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."