Living and True

This morning we made the epic hike out to the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. One of the four major basilicas of Rome, it is located "outside the walls" of the ancient city of Rome because that is where they used to bury their dead in order the keep the stench and contagion of death away from the center of town. 

St. Paul was buried here after being martyred for his faithful witness to Jesus Christ, and a series of churches and eventually the present-day basilica was built over the site. Because of his Roman citizenship, Paul suffered a much "cleaner" death than his comrade St. Peter suffered in the same city. Paul was beheaded by sword, whereas Peter was crucified upside down. This is one of the reasons Paul is usually depicted carrying a sword – the instrument of his death. He also bears it in testament to the line traditionally attributed to him in the Letter to the Hebrews, 4:12: "[T]he word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

History comes alive in places like these. In the Year of St. Paul (2008-2009), a fresh excavation and study of the site of St. Paul's tomb was done. Immediately under the high altar of the basilica, they found a sarcophagus with a rough inscription on the cover that reads, "Paul Apostle Martyr" in Latin. Inside were 1st century bone fragments, along with fragments of purple cloth lined with gold – the same kind of royal material that the bones of St. Peter were found to be wrapped in when an excavation of his tomb (under the high altar of St. Peter's basilica) was done during World War II.

Around the corner, in one of the exhibits featured at St. Paul's basilica, is a collection of the coins that were found in and around the tomb during this same excavation. The faithful used to toss coins on the tomb as a sign of connection to the site and as a small offering of faith – much as we might toss coins in a fountain today. The genius of this, of course, archaeologically, is that the coins give the tomb a precise timeline down through the centuries. The oldest coin is one from the Republic of Rome, dating to 217-215 BC, which would be like our tossing an old penny from the 1800's. (Whoops! Should have kept that one – might have been worth something!).

I found the most interesting coin to be one from the reign of Caesar Augustus – part of a minting that was done between 27 BC and 14 AD. This mint of coin (pictured below) is the same one that Jesus most likely was looking at when he famously told the Pharisees and Herodians to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's! (Mt 22:15-22)

The Word of God is indeed living and true! . . . down through the ages . . . not only in coins and excavations that link us directly back to the time when Jesus and his apostles actually walked the face of the earth, but even more so, and more importantly, in our hearts and minds when we allow our lives to be infused by its transforming light.

(Photo: courtesy of Wikipedia)