Then Paul said: 3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. 4 I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, 5 as the high priest and all the Council can themselves testify. I even obtained letters from them to their associates in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished. 6 “About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’ 8 “‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked. “ ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. 9 My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me. 10 “‘What shall I do, Lord?’ I asked. “ ‘Get up,’ the Lord said, ‘and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.’ 11 My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me. 12 “A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. 13 He stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very moment I was able to see him. 14 “Then he said: ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. 15 You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’
Today is the feast of the conversion of St Paul, the violently anti-Christian Pharisee who became one of the foremost leaders of the new religion. Of course, Paul himself would never have said that what he experienced on the road to Damascus was a “conversion” in the sense of going from one religion to another. Jesus was the long-expected Messiah of the Jewish people: therefore, by following Jesus, Paul was truly being a Jew, not starting a new faith.
In the previous chapter of Acts, Paul had returned to Jerusalem but his presence at the temple had caused a riot. Roman soldiers had intervened to calm the situation but now, thanks to his Roman citizenship, they allow Paul to address the crowd. He uses the opportunity to tell how he became a Christian. He begins by proudly proclaiming himself a Jew; he speaks in Aramaic and stresses how much he has in common with his audience. He too had been hostile to Christianity and, indeed, had been one of its most zealous persecutors. He even received a commission from the High Priest and Council to arrest and imprison the Christians in Damascus.
But on the road to that city, something extraordinary happened to him. A bright light suddenly appeared and he fell down. Then he heard a voice calling him by name and asking “Why do you persecute me?” Naturally, Paul inquired about the identity of the voice and must have been horrified to hear that Jesus, the object of so much of his hatred, was speaking to him. But note that Paul accepted this without further question and immediately asked what he could do to serve the Lord. Paul did not receive detailed instructions – only told to go to Damascus. To add to his difficulties, Paul became blind and had to be led by the hand the rest of the way. It’s easy to imagine how the brilliant and conceited Paul must have felt. He had been so smug and zealous in the rightness of his religious belief but now God himself had shown him how completely wrong he was. Added to that, he now was physically dependent on others – indeed, on the very group he had come to persecute.
While in Damascus, a well-respected local Jew named Ananias comes to meet him. Ananias is also obviously a Christian. It must have taken some courage for Ananias to go to the man who had such a fierce reputation for persecuting Christians. Note Ananias first cured Paul of his blindness and then told him that God has a mission for the ex-Pharisee. He is to be a witness (and note that the Greek word for witness is “martys” from which our word “martyr” comes. Being a witness to God can be a very dangerous business). But beyond this, he is to be “his witness to all.” He is not to preach the good news of Jesus Christ just to his fellow Jews or to another particular group. The good news is for everyone, for all of humanity. Ananias then tells him to go and be baptized and so Paul accepts his new mission in life as a disciple of Jesus: a mission that will change the course of the world.
St. Joseph's Paris: Bible Study Website 