Saint of the Day January 25, 2003
Conversion of St. Paul
Pauls entire life can be explained in terms of one
experiencehis 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 zealots 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 goalbeing a slave of Christ in the
ministry of reconciliation, an instrument to help
others experience the one Savior.
One sentence determined his theology: I am Jesus,
whom you are persecuting (Acts 9:5b). Jesus was
mysteriously identified with peoplethe 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 2:28b-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).
Pauls 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 Christs 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.
So Pauls great message to the world was: 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.
Love + prayers,
Joseachayan / Jeddah / Saudi Arabia
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