Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, Apostle

Lectionary: 519

“A certain Ananias, a devout observer of the law, and highly spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came to me and stood there and said,
‘Saul, my brother, regain your sight.’
And at that very moment I regained my sight and saw him.
Then he said, ‘The God of our ancestors designated you to know his will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear the sound of his voice; for you will be his witness before all to what you have seen and heard.

We often think of conversions as abrupt changes in a person’s life, and few are as sudden, unexpected and abrupt as that which fell upon Saint Paul. He frankly admits to the Jews in Jerusalem that he “persecuted this Way to death, binding both men and women and delivering them to prison.” before the Light startled him and he heard the voice of “Jesus the Nazarean.”

But in this speech to his former comrades Saint Paul emphasizes the continuity of his “before-and-after.” As dramatic as the conversion was, it also had an organic quality. One might not see the resemblance between a tadpole and a frog or an acorn and an oak but they are the same creatures before and after. Their transformations are natural, from one stage to the next, organic. 

First I notice that Ananias was “a devout observer of the law and highly spoken of by all the Jews who lived” in Damascus. God did not send Paul a gentile Christian or an impious Jew who has gone over to a new religion. We all know former Catholics who have joined a non-denominational church, mosque or synagogue largely because they never knew their own Catholic faith. Ananias was not such a man. He was educated, observant and respected as a devout Jew. Although we know nothing of Ananias’ decision to follow Jesus, we can be sure it made perfect sense to him.

Ananias spoke to the stricken convert with his own familiar Jewish name, Saul. (Paul was his Greek name.) And he restored his sight. He need not be blind for the rest of his life! The blindness was just a demonstration of Jesus’ authority and, perhaps, a result of Paul’s astonishment.

And then Ananias used a familiar Jewish expression, “the God of our ancestors.” The first revealed name of God, before the tetragrammaton YHWH, was “the God of our Ancestors.”

In the coming days, months and years Saint Paul would reexamine everything he knew about his Jewish religion. He would discover that it all made sense in the light of Jesus. In fact, Jesus brought light and joy and finality to a story that always seemed incomplete.

After he had helped Saul reconnect to his past, Ananias revealed his future, “you will be his witness before all to what you have seen and heard.”

The Lord in his great kindness respects our integrity. Our past, present and future must finally be integrated into a gospel story, like those of Ananias and Paul. That is the promise of Jesus’ gospel. Caught up in his life, ours makes sense. He is the keystone of the arch, the foundation stone upon which our lives hold together.