January 25, 2007

Happy Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul Day!

Today is the feast day of the conversion of St. Paul.

Acts 22

"1 Brethren and fathers, hear my defense which I now offer to you."
2And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew dialect, they became even more quiet; and he said,
3"I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God just as you all are today.
4"I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons,
5as also the high priest and all the Council of the elders can testify From them I also received letters to the brethren, and started off for Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished.
6"But it happened that as I was on my way, approaching Damascus about noontime, a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all around me,
7and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?'
8"And I answered, 'Who are You, Lord?' And He said to me, 'I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.'
9"And those who were with me saw the light, to be sure, but did not understand the voice of the One who was speaking to me.
10"And I said, 'What shall I do, Lord?' And the Lord said to me, 'Get up and go on into Damascus, and there you will be told of all that has been appointed for you to do.'
11"But since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me and came into Damascus.
12"A certain Ananias, a man who was devout by the standard of the Law, and well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there,
13came to me, and standing near said to me, 'Brother Saul, receive your sight!' And at that very time I looked up at him.
14"And he said, 'The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will and to see the Righteous One and to hear an utterance from His mouth.
15'For you will be a witness for Him to all men of what you have seen and heard.
16'Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.'

Just a little commentary....I am struk by Ananias' response to Paul. I don't think most modern Christians would say in effect, "What are you waiting for. Go get baptized and wash away your sins." Most of us would most likely say something to the effect of, "Ask Jesus into your heart."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Your insight about being baptized underscores that our union with Christ and his salvation is through the faith community - the church. I was pleased to see this on the website of a professor at an Evangelical seminary reminding us that entering the paschal mystery is not an individual activity.

Wisdom From the Pope

“The inalienable dignity of every human being and the rights which flow from that dignity - in the first place the right to life and the defense of life - are at the heart of the church's message." Pope John Paul ended his address, saying: "In spite of divisions among Christians, 'all those justified by faith through baptism are incorporated into Christ...brothers and sisters in the Lord.'" Pope John Paul 2