PRAISE
THE LORD ALL YOU NATIONS
"O God, Who taught the whole world through the preaching of
the blessed Apostle Paul, draw us, we pray, nearer to You, through the example
of him whose conversion we celebrate today..." (Collect for today's Mass).
St. Paul was a
tireless Apostle both in his work as a preacher and in his personal living-out
of the Gospel that he preached. His conversion is one of the most dramatic
moments in religious history. It was so sudden, so intense, so mysterious, and
so fruitful for us - the Church.
In a homily praising St.
Paul, St. John Chrysostom said, "Paul, more than
anyone else, has shown us what man really is, and in what our nobility
consists... Each day he aimed ever higher; each day he rose up with greater
ardor and faced with new eagerness the dangers that threatened him. He summed
up his attitude in the words, 'I forget what is behind me and push on to what
lies ahead...' The one thing he feared, indeed dreaded, was to offend God;
nothing else could sway him" (Second Reading, Liturgy of the Hours).
St. Paul's
entire life can be explained in terms of one experience - his meeting with
Jesus on the road to Damascus.
In an instant, he saw that all the zeal of his dynamic personality was being
wasted, like the strength of a boxer swinging wildly. Perhaps he had never seen
Jesus, Who was only a few years older. But he 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"
(Act 8:17). Now he himself was "entered," possessed; all his energy
harnessed to one goal - being a slave of Christ in the ministry of
reconciliation and an instrument to helping others experience the One Whom we
call Christ Jesus. Paul's theology can be summed up into one sentence, "I
am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting" (Acts 22:8).
What a conversion story this is! Like Paul, the word
"conversion" for most of us, is connected to some extraordinary
experience that changed our lives. Baptism marks our initial conversion, but it
also places us on a lifetime journey of conversions. Every time we recognize
the presence of racism in our lives and try to eliminate it, we are converting.
Every time we catch ourselves promoting sexism, we are converting. When we
forgive another without condition, we are converting. Conversion is an
important part of drug addiction recovery and other things that hurt us, as
well as the common good. Continual conversion will give us the bright lights in
our lives!
In the Responsorial Psalm we pray, "Go out to all the world
and tell the Good News" (Mk 16:15). When we have a conversion in our life
and the scales fall from our eyes we, like Paul, strive with enthusiasm. St. Paul said to the
Thessalonians, "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 Thess 1:5).
Jesus' departure and ascension into heaven were both an end and a beginning for
His disciples. Jesus' last words to them point to His saving mission and to
their mission - to be witnesses of His
saving death and His glorious resurrection, and to "Go into the whole
world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature" (Mk 16:15).
This is the great commission that the Risen Christ has given to
the whole Church. As we honor St. Paul and celebrate his
conversion, we ask the "Spirit Who helped Paul... to preach, fill us with
the light of faith, so that we may follow him in bearing witness to...
truth."