Saul’s Conversion Story
Acts 9:1-20 | John
6:52-59
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Today's
Readings
Acts
9:1-20 Saul was
breathing murderous threats against the disciples when a light from the sky
struck him down. A voice said: Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Saul
asked who was speaking and was told: I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. He
was led blind to Damascus. Ananias was sent to him: this man is my chosen
instrument to carry my name before Gentiles and kings and the people of Israel.
John
6:52-59 Jesus told
them: "My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh
and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent
me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will
have life because of me.
Today's
Thread: No one is beyond the reach of the light.
Saul was the most unlikely candidate for sainthood in
the history of the Church. He was actively hunting Christians. And Jesus
knocked him off his horse and said: I chose you. The persecutor became the
apostle. The man who approved Stephen's stoning became willing to die for the
same Christ.
The gospel today says: Whoever eats my flesh remains
in me. Saul's transformation happened because Jesus broke through to him. The
Eucharist is how that same breakthrough is sustained in us, day after day. This
is why “Daily Mass,” if you can, is such a blessing.
Living
It Today:
Saint Fidelis of Sigmaringen is remembered today, a
lawyer turned friar who said, 'Woe to me if I should prove myself but a
half-hearted soldier in the service of my thorn-crowned Captain.” He was
martyred while preaching. No half measures.
Think of the most unlikely person in your life who
you believe could never change, could never come to faith. Saul was that person
for every Christian in Damascus. And then Ananias walked in and called him
brother. Who is your Saul? Pray for them today.
Something
to sit with today:
Most of us have had a moment, maybe quiet, maybe shattering, where
something broke through the noise, and we knew God was close. The question isn't
whether it happened. It's what you did with it afterward. Transformation has a
way of fading back into routine if we don't tend to it. Saul didn't just get
knocked down; he stayed in that darkness for three days. Something was being
formed in him before he could see again. What is being formed in you right now,
in whatever darkness or uncertainty you're sitting in?
You were not randomly assembled and set loose. Jesus told Ananias that Saul was
a chosen
instrument, specific words, specific purpose. That same language
belongs to you. But instruments have to be picked up and played. So, the honest
question to sit with is this: are you living like someone who has been chosen
and sent, or like someone still waiting to find out if they matter?
Rosary Man Jim 🌹
