The Conversion of St. Paul
On January 25, we celebrate the conversion of St. Paul.
Saint Paul’s entire life can be explained in terms of one experience—his meeting with Jesus on the road to Damascus. In an instant, Saul saw that all the zeal of his dynamic personality was being wasted. Compare it to an athlete that goes into the pool, arena, gym or playing field and exerts all that they have for a given sport – only to find they are fighting the wrong fight. Perhaps he had never seen Jesus, who was only a few years older. But Saul had acquired a zealot’s hatred of all Jesus stood for, as he began to harass the Church “…entering house after house and dragging out men and women, he handed them over for imprisonment” (Acts 8:3b). Now he himself was “entered,” possessed, all his energy harnessed to one goal—being a slave of Christ in the ministry of reconciliation, an instrument to help others experience the one Savior. In that instant, he was no longer Saul; he became Paul “Yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20).
One sentence determined his theology: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:5b). Jesus was mysteriously identified with people —the loving group of people Saul had been running down like criminals. Jesus, he saw, was the mysterious fulfillment of all he had been blindly pursuing. From then on, his only work was to “present everyone perfect in Christ. For this I labor and struggle, in accord with the exercise of his power working within me” (Colossians 1:28b-29). “For our gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and [with] much conviction” (1 Thessalonians 1:5a).
Paul wrote many letters to the various church communities which he established. Among them were the Thessalonians, Philippians, Galatians, Corinthian, and the Romans. Excerpts from these letters are often read as the second reading on Sundays.
Today we hear Paul's famous passage in Corinthians about the body of Christ. Neither Paul nor Jesus expected that all who would be Christian should be and act or even worship in the same way. In fact, Paul emphasizes the vital importance of diversity. As he says, each is a part of the body of Christ, gifted by the Spirit to bring something unique to the world. This applies to individuals as well as communities and cultures.
Paul’s life became a tireless proclaiming and living out of the message of the cross: Christians die baptismally to sin and are buried with Christ; they are dead to all that is sinful and unredeemed in the world. They are made into a new creation, already sharing Christ’s victory and someday to rise from the dead like him. Through this risen Christ the Father pours out the Spirit on them, making them completely new.
Paul’s great message to the world is: You are saved entirely by God, not by anything you can do. Saving faith is the gift of total, free, personal and loving commitment to Christ, a commitment that then bears fruit in more “works” than the Law could ever contemplate.
- Deacon Ed Herrera