Breaking the Word

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, Apostle

God of Surprises!

Readings: Acts 22:3-16 or Acts 9:1-22; Psalm 117:1bc, 2; Mark 16:15-18

It is possible to celebrate today’s feast and to listen to the story of St. Paul’s conversion as if it were simply an incident that happened to someone else a long time ago. It is, of course, a crucially important event in the history of church. It led to the spread of Christianity far beyond the original circle of Jewish followers of Christ. It’s at least arguable that, if not for Paul, we all might not be Christian. But is that really the full extent of its importance? Is that the only reason why the story of Paul’s conversion is recounted no less than three times in the Acts of the Apostles alone? Is there not something more we can gain by meditating upon Paul’s story? Can we not, for example, learn something about what conversion means for us?

It is perhaps important first to notice what Paul’s conversion was not. It wasn’t really a turning from an ungodly life to a godly one. Although, before he met Christ on the road to Damascus, Saul of Tarsus was persecuting Christians to the death, he was doing it out of religious zeal. He thought he was actually serving God by doing so. His conversion was thus not so much a turning to God as an embrace of a new vision of God in Jesus Christ and his Body, the church. How did this happen?

Saul was struck to the ground by a light that came from heaven.

God disrupted his journey – derailed his plans – even as he was doing what he thought was his God-given duty. God surprised him. And where Saul at first thought that he could clearly see what God wanted of him, he was now blinded by the bright light of God’s new intervention. He needed others to help him to see again, to help him embrace this new vision of God in his life.

Doesn’t something similar also happen to us sometimes? For a time, we may be happily, even enthusiastically, praying to God and working for God and then something happens. God invites us to see things differently. We may be struck down, surprised, even blinded for a while, because our eyes need time to adjust to the bright light of God’s new presence. This could happen in our work, in our prayer, in our relationships. God invites us to see something new, to relate with him and his people in a new way. And it doesn’t just happen once in a person’s life, does it? Consider the experience of Ananias.

Like Saul, he too was surprised by the Lord. He too was invited to see things differently. How might he have felt when the Lord called him to go to Saul to lay hands on him and instruct him in the faith? He protests, Saul has only come here… to arrest everybody who invokes your name. But the Lord offers him a new vision of who Saul will be. You must go all the same, because this man is my chosen instrument…

Quite clearly, it isn’t Saul alone who is converted in this story. In a sense, so too are Ananias and the rest of the Christian community. And it is only when they all allow themselves to be converted, to be continually surprised by God that the Good News comes to be proclaimed to the whole world with great signs and wonders.

In our own journeys, how might the Lord be surprising us today?

1 comment:

AnonymousFri Jan 26, 08:32:00 am GMT+8
The conversion of Paul never fails to engage me. Like Fr Chris says, the event is not monumental merely because it heralded the start of the spread of Christianity among the gentiles, but because a conversion, dramatic or obscure, never fails to inspire.

Like Fr Chris says, it's not that Paul was a pagan and then "saw the light of day", recanted of his misguided motivations and turned to the True Light. Paul did not abandon the zealousness with which he persecuted the Chrstians before his conversion; instead he turned that into the service of God's Kingdom. The same with St Ignatius of Loyola. A brash young soldier before his conversion, he retained his burning zeal for fame and glory, but now re-directed for the greater glory of God. Isn't it amazing, the power of conversion? It doesn't radically change the individual's character, but rather re-focuses it in pursuit of higher goals? God builds on the person / character that He created.

Paul's conversion was spectacular. In a matter of minutes, it was over. He was zapped into a new being. For many of us, it is often a slow, arduous process. Like all growth, the process can be painful or uncomfortable at best. Why? Because it means that we're morphing into a new person with fresh ideals and fresh commitments. We're dropping everything that is counter-Christian. And this is when the support of fellow believers and pastors is crucial.

Have you witnessed for yourself a conversion in your family, your neighborhood group, in the Parish, your work place? I have. And everytime I meet that person, I say "So-and-so, forget about the spinning sun and rosaries turned into gold in Medjugorgye. You are a living testament of a miracle (conversion) that Almighty God has blessed me with". May we all be more and more open to grace and the friendship of fellow believers to bring about a gradual conversion in our own lives.
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Breaking News: Easter

The fifty days from Easter Sunday to Pentecost are celebrated in joyful exultation as one feast day, or better as one "great Sunday." These above all others are the days for the singing of the Alleluia. The Sundays of this season rank as the paschal Sundays and, after Easter Sunday itself, are called the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Sundays of Easter. The period of fifty sacred days ends on Pentecost Sunday. The first eight days of the Easter season make up the octave of Easter and are celebrated as solemnities of the Lord. On the fortieth day after Easter the Ascension is celebrated, except in places where, not being a holyday of obligation, it has been transferred to the Seventh Sunday of Easter (see no. 7).[R4] The weekdays after the Ascension until the Saturday before Pentecost inclusive are a preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit. ~ General Norms for the Liturgical Year & Calendar, 22-26

From 36th Jesuit General Congregation

It is our union with one another in Christ that testifies to the Good News more powerfully than our competences and abilities.... In our individualistic and competitive age, we should remember that the community plays a very special role since it is a privileged place of apostolic discernment.... The Jesuit community is a concrete space in which we live as friends in the Lord. This life together is always at the service of mission, but because these fraternal bonds proclaim the Gospel, it is itself a mission. –Companions in a Mission of Reconciliation and Justice (CMRJ), nn. 7-9.

With the poor, we can learn what hope and courage mean.... In our communities and apostolates, we hear the call to rediscover hospitality to strangers, to the young, to the poor, and to those who are persecuted. Christ himself teaches us this hospitality. –CMRJ, nn. 15-16.

At the heart of Ignatian spirituality is the transforming encounter with the mercy of God in Christ that moves us to a generous personal response. The experience of the merciful gaze of God on our weakness and sinfulness humbles us and fills us with gratitude, helping us to become compassionate ministers to all.... For us Jesuits, compassion is action, an action discerned together. Yet we know that there is no authentic familiarity with God if we do not allow ourselves to be moved to compassion and action by an encounter with the Christ who is revealed in the suffering, vulnerable faces of people, indeed in the suffering of creation. –CMRJ, nn. 19-20.

(T)he Society must respond more decisively to the Church’s call for a new evangelization, giving special emphasis to ministry to and with the young and with families.... A special gift Jesuits and the Ignatian family have to offer to the Church and her mission of evangelization is Ignatian spirituality, which facilitates the experience of God and can therefore greatly help the process of personal and communal conversion. –CMRJ, nn. 22-23.

In many societies, there is an increased level of conflict and polarization, which often gives rise to violence that is all the more appalling because it is motivated and justified by distorted religious convictions. In such situations, Jesuits, along with all who seek the common good, are called to contribute from their religious-spiritual traditions towards the building of peace, on local and global levels. –CMRJ, n. 28.

Pope Francis has emphasized the fundamental connection between the environmental crisis and the social crisis in which we live today. Poverty, social exclusion, and marginalization are linked with environmental degradation. These are not separate crises but one crisis that is a symptom of something much deeper: the flawed way societies and economies are organised. The current economic system with its predatory orientation discards natural resources as well as people. For this reason, Pope Francis insists that the only adequate solution must be a radical one. The direction of development must be altered if it is to be sustainable. We Jesuits are called to help heal a broken world, promoting a new way of producing and consuming, which puts God’s creation at the center.... The multifaceted challenge of caring for our common home calls for a multifaceted response from the Society. We begin by changing our personal and community lifestyles, adopting behaviour coherent with our desire for reconciliation with creation. – CMRJ, nn. 29-30

From 35th Jesuit General Congregation

From General Congregation 35

By sending us to 'those physical and spiritual places which others do not or have difficulty reaching,' the Pope entrusts to us the task to 'build bridges of understanding and dialogue,' according to the best tradition of the Society, in the diversity of its ministries.
- Decree With Renewed Fervor and Dynamism, n. 6

To be missioned to this work 'at the New Frontiers of our times' always requires that one also be rooted at the very heart of the Church. This tension, specific to the Ignatian charism, opens the way to true creative fidelity.
- Decree With Renewed Fervor and Dynamism, n. 13

In every mission that we carry out, we seek only to be where (Christ) sends us. The grace we receive as Jesuits is to be and to go with him, looking on the world with his eyes, loving it with his heart and entering into its depths with his unending compassion.
- Decree on Identity, n. 15

For ultimately, there is no reality that is only profane for those who know how to look. We must communicate this look and provide a pedagogy inspired by the Spiritual Exercises, that carries people - especially the young - into it.
- Decree on Identity, n. 10

Our ministries of proclamation of the Word and the celebration of the Life of Christ in the sacraments continue to be fundamental for our mission and our lives together as Jesuits.
- Decree on Mission, n. 19

The complexity of the problems we face and the richness of the opportunities offered demand that we engage in building bridges between rich and poor and establishing advocacy links of mutual support between those who hold political power and those who find it difficult to voice their interests. Our intellectual apostolate provides an inestimable help in setting up these bridges, offering us new ways of understanding in depth the mechanism and links among our present problems.
- Decree on Mission, n. 28

Jesuit community is not just for mission, it is itself mission.
- Decree on Mission, n. 41

In this global context it is important to highlight the extraordinary potential represented by our character as an international and multicultural body. Acting consistently with this character can not only enhance the apostolic effectiveness of our work but in a fragmented and divided world it can witness to the reconciliation in solidarity of all the children of God.
- Decree on Mission, n. 43

Faith in Jesus Christ teaches us that self-realization comes from self-giving and that freedom is not so much the power to choose as the power to order our choices toward love. At the same time, love for Jesus Christ and the desire to follow him call us to trusting commitment. Commitment to the Word Incarnate cannot be separated from commitment to the concrete manifestations of the Word that are at the center of our lives, the Church and the Society which exists to serve the Church.
- Decree on Obedience, n. 19