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From: 1 Timothy 1:1-2, 12-17

Greeting

[1] Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ
Jesus our hope,

[2] To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the
Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul Recalls His Own Conversion

[12] I thank him who has given me strength for this, Christ Jesus our Lord, be-
cause he judged me faithful by appointing me to his service, [13] though I former-
ly blasphemed and persecuted and insulted him; but I received mercy because I
had acted ignorantly in unbelief, [14] and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me
with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

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Commentary:

12-13. This clearly autobiographical passage, which shows the Apostle’s humi-
lity (cf., e.g., 1 Cor 15:9-10), is evidence of the letter’s Pauline authorship: it is
difficult to believe that a later disciple would have dared to call St Paul a “blas-
phemer”, “persecutor” or “insulter” or made him describe himself as “the fore-
most of sinners”.

St Paul’s conversion is an example of a miracle of grace; only by the mercy of
God could he have been changed and become the Apostle of the Gentiles and
such a faithful minister of the Gospel. This change which grace worked in Paul
can also help all who approach the Church to have great confidence in God’s
mercy and forgiveness; like a good father, God is always ready to receive the
repentant sinner.

The sacred text shows quite clearly that the initiative lies with God when it
comes to calling people to Church office. The call to the priesthood is a grace
from God; it is God who makes the choice and then he gives the person he has
chosen the strength to fulfill his office worthily. In this connection Bishop Alvaro
del Portillo has written: “Christian priesthood is not, then, in the line of ethical
relationships among men nor on the level of a merely human attempt to ap-
proach God: it is a gift from God and it is irreversibly located on the vertical line
of the search for man by his Creator and Sanctifier and on the sacramental line
of the gratuitous opening up to man of God’s intimate life. In other words, Chris-
tian priesthood is essentially (this is the only possible way it can be understood)
an eminently sacred mission, both in its origin (Christ) and in its content (the di-
vine mystery) and by the very manner in which it is conferred—a sacrament”
(”On Priesthood”, pp. 59f).

14. “In Christ Jesus”: this expression is being used with a special technical
meaning: it refers to the position of the new man who, after the “washing of re-
generation and renewal in the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5) which takes place at Bap-
tism, is now united to Christ, made a Christian. At Baptism the mercy of God
not only justifies the sinner but causes him to share profoundly in God’s own life
by means of grace, faith and love. These three gifts are a sign that the Christian
has truly been built into the body of Christ (cf. 2 Tim 1:13).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.