Thoughts to live by: Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle

Sunday, 26 January, Conversion of St. Paul, the Apostle

Readings — Acts 22:3-16 or Acts 9:1-22; Ps. 117:1, 2; Mk. 16:15-18.

Today is also the 209th Anniversary of the Founding of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) by St, Eugene de Mazenod.

Laudetur Iesus Christus et Maria Immaculata!

Some Notes on St Paul (born c. 4 BC, died c. 62-64 AD in Rome)

1. St. Paul is often considered to be the most important person after Jesus and Mary in the history of the Church. His surviving Letters had enormous influence on Christianity. Of the 27 books in the New Testament, 13 are attributed to him and about half of the Acts of the Apostles deals with Paul's life and works.

He was a Greek-speaking Jew from Asia Minor and was born in Tarsus, a major city in eastern Cilicia, part of the Roman province of Syria. The main cities of Syria, Damascus and Antioch, played a prominent part in his life. He was converted to faith in Jesus Christ about 33 AD.

2. Paul was a tent maker and his Greek was "koine," or common Greek. He was a member of the Pharisees and therefore, unlike the Saducees, he believed in life after death and the resurrection of the dead. He also believed in the "traditions" of the Pharisees.

By his own account, Paul was the best Pharisee of his generation (see Phil. 3:4-6; Gal. 1:13-14). But he claimed to be the least of the Apostles of Christ (see 2 Cor. 11:22-23; 1 Cor. 15:9-10), and attributed his successes to the grace of God.

3. Paul spent much of his life persecuting the nascent Christian movement. As the first Christian martyr, Stephen, was being stoned to death, Saul watched the cloaks of the persecutors (Acts 7:58). He believed that Jewish converts to the new Christian movement were not sufficiently observant of the Jewish Law and that Jewish converts mingled too freely with Gentile Christians.

He certainly would not believe that God chose to favor Jesus by raising him before the final Judgment. His encounter with the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus transformed him completely.

4. The description of Paul's conversion is found in the Letters and in Acts. In Gal. 1:11-16, he says, "I wish you to know, brothers and sisters, that the Gospel I preach is not of human origin.... I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.... But when God, who set me apart from my mother's womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate tesponse was not to consult any human being."

According to Acts, Paul began his persecutions in Jerusalem, contrary to his own assertion that he did not know any of the Jerusalem followers of Christ until well after his own conversion (see Gal. 1:4-17).

5. The Acts of the Apostles discusses Paul 's conversion at three different points — Acts 9:3-9; Acts 22; Acts 26:12-18. Acts says that Paul was on his way from Jerusalem to Damascus with a mandate issued by the High Priest to seek out and arrest the followers of Jesus and to return them to Jerusalem as prisoners for questioning and possible execution (Acts 9:2).

"As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?' 'Who are you, Lord?' Saul asked. 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now get up and go to the city, and you will be told what you must do.' The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Paul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days, he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything."

The narrative says nothing about Paul falling off a horse. Paul's horse first appeared in the 14th century.

6. Acts' second narrative occurs in a speech when he was arrested in Jerusalem (Acts 22:6-21). In this account, his companions shared in seeing the dazzling light but they did not hear the voice (Acts 22:9).

Acts' third narrative occurs when Paul defends himself before King Agrippa against the accusations that he has rejected the laws of Israel (Acts 26:12-18). Here Paul declares that Jesus gave him a mission to the Gentiles "so that they may turn... from the power of Satan to God" (Acts 26:17-18).

7. The radical transforming effect of Paul's conversion influenced the clear antithesis that he saw "between righteousness based on the law" which he had sought in his former life; and "righteousness based on the death of Christ" (see Gal. 1:11-12; 3:1-5). As he would declare: "By the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Cor. 15:10).

The heart of the conversion event is this: the Risen Christ appears in a brilliant light and speaks to Saul. He transforms Saul's thinking and his entire life. He has been blind to the truth, to the light that is Christ. His definitive "yes" to Christ in Baptism restores his sight and makes him clearly see the light of Christ.

8. 1st Reading, Acts 22:3-16 or Acts 9:1-22 — the suggested readings are two of the three accounts of Paul's conversion in Acts.

9. Responsorial Ps. 117: 1, 2 — "Praise the Lord, all you nations! Extol him all you peoples! His mercy for us is strong; the faithfulness of the Lord is forever. Hallelujah!" The shortest hymn of the 150 Psalms, Psalm 117 calls the whole world to praise God's mercy and eternal fidelity.

10. Gospel, Mk. 16:15-18 — Part of "the Longer Ending" of Mark, cited by the Church Fathers in the 2nd century. The "Shorter Ending" is found after Mk. 16:8 before the Longer Ending.

The Commissioning of the Eleven — Jesus said to them, "Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages" (vv. 16-17). "They will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover" (v. 18). The Gospel reminds us of Paul's baptism and commissioning to preach to the Gentiles.

11. Prayer — O God, by the preaching of your apostle Paul, you have caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world. Grant, we pray, that we, remembering his wonderful conversion, may be thankful to you by following his holy teaching, through Christ our Lord. Amen (Collect for today's Mass).

Prayers, best wishes, God bless!