‘Catechists…are the ambassadors of Christ, God as it were exhorting by their mouths. They have the honor of collaborating in the spread of the Gospel in virtue of divine power. Their office is not derived from men but from God through Jesus Christ.

‘This consciousness of the Christian teachers’ divine mission must be the law of his moral attitude, the first rule of his thoughts and discourses, the basis of all his activity. It must arouse in him the sentiments of his duty and dignity and counteract the ennui of daily routine. In the life of St. Paul it created two sentiments, two passions, one might say: a high-mindedness without pride and a devotion without reserve.’[i]

St. Paul knew that God has made it possible for every person to know right from wrong. He lived in a world fraught with political turmoil. As a Jew, he was exposed to the bickering between the various sects of Judaism. And as such he was also a victim of the oppression of the Roman occupiers of his land. Later, as he traveled throughout the Mediterranean, he was often dragged into court, and finally he died at the hands of the Roman Emperor Nero.