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The Year of St. Paul: A look at Paul's conversion
by Fr. Richard J. Cassidy special to The Michigan Catholic
Published June 27, 2008
Editor's note: This is the first in a six-part periodic series on the Year of St. Paul.
Pope Benedict XVI has proclaimed that throughout the entire Church, a Year of St. Paul be celebrated June 29, 2008, through June 29, 2009. The reason for selecting June 29 is that this date marks the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.
At the conclusion of this series of articles, I intend to profile the relationship between St. Paul and St. Peter. However, for this initial article, the logical place to begin is with the conversion of St. Paul, an event the Church celebrates Jan. 25.
St. Luke, the author of the Acts of the Apostles, is himself is a great admirer of St. Paul.
When St. Luke considers a development to be extremely important, he reports it not once but twice within his narrative. Because St. Luke considers Paul's conversion to have unsurpassed importance he narrates it three times. Consider Acts 9, Acts 22 and Acts 26.
One way to appreciate the ferocity and the viciousness with which Saul was trying to destroy those who professed the name of Jesus is to focus upon how he used the weapon of chains. Saul had acted brutally against Christians in Jerusalem and he was striving to get to Damascus, chains in hand, to capture disciples there and bring them to Jerusalem, bound in chains.
The laser-bright light of Christ then knocked Saul to the ground. Because of this astonishing intervention by Christ, there were major consequences for Paul personally and for the Church as whole. The following list of effects is only a partial list.
First, Paul now addressed Jesus with the title of "Lord." In fact, during the first moments of his conversion, Paul did not know that he was encountering Jesus. He just knew that he was encountering someone with such surpassing power that he must be addressed as "Lord." Second, Paul ceased persecuting Christians and instead started to proclaim Jesus with unsurpassed conviction and eloquence. In the beginning he did this through his preaching. Later he would be renowned for the power of his written words.
Third, according to Acts 9, the risen Jesus instructed Ananias to indicate a fourfold mission for Paul. Paul was to testify to Jews, to Gentiles, to rulers, and he would have to suffer much for Jesus' name.
Fourth, at the time of Paul's conversion, he gained the fundamental insight the disciples of Jesus constitute the Body of Christ. When he asked, "Who are you, Lord?" the Lord replied, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting."
Paul had had no knowledge that he was persecuting Jesus, but now he learned that, in brutalizing Jesus' disciples, he had been doing exactly this. When he later wrote I Corinthians 12, Paul drew upon this insight and wrote persuasively about the many members of the Body of Christ.
Fifth, from the very first moment of his conversion experience, Paul knew that he had done absolutely nothing to merit it. In fact, he had been doing exactly the opposite of what was laudable!
There was no reason for Jesus to treat him with such graciousness! Yet, Jesus had chosen to do so. And this astonishing free gift by Jesus Christ was something that Paul would continue to reflect upon and write about throughout his entire ministry (see Romans 3 for example). Paul simply could not get over the fact that Jesus treated him with such unmerited love.
Up until now, these paragraphs have focused upon the decisive personal encounter Saul had with the Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus. Yet, in order for Saul to become welcome with the Christian community, he needed to have critical assistance from two of Jesus' other disciples.
Ananias, one of the figures who played a pivotal role in terms of Paul's entry into the Christian community has already been mentioned. To use today's terms, Ananias might be described as Paul's RCIA director.
The other figure is Barnabas, an exemplary disciple first mentioned in Acts 4. At the end of Acts 9, Barnabas served as the intermediary to introduce Paul to the other apostles and to help alleviate their fear about him.
Subsequently, in Acts 11, Barnabas traveled up the Mediterranean coast to bring Paul from Tarsus to Antioch. Paul's initial major journeys as Jesus' apostle then commenced from Antioch.
Fr. Richard J. Cassidy is a professor of sacred Scripture at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit, and author of "Paul In Chains: Roman Imprisonment and the Letters of St. Paul."
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