke coming for a visit but someone with authority who intends to be heard. In our anti-authoritarian culture it would behoove us to notice that certain people can speak with authority and challenge our pre-conceived ideas.
