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“The Conversion of St. Paul”
by Louis the Younger Boullogne c. 1730’s |
Readings for the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul [1]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [2]
Readings and Commentary: [3]
Reading 1: Acts 22:3-16
Paul addressed the people in these words:
“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia,
but brought up in this city.
At the feet of Gamaliel I was educated strictly in our ancestral law
and was zealous for God, just as all of you are today.
I persecuted this Way to death,
binding both men and women and delivering them to prison.
Even the high priest and the whole council of elders
can testify on my behalf.
For from them I even received letters to the brothers
and set out for Damascus to bring back to Jerusalem
in chains for punishment those there as well.
“On that journey as I drew near to Damascus,
about noon a great light from the sky suddenly shone around me.
I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me,
‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’
I replied, ‘Who are you, sir?’
And he said to me,
‘I am Jesus the Nazorean whom you are persecuting.’
My companions saw the light
but did not hear the voice of the one who spoke to me.
I asked, ‘What shall I do, sir?’
The Lord answered me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus,
and there you will be told about everything
appointed for you to do.’
Since I could see nothing because of the brightness of that light,
I was led by hand by my companions and entered Damascus.
“A certain Ananias, a devout observer of the law,
and highly spoken of by all the Jews who lived there,
came to me and stood there and said,
‘Saul, my brother, regain your sight.’
And at that very moment I regained my sight and saw him.
Then he said,
‘The God of our ancestors designated you to know his will,
to see the Righteous One, and to hear the sound of his voice;
for you will be his witness before all
to what you have seen and heard.
Now, why delay?
Get up and have yourself baptized and your sins washed away,
calling upon his name.’”
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Commentary on Acts 22:3-16
"St Luke gives us Paul's address to the Jews of Jerusalem, the first of three speeches in his own defense (cf. 24:10-21; 26:1-23) in which he tries to show that there is no reason why Christianity should be opposed by Jew or by Roman. Here he presents himself as a pious Jew, full of respect for his people and their sacred traditions. He earnestly desires his brethren to realize that there are compelling reasons for his commitment to Jesus. " [4]
This is the second account given in Acts of Paul’s conversion experience. In this account Paul himself recalls his role in the Hebrew temple as an enforcer. The reason for his trip to Damascus was the persecution of Christians, whom he was to return to Jerusalem in chains. By this miraculous event, Saul, who is renamed to Paul, becomes a witness to the resurrected Christ and an apostle.
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Or: 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, AAnanias.”
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.
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Commentary on Acts 9:1-22
This selection is the first of three accounts of Paul’s conversion. In this passage we are given more details about the events leading up to Saul’s actual experience, adding the mindset of Ananias and his fear of approaching Saul because of his reputation. We are also given a little Hebrew numerology as we hear that Saul neither ate nor drank for three days prior to his baptism, the same period Jesus was in the tomb.
According to these accounts, Saul, the enforcer of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, was an involuntary convert, a person of zeal and energy that the Lord turned, as Scripture says, into God’s instrument. Although it is only St. Luke that gives Saul the title “apostle” twice (Acts 14: 4; 14), this passage provides a parallel to the call of the others. Paul sees the Kyrios, the risen Lord; he is called, he is given the gift of the Holy Spirit, and he proclaims Christ crucified.
CCC: Acts 9:3-18 639; Acts 9:4-5 598; Acts 9:13 823; Acts 9:14 432; Acts 9:20 442
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 117:1bc, 2
R. (Mark 16:15) Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
or:
R. Alleluia, Alleluia.
Praise the LORD, all you nations;
glorify him, all you peoples!
R. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
or:
R. Alleluia, Alleluia.
For steadfast is his kindness toward us,
and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever.
R. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
or:
R. Alleluia, Alleluia.
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Commentary on Ps 117:1bc, 2
“This shortest of hymns calls on the nations to acknowledge God's supremacy. The supremacy of Israel's God has been demonstrated to them by the people's secure existence, which is owed entirely to God's gracious fidelity.” [5] Using a refrain from St. Mark’s Gospel (Mark 16:15), the psalm is one of praise for the Good News of God’s salvation.
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Gospel: Mark 16:15-18
Jesus appeared to the Eleven and 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.
They will pick up serpents with their hands,
and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them.
They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
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Commentary on Mk 16:15-18
In this passage we are given St. Mark’s version of Jesus’ final commissioning of the apostles. This Gospel account is the final recorded meeting between Jesus and the apostles. It is important because it supports the universal mission of the Twelve, and also the mission Paul is given at his time of conversion: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.” "It is the same charge given at the end of Matthew's Gospel (28:18-20 see also Luke 24:47) and anticipated in the eschatological discourse (Mark 13:10). The good news is no longer limited to God's chosen people, as it had been during Jesus' earthly life (7:27; see Matthew 10:6)." [6]
CCC: Mk 16:15-16 977, 1223; Mk 16:15 888; Mk 16:16 161, 183, 1253, 1256, 1257; Mk 16:17-18 670, 1507; Mk 16:17 434, 1673; Mk 16:18 699
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Reflection:
We recall that when St. Stephen was condemned to death, those who would execute him came and laid their cloaks at the feet of Saul (Acts 7:58). Saul was the one identified as being the “tip of the sword” wielded by the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem in the aftermath of the resurrection of Christ. It was he who persecuted those who believed that Jesus came fulfilling the law and the prophets, all that he had so laboriously studied under the great Jewish scholar Gamaliel. For him that must have been like being trained as an astronaut and then finding out the space program was effectively canceled.
We observe, as we consider his journey of faith, that his heart, so intent on serving God that it led him to put to death those who would stray from the path he was taught, would require drastic action to change direction. His encounter with the Lord on the road to Damascus was transformative. The blindness he suffered was symbolic of his interpretation of all of God’s revelation up to that point. He had seen all the signs and completely missed the point. His life had been directed like the person confronted with a giant puzzle. That person was so enthralled by the pieces that they never assembled them to see the whole beautiful picture the puzzle was meant to represent.
St. Paul came to know the truth. He heard the words spoken by Jesus from heaven: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” But it did not begin or end there. It was the catalyst of his conversion. He would spend the rest of his life trying to forgive himself for what he had done before that moment. We hear his remorse often in his self-effacing writings.
In his life, we can all take heart. We have all been guilty of not listening to the Lord’s call, to a greater or lesser degree. We often hear of momentous conversion stories, generally affecting those who acted most contrary to the laws of God and Christ, those who have committed heinous crimes, people like the past president of Planned Parenthood who led the fight to legalize abortion. Their stories of conversion are seemingly miraculous. And it appears that those who turned most drastically are generally the loudest proponents of our faith after their life-changing encounter with Christ.
Each of us is also called to conversion. For many of us it is a gradual process, not requiring blindness or imprisonment to cause us to recognize we were on the wrong path. If we are lucky, these “course corrections” are gradual and we are paying attention. At times we may take a seriously wrong turn and be brought back sharply. All of us are undergoing this journey to conversion. No one has come to perfect faith except those who finally see the Lord face to face.
Today we thank God for the gift of St. Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles. We also ask our Heavenly Father to “deliver us from temptation” so that we need not undergo one of those sharp changes in our lives. Rather, may God give us the strength to strive constantly to see the face of Christ in those we meet, and to look forward to the day when our journey to the Lord finds fulfillment in the perfect love of the heavenly kingdom.
Pax
In other years: Wednesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time
[1] The picture is “The Conversion of St. Paul” by Louis the Younger Boullogne c. 1730’s.
[2] S.S. Commemoratio[3] The readings are taken from the New American Bible, with the exception of the psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for English in Liturgy (ICEL). This republication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
[4] The Navarre Bible, Gospels and Acts, Scepter Publishers, Princeton, NJ, © 2002, p. 865.
[5] NAB footnote on Psalm 117.
[6] The Gospel of Mark, Mary Healy © 2008, Baker Academic, Grand Rapids MI, p. 333.
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