The Conversion of St. Paul

Today we hear the story of the conversion of St. Paul as it comes to us in the Acts of the Apostles.  Let us bear in mind that this story was written by St. Luke.  St. Luke regards this story so important a part of the Acts of the Apostles that he tells the story no fewer than three times (Acts 9:1-20; Acts 22:6-21; Acts 26: 12-18).  In the two latter versions, the story is told through St. Paul’s voice.  However, the version we hear today is told to us through the voice of the narrator and is the longest of all the accounts.  (St. Paul mentions his conversion in his own writing, but only briefly: 1 Corinthians 15:3-8; Galatians 1:11-16).

Most of us know some elements of the story.  Perhaps we have seen one of the famous paintings depicting this event as it has inspired many an artist.  Oddly enough, most of the artistic representations show Paul being thrown from a horse, a detail that is not included in the Scriptures.  Travel by horse would have been uncommon for anyone other than a soldier, and a Roman soldier at that.  The Scripture simply tells us that Saul of Tarsus was thrown to the ground by a bright light.

The detail about the light and the resulting blindness that St. Paul experienced are very important details in the Lukan account as they mirror the question of spiritual blindness which is so prevalent an idea in the Gospels.  In addition, St. Luke and St. Paul both tell us that faith comes through hearing.  In fact, it is the voice that calls out to Paul which brings him to faith.  He follows the instructions he has been given and goes to a man named Ananias who cures him of his blindness.  His blindness had lasted three days, another telling detail.  The text tells us that St. Paul was immediately baptized, perhaps by Ananias himself.  At any rate, the voice that calls out to him is that which brings St. Paul to conversion.

According to St. Luke, St. Paul began proclaiming Jesus as the Son of God immediately.  His conversion is related to us as having happened almost overnight.  He went from being a man who persecuted the Church to someone who was one of Christianity’s most powerful and influential disciples. 

While St. Paul’s story is very dramatic, there are countless other conversion stories of people who have had their eyes of faith opened to the truth of the Gospel.  Those stories bring home to us the truth that conversion is a lifelong process.  We are constantly called to conversion, to repentance.  Though the reference comes from a different story in the Scriptures, I frequently like to use the conclusion of the story of the Magi from St. Matthew’s Gospel as a way to describe conversion; namely, they went home by a different route.  For me, this phrase suggests that each of us is called to travel toward the Lord.  There are many forks in the road, many distractions in our lives that would call us to follow a dead end route.  Conversion simply means always discerning which route we are meant to take.  Discernment never ends.  Ananias responded to St. Paul with telling words: “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.”  (Acts 9:17b)  It is the Holy Spirit who helps us to continue our lives of discernment so that we can ever respond to the voice of the Lord which calls us to conversion of life.

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator