Conversion of St. Paul (Comm. Epiphany III) St Bride January 25th 2015
Redemption, Discernment, Proven fact!
Sometimes it takes a feast day for us to understand the clear and irrefutable truth of the Gospel, surrounded as we are by the assumptions and false conceptions of those who have lost or never found their faith, as well as from so many around us who refuse to accept the precepts which have been built up into the mountain of solid and sure evidence in the 2000 plus years since Jesus walked along the highways and byways of Israel and Judah.
It is even more significant that we commemorate this particular event, as it also offers us great encouragement when we look back at all those things which we have done that we ought not to have done, and at all those things which we have not done that we ought to have done, and there is no health in us. I say this because it was St. Paul who, having been a vicious and violent enemy of the Christian faith and teaching, set out on his journey to continue his mission of destruction amongst the Christian families who were living in Damascus. You will recall that as a youth, it was Paul who attended the stoning of the first deacon, Steven: watching over the coats of those casting stones: at that time he was a youth, a student, perhaps it was then that he was studying under that noted Pharisaical teacher Gamaliel (in the second third of the first century Gamaliel (of whose father, Simon, nothing beyond his name is known) occupied a leading position in the highest court, the great council of Jerusalem, and that, as a member of that court, he received the cognomen "Ha-Zaḳen." - http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6494-gamaliel-i)
It is therefore a confirmation of the redemptive power of the Holy Spirit working in us, so we may understand that Jesus Christ can work the same miracle in the offender, even in that offender who have actively prosecuted and had killed your family and friends! Which in itself is a most remarkable thing: no wonder that it was some years before St. Paul found any welcome mat put out for him by the Apostles in Jerusalem! You will recall these words: ‘And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples: but they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.’ (Acts 9.26-27)
We hear a lot about Damascus these days: for all the wrong reasons. But there is still to this day to be found in Damascus a ‘street named straight’. (photo: "Bab Sharqi Street, Damascus" by Bernard Gagnon - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons – photograph dated 2010)
And that same street named Straight also has a house which you could still visit, prior to the current fighting, and see where it was that the blind Saul became the visionary Paul, the ‘Apostle out of his time’ as he called himself, who was given this new part to play by Jesus Christ, mediated by the hands of Ananias, at the house of Judas in Damascus.. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bab_Sharqi_Street,_Damascus.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Bab_Sharqi_Street,_Damascus.jpg
It was to Ananias that fell the second great role in this human drama: for what might you say when God asks you to do something which to our ears sounds completely stupid? And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; ‘and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord. And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called ‘Straight’, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth, and hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight. Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.’ (Acts 9.10-14)
So the second message is that we are called on to discern: is this true? Is this acceptable? Are you really sure that we are to do this thing? – blind obedience is not what God wants from you and me: God has given us a measure of intelligence which sets us apart from the animals, and God expects us to use that gift which He has bestowed, and to question and debate without fear of summary condemnation, for it is by that means that we can acquire the wisdom to make progress in our earthly pilgrimage! And we can hear this pastoral and gentle care expressed in the reply God gives Ananias: ‘But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.’ (Acts 9.15-16)
The third lesson we can draw from this history is the fact that it is proven: the places can be seen and touched, even when we know that this is not necessary. The home of Ananias is the site of this miraculous transformation of the enemy by the intervention of God Almighty in our lives: it is a solemn reassurance that God is present amongst us at all times, watching over us and guiding us as we work our feeble ways trying to uncover the wisdom that we seek, and which, perhaps, we shall only find after this life is ended, and we are saved?
DRM+