Radical conversion

Saturday, January 25, 2020
Conversion of Paul 1st Reading: Acts 22:3-16 or 9:1-22
Gospel: Mark 16:15-18
JESUS told his disciples, “Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News to all creation.
The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; the one who refuses to believe will be condemned. Signs like these will accompany those who have believed: in my Name they will cast out demons and speak new languages; they will pick up snakes and, if they drink anything poisonous, they will be unharmed. They will lay their hands on the sick and they will be healed.”

D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Today is the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. He was raised under the strict religions of Judaism and became its staunch defender. Zeal for Judaism led him to persecute Christians who at that time were seen as heretics. God saw this as an indication of innate goodness that could be harnessed by his grace for the furtherance of the kingdom. When grace was poured upon Paul, he opened his heart and allowed God to remove the scales from his eyes that blinded him from the truth. It was then that he saw it was God he was about to persecute when he was on his way to run after Christians in Damascus. After Ananias blessed him saying “Brother Saul, recover your sight”, St. Paul recovered his sight. Thereafter he accepted baptism and became staunch defender of God’s people.
St. Paul described himself as “educated in the great school of Gamaliel according to the strict observance of our Law” (Acts 22:3). The leaders of society must have high respect of him because prior to his conversion it was to him that the High priest and the whole Council of elders entrusted the authority to arrest Christians and bring them back to Jerusalem for punishment. After his conversion, however he was treated by his own people as a fugitive. The transition must have been very difficult for Paul. He knew that his conversion was taking him to no other direction but death. Yet he freely embraced this fate because of his faith in God.
St. Paul’s story is relevant to us who remain blind to the truth – the truth that by persecuting our fellowmen we persecute Christ. We too have been baptized like St. Paul. What we lack is the experience of falling down from our horses of self-righteousness and pride so that grounded in our personal experiences of weakness we may understand others in their weakness and forgive them for their inadequacies. Let us pray that someday God may strike us with his bright light and so come to the same conversion that made St. Paul staunch defender of God’s people. –(Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., J.D. D.M.