Witnesses of the Truth: Saul’s Conversion
On January 25th, the
Church celebrates the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. Many of us have
heard Acts 9:1-31, where we hear the account of Saul’s conversion: “On his journey, as he was nearing Damascus,
a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and
heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” He said,
“Who are you, sir?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”
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| Antigua, Guatemala |
We hear Jesus stopping
Saul when he was on his way to Damascus, where he was going to hunt for Jesus’
new followers. But Jesus loudly called him to attention. In the presence of
Jesus, he realizes that he is blind. Perhaps all of us can relate to these words,
as we all are blind in some way. This blindness can paralyze us from
experiencing the transformative love that God wants to feel and share. Daily
busy life can make us blind to the message of Jesus calling us to follow Him,
and we fail to see the reality of people who still today are being persecuted,
who suffer daily hardships, and who have no one who is calling them by name.
Jesus calls us to be in solidarity and kinship with people who suffer and or are
disliked.
It is interesting to note that
Jesus didn’t cure Saul after his encounter, but rather the passage continues,
saying that for three days he was still unable to see. Jesus commissions
another person to bring healing to Saul. We hear in the account that in Damascus there was
a disciple named Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision:
“Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.”
The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight and ask at
the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is there praying, and
[in a vision] he has seen a man named Ananias come in and lay [his] hands on
him, that he may regain his sight.” But Ananias replied, “Lord, I have heard
from many sources about this man, what evil things he has done to your holy
ones in Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to imprison
all who call upon your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for this man is a
chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before Gentiles, kings, and Israelites,
and I will show him what he will have to suffer for my name.”
We can start to see
the pattern Jesus likes to use: commissioning others to bring people into relationship
with Him. He likes calling us to experience his love and share it with others.
That is how we find our own transformation and encounter the face of Jesus in
our neighbor, especially those who we encounter on the margins. Yet, it is very
normal for us human beings to act like Ananias did in the dialogue he had with
Jesus. At first, Ananias had preconceived judgements about Saul and most likely
felt that Saul was unworthy to be a recipient Of God’s mercy and love. But we
could come to the conclusion that Ananias was afraid to meet a despised person
who needed as much love as he did, and instead was being challenge to see the
face of Jesus in Saul. Ananias didn’t let his judgments and fear overcome the
mission entrusted by Jesus, so he went on to meet this wounded person that
needed to be healed, and became the messenger of God’s love:
So Ananias went and entered the house;
laying his hands on him, he said, “Saul, my brother, the Lord has sent me,
Jesus who appeared to you on the way by which you came, that you may regain
your sight and be filled with the holy Spirit.” Immediately things like scales
fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. He got up and was baptized, and
when he had eaten, he recovered his strength.
Kinship is build out of our
relationships with others, and being relationship with others is what God want
us to focus on. We will encounter the truth in the way we see each other. If
you want to find the truth, look for it in the face of others: there is where
God likes to dwell. If a person is
despised, dirty, smelly, and on the margins, there is where God dwells even
more, because of a preferential love for those who are struggling. We too have
been commissioned to be in kinship and to discover the face of Jesus in other.
Let ask Paul and Ananias to help us be true heralds of the gospel message and
be witnesses of his love.
This post was written by Andrés Garcia, Mission Educator-Promoter based in our Los Angeles Office
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