In today's first reading, Acts 9: 1-20, we are given the story of Saul's conversion as well as the conversion of Ananias. Saul is on the way to Damascus and knocked down when "a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him and [he] heard a voice saying to him: 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?'...'Who are you, Sir? ... ' ...'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do.'" A similar situation takes place in the city. Ananias, a disciple of the Lord, is visited by the Lord, also. Jesus says to him: "'Ananias.' ....'Here I am, Lord.' ...'Get up and to the the street called Straight and ask at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul.'" Ananias had to be floored. Saul is out to arrest disciples of Jesus! So Ananias initially objects to what the Lord is asking of him. "But the Lord said to him, 'Go, for this man is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before Gentiles, kings, and children of Israel, and I will show him what he will have to suffer for my name." And Ananias goes to Straight Street!
The power of Jesus! Saul is set straight! He is converted from a persecutor of Jesus to a proclaimer of the Lord Jesus. Ananias is converted from fear and resistance of what is perceived as evil to one who is an instrument in converting a man who was a persecutor of the disciples of Jesus.
When God is with us who can be against us, we pray in one of the psalms! Both Saul and Ananias become instruments in the hand of God to bring about a good willed by God! You and I, too, can become those instruments when we let down our defenses or, better put, God puts down our defenses! God is always at work in the world doing for us what He did for Saul and Ananias! May our realization of God's presence grow and may our ability to hear the voice of Jesus grow, as well!
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