Message of Abbot Paul - Tuesday 25th January
Message from Fr Paul for Tuesday, 25th January 2022
Today the Church celebrates the feast of the Conversion of St Paul, which I have always considered to be my patronal feast day rather than 29th June, the reason being that I have always felt myself to be in need of constant and continuous conversion, my heart being wayward and fickle. So pivotal was Paul’s conversion to the mission and establishment of the Church, that the event has its own feast day and the Acts of the Apostles contains no less than three full accounts, and the rest of Paul’s writings several references, to what happened on that fateful day, when Saul the Pharisee and persecutor of the primitive Christian community met with Jesus on the road to Damascus. He had been sent from Jerusalem to begin the process of persecution of the followers of the Way, as those Christians were called. In Jerusalem he had taken charge of the martyrdom of St Stephen. We cannot underestimate the importance of this event and can well ask what would have become of the Christian faith and of world history had it not been for Saul of Tarsus. At Mass today we read the second account from Acts, (Ac 22: 3-16), which I propose reproducing in its entirety for us to read at leisure.
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.”’
Paul always viewed his conversion as an encounter with the risen Christ, who personally chose him to be the Apostle of the Gentiles. He was converted not only for his own salvation, but for that of countless others, Jews and non-Jews, Gentiles as they were called. This, unfortunately, was anathema to his co-religionists and the reason why they objected so violently to him and wanted his blood. We read in the Gospel how Jesus was accepting of pagans and others rejected by Judaism such as Samaritans. Paul was called to take that mission a stage further, although it is Peter who will first baptise non-Jewish believers in the persons of Cornelius and his household, as we read in Acts 10. Although Jesus refers to himself as Jesus the Nazarene, Paul immediately calls him Lord, Κυριος. At the Lord’s bidding, he is led by the hand to Damascus by Ananias, one of the leaders to the followers of the Way in that city, where he is baptised and his sins forgiven. When Ananias restored his sight, Saul, as he was still called, realised the errors of his ways and that, until then, he had been blind to the truth that Jesus the Lord is the one Light of the world and its only Saviour. In the risen Christ he has met the living God, whose obedient servant he has now become.
Lord, may our Christian life be a daily encounter with the Risen Christ, the Light of the world and source of our salvation, and may we always share the joy of our conversion with others. Amen.
