FEAST – THE TRANSFORMATION OF ST PAUL
(Acts 22:3-16/Acts 9:1-22; Psalm 117; Mark 16:15-18)
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The readings for today’s feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, including both versions from Acts, focus on his encounter with Jesus and the Great Commission Jesus gave to his disciples.
The message for us is to encounter Jesus as did St. Paul, and be witnesses to him to the whole world, was St. Paul.
Because Paul was already a zealous Jew, educated in the law, I prefer to see this event more as a transformation than a conversion experience. Sr. Teresita Kambeitz OSU, who followed the footsteps of St. Paul in and around Greece, speaks not so much of the conversion of St. Paul but of his transformation through his encounter with the Risen Lord on the road to Damascus. Basically, for her, he “fell in love with Jesus.”
In the Office of Readings for today, St. John Chrysostom agrees with Sr. Teresita:
“The most important thing of all to him, however, was that he knew himself to be loved by Christ. Enjoying this love, he considered himself happier than anyone else. Were he without it, it would be no satisfaction to be the friend of principalities and powers. He preferred to be thus loved and be the least of all, or even to be among the damned, then to be without that love and be among the great and honored. To be separated from that love was, in his eyes, the greatest and most extraordinary of torments; the pain of that loss would alone have been hell, and endless, unbearable torture.
“So too, in being loved by Christ he thought of himself as possessing life, the world, the angels, present and future, the kingdom, the promise and countless blessings. Apart from that love nothing saddened or delighted him; for nothing earthly did he regard as bitter or sweet.
“Paul set no store by the things that fill our visible world, any more than a man sets value on the withered grass of the field. As for tyrannical rulers or the people enraged against him, he paid them no more heed than gnats. Death itself and pain and whatever torments might come were but child’s play to him, provided that thereby he might bear some burden for the sake of Christ.”
St Paul in prison
In that first reading, a brilliant light blinded Saul, then he heard the voice of Jesus identifying himself with the Christians Saul was persecuting. Through the ministry of Ananias, Saul was healed of his blindness and learned what had happened to him: “The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear his voice; for you will be his witness to all the world … Get up, be baptized and have your sins washed away, calling on his name.”
This encounter challenged Saul’s whole belief system. He was convinced Jesus was a dead imposter and blasphemer, and his followers deluded apostates. Now he had literally “seen the light” of Christ and heard Jesus address him by name. The blindness symbolized the ignorance of his previous zealous Jewish faith. The three days of fasting without food or drink suggest that this was a passion, death and resurrection experience – the passion of realizing how mistaken his faith was, dying to that old understanding, and rising to a new world view centered the “will of the God of his ancestors,” which was to believe in and witness to Jesus as Risen Lord and Messiah.
In the first chapter of Galatians, Paul speaks of going to Arabia after his encounter with Jesus. The movie, Paul – Apostle of Christ, suggest that was because he wanted his time with the Lord, like the other apostles. I think it was also a time of re-interpreting all the scriptures he knew well as a zealous Jew who had studied under Gamaliel, in the light of the resurrection of Jesus. It was a personal three-year bible study! But I believe the deepest reason is also suggested in the movie, as flashbacks of the people he had killed, starting with Steven, all forgiving him. He had to integrate how much he was forgiven by Jesus, and that experience of God’s unconditional love as mercy and forgiveness is what ultimately transformed St. Paul in to the totally dedicated missionary evangelizer he was.
As the Messiah, Jesus had a two-fold role: to redeem and sanctify, to forgive and to heal. By being baptized, Saul received forgiveness of all his sins. Through the restoration of his sight, Saul was healed of his blindness. So, through forgiveness and healing, that encounter was not just with Jesus as Risen Lord, but also an experience of Jesus as the Messiah.
If we are to be disciples of Jesus, we must also encounter the Risen Lord like St. Paul and be open to inner transformation. The key is to see Jesus and hear his voice. In short, we must also encounter him in our own lives. Christianity is not just a new moral code or a philosophy, but an encounter with a person. We can encounter Christ as Risen Lord in the reading of sacred Scripture, in prayer and in the liturgical life of the Church. We can touch the Messiah’s heart and feel him touch ours as we receive his forgiveness and experience healing of our painful emotions, negative attitudes and our addictions. Only in this personal relationship with Christ the Messiah, the anointed one, and only in this encounter with Jesus the Risen One, do we really become Christians and empowered to witness to Jesus by sharing our experience with others.
The New Interpreters Bible adds the following thoughts: “Despite the appearance narrative, resurrection faith remains dependent upon the Word of Jesus and the disciples’ experience of the power of God that is active through Jesus. The disciples were all reduced to fearful silence. Nevertheless, God brings faith out of just such weakness and failure. Jesus did not need to come again and choose a new team in some grand lottery for better disciples. Despite all the appearances, Jesus did accomplish the will of God through suffering on the cross. However imperfect our faith and however many times we remain silent when we should testify to the gospel, we can always return to the Lord. None of us can get so far away from Jesus that we cannot be touched by God’s healing presence.”
The Eucharist makes present for us this powerful love of Christ shown to us through his passion, death and resurrection. When we celebrate it with faith, it has the power to transform us into his Body, his disciples, sent out to witness to the world the power of God’s love working in and through us
May we follow the example of St. Paul and let our encounter with Jesus as Risen Lord and Messiah transform us, forgiven and healed, into his witnesses to all the world.
