25 January 2023 - feast of the Conversion of St Paul - Acts 22:3-16

      In the history of our Catholic faith, perhaps no faith conversion has had greater consequence than that of St. Paul’s. Paul had not been ambivalent toward the Church before his conversion. We hear him testify very honestly about his faith journey throughout his letters in the New Testament, including the reading we hear today. To the contrary, it appears that Paul was never ambivalent about anything in life, as he had actively persecuted the Church prior to his conversion. At the very least, Paul stood by while Stephen was stoned to death in the days of the early Church. Paul may have even thrown some of the stones himself that killed Stephen. But Paul was converted and transformed in an astonishing way. It was God who changed him, not Paul on his own. Through Paul’s transformation, the history of Christianity was transformed as well. We can say that Paul’s conversion also transformed the history of the world. Today’s feast celebrates Paul’s conversion and transformation.  

       We might wonder what would have happened if Paul’s conversion never took place, if he had remained a zealous jew and had continued to persecute the Church, never converting to the way of Jesus and not expanding the Gospel message to the Gentiles, not going on his missionary journeys. Without St Paul’s conversion, the world itself, not just the Church, would be a very different place than it is today. Perhaps if it was not for Paul, Christianity would have remained confined to Israel and may not have expanded throughout the Roman Empire. We will never know.  

      As we celebrate Paul’s conversion today, let us think about all the ways we still need conversion in our own lives.  Let us pray with St Paul for the conversion of our brothers and sisters. The conversion of our lives and our hearts.