St. Paul Letter to Romans

Year of St. Paul - Theme 5: St. Paul was the great Evangelizer, tirelessly spreading the Gospel. "… to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in performing the priestly service of the gospel of God …" (Romans 15:16) It is in his Letter to the Romans that St. Paul declared himself the "Apostle to the Gentiles". By the time this letter had been written, Paul had already established Christian communities in Asia Minor among the non Jewish peoples living in those lands. In this letter, he wrote extensively about the power of God bringing about our salvation. He teaches about the gifts of faith, hope, and love that we have been given through the Holy Spirit and which we must practice. But he also is also very clear that he believes that it is his mission to bring the gospel to those who have not yet heard it. "Thus I aspire to proclaim the gospel not where Christ has already been named …" (Romans 15:20) He asks the faithful for prayer and to join him in this work. Though it hard for us to imagine that people we come in contact with have not heard about Jesus, as was true in Paul's time, there is still work for us to do in witnessing our own faith in action and word among family members, co-workers, friends and neighbors. More than ever we need more people to be witnesses to the Gospel and to be modern day evangelizers. If not you, then who?