The Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, Monday, January 25, 2021

Acts 9:1-22

Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, that, if he should find any men or women who belonged to the Way, he might bring them back to Jerusalem in chains. On his journey, as he was nearing Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” He said, “Who are you, sir?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do.” The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, for they heard the voice but could see no one. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus. For three days he was unable to see, and he neither ate nor drank.  There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.” The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight and ask at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is there praying, and in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, that he may regain his sight.” But Ananias replied, “Lord, I have heard from many sources about this man, what evil things he has done to your holy ones in Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to imprison all who call upon your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for this man is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before Gentiles, kings, and children of Israel, and I will show him what he will have to suffer for my name.” So Ananias went and entered the house; laying his hands on him, he said, “Saul, my brother, the Lord has sent me, Jesus who appeared to you on the way by which you came, that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately things like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. He got up and was baptized, and when he had eaten, he recovered his strength.  He stayed some days with the disciples in Damascus, and he began at once to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God. All who heard him were astounded and said, “Is not this the man who in Jerusalem ravaged those who call upon this name, and came here expressly to take them back in chains to the chief priests?” But Saul grew all the stronger and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus, proving that this is the Christ.

The Holy Church recognizes in Paul of Tarsus so great a saint that she assigns him two feast days: that honoring his conversion, and one on which he is joined with St. Peter, the rock on whom the Lord Jesus has built his Church.

The First Reading assigned to the present feast is taken from the Acts of the Apostles, written by Paul’s close co-worker, St. Luke.  Paul himself also tells us of his conversion in a brief account we find in his Letter to the Galatians: “I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it . . . But . . . he who had set me apart before I was born, and had called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me” (Galatians 1, 13, 15-16).  He does not overstate the violence with which he persecuted the Church.  Luke tells us that he “was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison” (Acts 8, 3).  He tortured and killed Christians throughout Judea and Galilee, and was on his way to arrest Christians in the city of Damascus, outside of the Holy Land, at the time he was accosted by the Lord Jesus in a vision.  

We might wonder about his conversion.  It seems impossible that a man with such strong, even violent, convictions as Saul of Tarsus would ever entertain the question whether he was doing rightly or not in persecuting these heretical Christians.  But the future apostle did truly love God.  He loved him so much that he was completely open to his will, whatever it might mean for him.  Before his conversion he saw the Christians as Jews who had rejected the God of their fathers and the law he had given them, and were seeking to destroy the Temple and the old priesthood.  They had even made a mere man into their God after the Romans had crucified him.  In his vision he did saw a tremendous flash of light and he heard the voice of the Lord with its Galilean accent, calling him by name.  He learned from the Lord his will, which was that he go on into Damascus where he would be told what to do, but nothing more than that for the time being.  

Paul could have said no.  He could have proceeded to Damascus and carried out his original plan, or he could have returned to Jerusalem, or he could have gone back to Tarsus, his hometown.  He had been blinded following the vision and had a good excuse to turn aside and go back.  But he saw in the vision and his blindness a message from God, and out of love for God he did as he was told.  We can only imagine the violent shock Paul must have received in the vision.  He must have felt absolutely turned inside out.  The foundation upon which he stood had broken away and he was plunging into a vast void, his arms flailing wildly.  And yet he gathered himself and had his men lead him on to Damascus, where he pledged himself to do what he was told.  

A person armed only with convictions could not do what Paul did.  For Paul, God was everything.  His convictions about how to serve him were based on his best understanding of God’s will at the time, while being ready to change these if he learned otherwise.  For Paul, it was God who was in charge, not himself.  He knew himself to be only a servant, one who obeyed the orders of the superior, and that he — not his superior — was subject to error. With even greater zeal than he had persecuted the Christians, he preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ, suffering greatly for him in doing so.  To do what Paul did, there must be profound humility and absolute dedication to the Lord.

Almighty God chose a village girl for the Mother of his Son, a fisherman as the Rock of his Church, and the enemy of his Church to spread the Faith throughout the Mediterranean region.  He picks the most outwardly unlikely people to do his greatest works.  In our own ways, we are unlikely too, yet God has called us to do great works as well.