Delivering the Gospel, free of charge
Dear People of St. Boniface,
Let me begin today with two questions. (1) If and when your Church has married priests as a matter of course, who will finance their wives? And (2) how much do you think I got paid for my work as an apostle?
Answering question 2 first, the answer is: nil, although some communities made offerings to help me along. I worked at my trade to pay my way. I did not want to make it seem that I was preaching in order to make money. Now most of the other apostles and preachers did get paid, and many, including Peter and James, were accompanied by their wives, and these did all expect financial support from converts.
Typically, my enemies in Corinth stood this on their head. They said I did not charge a fee because I was aware that I was an inferior sort of apostle or indeed not an apostle at all – in other words, my teaching was worth nothing!
Without wishing to boast, I could say I was proud of delivering the Gospel free of charge. For me, the true reward was in proclaiming the Gospel. But really there was no choice; as I say, “Woe is me if I do not preach the Gospel!”
I also had to be flexible. To those who were Jews I had to speak from a Jewish standpoint, for pagans from a pagan one. For those who were “weak” – and when I use this word I always mean those who were very scrupulous, timid in fact – I could not go banging my fist about “following the rules to the letter” as that would make them even worse!
One of your finest commentators warns against using my letters as a source of a “rigorous ideology”. Without distorting the Gospel, I had to be sensitive to people’s background, and their ability to accept it.
My blessing, from Heaven, PAUL.