Conversion of Saint Paul January 25, 2009

Acts 22:3-16 1 Corinthians 7: 29-31 Mark 16: 15-18

Taking the time, this weekend, to recall the Conversion of Saint Paul, led me to think about the fact that I have never really been satisfied with the answer I have given to a question I have often been asked. The answer was to be some sort of explanation of why I made the choice to enter the priesthood. One thing I knew, it was not a “conversion experience. I realize that, as I have learned, it is a call or a vocation from God, although not like the call Paul recounts. The initiative for choosing this role in life comes from God. But an answer to this calling requires a response, a willingness to answer it. So, the answer had to be some way of explaining what prompted that response.

Some of the more typical explanations I have heard over the years did not seem to apply. One of those explanation was the example of priests who were known as I was growing up. They were good priests, I am sure. Some also seemed to be somewhat tough or distant at times. I was aware of them, but never really considered them to be influences in the choice that was made. Another example would be a family influence. I considered my family, as I was growing up, as good, practicing Catholics, devout in their own way, but never overly so. There was support when I decided to enter the seminary, but never any sort of urging or pushing this choice that others seemed to have experienced. A third example was that of those who seemed to be enthralled by the mystery and ritual, even the pomp and circumstance, that went along with the ceremonies of the Church, especially at that time when the liturgy was in Latin. That was definitely no the case, especially since it has only been in later years that I have come to a better appreciation and understanding of the ritual and sacramentality of Church life, and its importance to our belief and practice.

Much more recently I have come to realize that probably the greatest influence guiding the decision that I made in life came from the lives of the saints, biographies, books, I read as a young person about individuals of great faith. A source of this was a book club to which I belonged when I was young, The Young Catholic Book Club. I became acquainted with different persons in the history of the Church. That, I believe, was a source of information and influence - not in a cause and effect sort of way - but in a manner which illustrated that service to the Church, service to our Faith, was a worthwhile option, or choice, or direction in life.

Another thing which I realized was that a person who did not factor into this way of thinking, one who I would not consider on the list of influences, was Saint Paul. I probably thought of Saint Paul as no more the a book of the Bible, a name that was mentioned when readings were done at mass and which I later studied when I was in the seminary. I must admit, in fact, that I probably did not absorb what I read or heard all that well. In fact, just a couple of years ago, I made it a goal of mine while on retreat to read through each of the letters of Saint Paul from beginning to end, at one sitting. I wanted to see if I could gain a greater insight or understanding of what he had written. This led to the decision I mentioned last week to make it my task, during this year dedicated to the memory of Saint Paul, to use his writings that we hear week after week as a central point in the reflections offered in the homily.

As a Church, we are called upon today to remember the 2000^th anniversary of Saint Paul’s birth. In a particular way, we are asked to consider a major event in his life, the radical change or conversion that he experienced in his life. From being a persecutor of the followers of Christ, he became a major proclaimer of Christ. From being a part of a group which was vehemently opposed to Jesus, the Pharisees, he became a part of that foundational group of followers of Jesus, the Apostles - establishing the basis of what we are as a Church, as a community of believers in Jesus Christ. From seeing Jesus and his followers as being destructive of all that he had held and believed as a faithful, learned member of the Old Covenant tradition, he became the greatest resource and teacher of the constructive life that the New Covenant established in Christ can be in the world.

Join me in this challenge to ourselves, in this encouragement to ourselves, to learn about and be inspired by the writings and life of Saint Paul; to go beyond the name we hear so frequently and make his teachings come to life for ourselves; to be instructed by this tough, fiery, short man who was proud in many ways, convincing in many ways, and very human in many ways. He allowed the gift of faith that he had experienced in the process of conversion to change him, to influence him, to affect him. What he lived, what he said and what he wrote still speaks to us today as we listen and read what he wrote almost 2000 years ago.

Listen to what he suggests to us as he writes to us today in just a few words to the people of Corinth and to us. He urges us to see the belief, the faith that we say is ours as much more than words of a label. It is to be a way of living that is the most important thing in our lives. He, personally, had come to know this and to be affected by this, and so he calls on us to do the same.

He urges us to make our faith in Jesus Christ so affect us that even if we are married, or we weep, or we rejoice, or we possess things, or we are so involved in our daily lives, we still keep everything in perspective, we value what is truly important: living out that faith, witnessing to that faith, proclaiming that faith in our good and loving God made known in Jesus Christ.