Message of Abbot Paul - Thursday - 25th January 2024
Abbot Paul • January 24, 2024
Today is the feast of the Conversion of St Paul and the last day in the Octave or Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. I have always celebrated my name’s day on the feast of Paul’s conversion rather than on 29th June, because I have always felt that my need for conversion gets greater as I go through life. The short Gospel passage comes from Mark, (Mk 16: 15-18). It’s a summary of what Jesus must have told his apostles in that period between his Resurrection and Ascension, before the coming of the Holy Spirit. “Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation.” That is exactly what Paul did after his conversion and baptism.
There are some fascinating facts about the New Testament: 1) the account of Paul’s conversion occurs no less than three times, 2) the amount of material written by or attributed to Paul, 3) the Acts of the Apostles is mostly about him. Obviously, all these texts are focussed on Jesus, but Paul is either the protagonist or the thinker behind the theological ideas proposed and developed. What would Christianity have been without St Paul? We’ll never know! I think it might be best we if just leave the word to Paul and he tells us his own story in Acts 22: 3-16.
“Paul said to the people, ‘I am a Jew and was born at Tarsus in Cilicia. I was brought up here in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was taught the exact observance of the Law of our ancestors. In fact, I was as full of duty towards God as you are today. I even persecuted this Way to the death, and sent women as well as men to prison in chains as the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify, since they even sent me with letters to their brothers in Damascus. When I set off it was with the intention of bringing prisoners back from there to Jerusalem for punishment.
‘I was on that journey and nearly at Damascus when about midday a bright light from heaven suddenly shone round me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” I answered: Who are you, Lord? and he said to me, “I am Jesus the Nazarene, and you are persecuting me.” The people with me saw the light but did not hear his voice as he spoke to me. I said: What am I to do, Lord? The Lord answered, “Stand up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told what you have been appointed to do.” The light had been so dazzling that I was blind and my companions had to take me by the hand; and so I came to Damascus.
‘Someone called Ananias, a devout follower of the Law and highly thought of by all the Jews living there, came to see me; he stood beside me and said, “Brother Saul, receive your sight.” Instantly my sight came back and I was able to see him. Then he said, “The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see the Just One and hear his own voice speaking, because you are to be his witness before all mankind, testifying to what you have seen and heard. And now why delay? It is time you were baptised and had your sins washed away while invoking his name.”
A good exercise for today, if you have the time, is to read the other two accounts of Paul’s conversion. The first can also be found in Acts, Ac 9: 1-22, whereas the other can be found in Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, Gal 1: 11-24. Put the three together, and you get the whole story. Then we can think about our own lives and what conversion experiences we’ve had. I have no doubt that we will rediscover how good the Lord in his loving mercy has been to each one of us.
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