HOMILY FOR THE CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL

 JANUARY 25, 2021 MONDAY-CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL APOSTLE

Theme- “surrendered to the Light

Ist-Reading - Acts 22, 3-16, Gospel Mk 16,15-18

Saul was zealous for the cause of God, yet he fought against God himself and in the name of the Law he persecuted the followers of His Son. Even so, he was chosen to have a “personal encounter” with Jesus when, full of reasons, he went to Damascus in order to arrest all Christian he met. On the way to Damascus, however, his story changed and he, helpless, surrendered to the Light realizing the greatness of Jesus's call. This also happens when we are “watching out” for the cause of God based on law and “obligations”. In fact, we are fighting against God and do not understand what He wants to show us. Just as He did with Saul, the Lord also provides an occasion for us to surrender before His Light and, humbled, we finally realize our inconsistency. The Light of Jesus takes away any doubt and, before it, we are obliged to stoop, for we are blinded by His power. God only knows the right way for us. Our personal encounter with Jesus has the consequence of putting down all our ideas and conceptions coming from our humanity and from our exaggerated “zeal” and without reason for the things of God to surrender to His Love and thus be able to love and understand even our neighbor. Even in the face of the rebelliousness and arrogance that prevent us from seeing the truth, the Lord sends us “Ananias” to take the blindfold off our eyes and make us be His witnesses before all men. After he had an encounter with the Risen Jesus, Paul was no longer the same, received Baptism and began to preach in His Name. - we are obliged to stoop, for we are blinded by His power. God only knows the right way for us. 

After he had an encounter with the Risen Jesus, Paul was no longer the same, received Baptism and began to preach in His Name. That is exactly what the disciples in the Gospel were sent for. My brothers, my sisters. We need to do something in the face of absurd sizes! That is why we need to go all over the world and announce the Gospel, announce the true values ​​that matter to our earthly life, with the aim of reaching an eternal life.

Questions: Have you ever had an encounter with Jesus? What happened after that?  Are your ideas and purposes today compatible with the Gospel? Have you ever surrendered to Jesus Christ and stopped persecuting His followers?  Through which lens have you seen the people around you: with the lens of the world or with the lens of God?

Prayer: May God help us to be transformed inwardly and assist us to bring his name before all his people.

Pax-Peace🙏🏾 Fr. Ralph Jnr.