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    STUDIA THEOLOGIA%20GRAECO-CATHOLICA%20VARADIENSIS - Issue no. 1 / 2006  
         
  Article:   ORIGINEA PATERNITĂŢII APOSTOLICE PRIN PRISMA AFIRMAŢIILOR PAULINE CU PRIVIRE LA PATERNITATEA DATORATĂ NAŞTERII PRIN INTERMEDIUL SUFERINŢEI ŞI A EVANGHELIEI ÎN 1 COR 4, 14-16; GAL 4, 19; FM 10.

Authors:  CĂLIN-DANIEL PAȚULEA.
 
       
         
  Abstract:  The Origin of the Apostolic Paternity Perceived Through the Statements of Paul Regarding the Paternity that is Due to the Birth Through Suffering and the Gospel in 1 Cor 4, 14-16; Gal 4, 19; Fm 10. Supported by the neophytes in Corinth, Paul managed, through his missionary experience, to take the Gospel in the middle of a community of heathens, in Corinth, the place where gods and humans met. He brought the Cross into the heathen city and gave the Corinthians the possibility to live the wonderful experience of the resurrected Christ. With parental affection, Paul invites the Corinthians to become his imitators and advises them to meditate on their personal experience and on the gifts they received. The Apostle founded the community and kept affective contact with them. That is why he feels the need to warn them; but his criticism does not erase his love and his intention is not that of humiliating them, as he is a parent for the community. Paul claims his status in front of the Corinthians, whom he had born in the spirit of Christ through the Gospel. (cf. 1 Cor 4, 15). Like a parent who loves his sons, he urges them to be his imitators (cf. 1 Cor 4, 15), the one who follows the Apostle, follows Christ; his paternity is offered by the phenomenon of imitation (cf. Mt 5, 48). The behavior of the Apostle is closely related to the message of the Cross and the involvement in what everyday life is regarded. This message used to be a model of apostolical life, having the power to ask his spiritual sons to apply these beliefs in everyday life. Paul’s paternity and the imitation he required are closely related to the Gospel in which Christ is presented and preached as Crucified. Saint Paul relives the experience of the rebirth of those who have already been baptized through suffering, until their souls get the full image of Christ: “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you”(Gal. 4, 19). Paul’s parental care can be noticed in individual cases as well, for Onesim, a slave that ran away from his master Filemon’s home and found refuge near Paul, as he was in chains. Paul convinces him to go back, but in the same time writes a letter in favour of the slave that had converted to Christianity. Paul becomes a parent for the believers of the community he had founded when he gives them the new life through the message of the Gospel and the power of the Holy Gost. The Apostle and the evangelized ones have a relationship similar to the one between a father and his beloved sons. (cf. 1 Cor 4, 14). Saint Paul’s paternity for his communities is also put into practice by the rebirth in pain of an authentic Christian life, the moment when “his sons” estrange from the Evangelic message (cf Gal 4, 19). There is a close, marked by love relationship between Paul and his believers. Its purpose is to form a family that should lead their existence following Christ’s exemple.  
         
     
         
         
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