Saul's Conversion: Will it be ours?

Today’s first reading, Acts 9: 1-20, recalls the conversion of St. Paul.  He is on a journey to arrest as many Christians as possible. Suddenly he is knocked down and hears a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”  “Who are you, Sir?” Saul replies. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now get up (emphasis mine) and go into the city and you will be told what you must do.”

Wow! Holy smokes! Imagine being Saul. He believes, up until that moment, that what he is doing is right and just.  Saul himself is a rabbi educated by Gamaliel, one of the best Jewish Rabbi’s of his day.  These so-called Christians, Saul believes, until this moment, are serious betrayers of the Jewish faith, an heretical sect,  and dangerous persons as far as faithful Jews are concerned.  They must be stopped, so Saul, no doubt, thinks and will resort even to murder if necessary to stop them.  Besides, Saul has probably argued a million times that the leading men of Israel have sworn that the resurrection of Jesus is a hoax (See Mt 28: 11-15).

And, out of the blue, as Saul is religiously about the work of stopping these men from doing what he believes is damaging his nation, a voice says: “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.”

Like Saul, people can easily be going along their merry ways, totally convinced that what they  are doing or saying is just.  It certainly seems true of perpetrators of injustices the world over, of whites against blacks, of whites against Native Americans, of the rich against the poor, of one culture or nation against another, of anyone spewing ethnic slurs towards people different from themselves, of the strong against the weak, and so on.  We seem to have sunk to a new low, I believe, as some people are convinced that incest is friendly sex, that prostitution is morally right, that being unfaithful to our marriage partner is perfectly fine, that having sex outside of a marriage commitment is the smart thing to do; that keeping God out of our sights, our minds, our classrooms, our families, our nation is paramount to separation of religion and state, and on and on and on. Is the day approaching when , out of the blue, a voice will suddenly ring out: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting?”