Today we celebrate the conversion of St. Paul from persecutor of the Church to belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. It was a very dramatic conversion. There was the bright light, and then Paul, falling to the ground and is blinded, then hears, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" Then, when he asks, "Who are you, sir?" The Lord replies, "I am Jesus the Nazorean whom you are persecuting." (Acts 22:7-8) Paul is then led to Damascus and, after speaking with Annanias, is baptized. He dramatically went from persecutor of Christians to being one of the greatest defenders of the faith.
If we look more deeply into this story of St. Paul's conversion, we will see there's more to it than just the conversion of St. Paul. There's also Annanias. Earlier in Acts 9:13, when the Lord instructs Ananias to go to St. Paul and to baptize him, Ananias is afraid. “Lord, I have heard from many sources about this man, what evil things he has done to your holy ones in Jerusalem." Ananias is rightly scared, but I also imagined that he may have been thinking, "Lord, I'm not going to him!!! He's killing us who believe in you and doesn't deserve your mercy and forgiveness." In a sense, Ananias has a conversion! He came to believe that Jesus has come for all people, even those people that we feel don't deserve it. God, as we see in Paul and Ananias, is able to bring salvation and conversion to all people. God is able to work through even those people that we, as God fearing people, may believe don't deserve God's mercy.
As we meditate on the conversion of St. Paul, let us also pray for those people we know that may be away from God. People that we may think don't deserve God's love and forgiveness. Pray that they, like Paul, may come to know the love and salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us also pray for ourselves to convert from being judgmental of those who may not believe as we do to understanding that God's salvation is for EVERYONE!
From Arlene B. Muller
ReplyDeleteVery good perspective that I don't think I ever considered.
It took courage & a change of heart for Ananais to approach Saul of Tarsus who had caused much harm & contributed to the death of Christians, including St. Stephen. Only the LORD could turn the heart of Saul from believing he was doing GOD a favor by killing Christian's to becoming the most ardent promoter of the GOSPEL, & it takes a lot of faith to realize that conversions like this are possible.
It is very easy in our human nature to categorize people as good or bad (even the best person--with the exception of Our LORD & His Blessed Mother--is a "mixed bag") & to want those who are "bad" to experience the negative consequence of their bad behavior. But no one should be "written off" as "hopeless", because GOD can still work in their lives.