Saturday, January 25, 2003
Conversion of St. Paul

1st Reading: Acts 22:3-16 or 9:1-22
Gospel: Mk 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."

Gospel Commentary

One of the recurring themes of Paul's writings is grace. Paul's passionate insistence that we are justified by faith, not by works, can be understood as his conviction in the primacy of grace. We do not earn our salvation. God does not save us because we have proved to him by our heroic efforts that we are worthy of salvation. "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Rom 5:8) Salvation is a gift, freely, undeservedly given, out of God's abundant, unfathomable generosity. Salvation is, in a real sense, pure grace. The point is: Paul speaks this way about grace, not out of dispassionate theological reflection, but from the authority and immediacy of his own experience. On the road to Damascus, Paul, the persecutor, was recreated by grace, unexpectedly, gratuitously given. His conversion, the reorientation of his life towards Life, was an unmerited gift. Paul's keen awareness of the graced quality of his new life awakened his own response of unforgettable graciousness and missionary generosity. So it is with our lives. So may it be with our lives.

TOP