From St. Pauli to St. Paul

Wonder of wonders; Miracle of miracles. A few words from Treadwell Walden (1896) reminded me of my conversion from the passions of this world to this Christ who pursued me into the liberty of His almighty presence and service.

St. Paul says, " I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision; but showed unto them that they should Take upon them a New Mind and turn to God, and do works worthy of the Metanoia."

When the scales had fallen from his eyes his Mind "beheld no other vision than of Christ. He that had then met him was thenceforth ever before him. The narrow, prejudiced, sectarian Pharisee was "changed " into an apostle of Christianity so magnificent, so enlightened, so large and liberal in his conception of it, that none of his new brethren could keep pace with him, as even all present ecclesiasticism is in danger of falling behind him.

All the marks of the Metanoia are here:

It was the Mind changed through circumstance ; for when he beheld the supernatural presence of the Lord, as actually risen from the dead, the whole vision of his error burst upon him.

It was the Mind changed in understanding ; for he spent three years of solitude in Arabia, receiving the fullest indoctrination from Christ.

It was the Mind changed by evolution; for, with the root of the matter in him, he now grasped entirely the transcendent change of situation, and came forth able, above all others, to reconcile the old economy with the new, to proclaim the advanced principles of the Gospel with a profundity of spiritual discernment which no one should ever exceed, and to be the most powerful advocate Christianity should ever know.

It was the Mind changed in disposition; for, from the fierce, proud, intolerant, self-sufficient son of the law, he became the patient, humble, compassionate, affectionate servant of Christ, " all things to all men."

It was the Mind changed by development; for the same capacity for faith, for zeal, for force and energy, for religious devotion, was now carried over and enlarged in the interest of a cause as new and as vast as the whole just revealed purpose of God in man.

It was the Mind changed by revolution; for it was a revolt from Judaism in its narrow rabbinical form, a total break with the artificial, superstitious, selfish system under which he had been born and bred, and a leap into the large spiritual consciousness of Christ Himself.

It was the Mind changed before repentance set in, which repentance accompanied, which repentance intensified, which repentance helped to fill with a due apprehension of the cross, but of the extent of whose growth in its change, of the extent of whose apprehension of his Lord, the word "repentance" in its fullest theological acceptation could never follow, compass, or describe. Nothing less than the word "Metanoia"—or some English expression that shall be the full equivalent of the word—can compass or describe it. For what was its most conspicuous, foremost feature ? A profoundly illuminated intelligence followed by a nature as profoundly penetrated. The "spiritual man" was there; the "natural man" was there no longer.

The Great Meaning of Metanoia, Treadwell Walden.

Photo Credit: 'Br Lawrence Lew, O.P