Additional Information about
the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul
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
[1]
The picture is “The Conversion of St. Paul” by Louis Boullogne the Younger c.
1730’s.
[2]
S.S. Commemoratio[3]
The readings are taken from the New
American Bible, except for 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.
