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| Chapter XV. Of the call of the Apostle Paul.
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Chapter XV.
Of the call of the Apostle Paul.
And when Christ in His
own Person called and addressed Paul, although He might have opened out
to him at once the way of perfection, yet He chose rather to direct him
to Ananias and commanded him to learn the way of truth from him,
saying: “Arise and go into the city and there it shall be told
thee what thou oughtest to do.”1193
So He sends him to an older man, and thinks good to have him instructed
by his teaching rather than His own, lest what might have been rightly
done in the case of Paul might set a bad example of self-sufficiency,
if each one were to persuade himself that he also ought in like manner
to be trained by the government and teaching of God alone rather than
by the instruction of the Elders. And this self-sufficiency the apostle
himself teaches, not only by his letters but by his acts and deeds,
ought to be shunned with all possible care, as he says that he went up
to Jerusalem solely for this reason; viz., to communicate in a private
and informal conference with his co-apostles and those who were before
him that Gospel which he preached to the Gentiles, the grace of the
Holy Spirit accompanying him with powerful signs and wonders: as he
says “And I communicated with them the Gospel which I preach
among the Gentiles lest perhaps I had run or should run in
vain.”1194
Who then is so
self-sufficient and blind as to dare to trust in his own judgment and
discretion when the chosen vessel confesses that he had need of
conference with his fellow apostles. Whence we clearly see that the
Lord does not Himself show the way of perfection to anyone who having
the opportunity of learning depises the teaching and training of the
Elders, paying no heed to that saying which ought most carefully to be
observed: “Ask thy father and he will show it to thee: thine
Elders and they will tell thee.”1195
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