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Acts 22: 3-16
Paul addressed the people in these words:
“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia,
but brought up in this city.
At the feet of Gamaliel I was educated strictly in our ancestral law
and was zealous for God, just as all of you are today.
I persecuted this Way to death,
binding both men and women and delivering them to prison.
Even the high priest and the whole council of elders
can testify on my behalf.
For from them I even received letters to the brothers
and set out for Damascus to bring back to Jerusalem
in chains for punishment those there as well.
“On that journey as I drew near to Damascus,
about noon a great light from the sky suddenly shone around me.
I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me,
‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’
I replied, ‘Who are you, sir?’
And he said to me,
‘I am Jesus the Nazorean whom you are persecuting.’
My companions saw the light
but did not hear the voice of the one who spoke to me.
I asked, ‘What shall I do, sir?’
The Lord answered me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus,
and there you will be told about everything
appointed for you to do.’
Since I could see nothing because of the brightness of that light,
I was led by hand by my companions and entered Damascus.
“A certain Ananias, a devout observer of the law,
and highly spoken of by all the Jews who lived there,
came to me and stood there and said,
‘Saul, my brother, regain your sight.’
And at that very moment I regained my sight and saw him.
Then he said,
‘The God of our ancestors designated you to know his will,
to see the Righteous One, and to hear the sound of his voice;
for you will be his witness before all
to what you have seen and heard.
Now, why delay?
Get up and have yourself baptized and your sins washed away,
calling upon his name.’”
The Word of the Lord.
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Someone once asked, “If you were put on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”
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One person who would be easy to “convict” is Saint Paul, whose conversion to Christianity we celebrate today.
His journey began with a burst of light as the Risen Christ appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus. Struck blind for three days, Paul was interiorly changed, and baptized three days later.
He’d spend the next thirty years of his life preaching the Gospel, until he was martyred in Rome.
Scholars estimate that Paul walked 10,000 miles on foot, and sailed for thousands more. He was beaten, shipwrecked, imprisoned, and left for dead multiple times.
He wrote thirteen pastoral letters, accounting for nearly half of the New Testament, while establishing some of the first Christian communities.
Finally, from his prison cell in Rome, Paul left his parting words, which have inspired Christians for the last two-thousand years: “I have fought the good fight. I have run the race to the finish. I have kept the faith.”
And he left tons of evidence to prove it.
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Of all the things Paul did, there’s one significant part of Paul’s legacy which we can all follow today: he handed on his faith to the next generation.
Two of his closest disciples were Timothy and Titus, whom he referred to as his spiritual sons.
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What “evidence” might there be to demonstrate my Christian faith? Like Paul, how have I handed on the faith the next generation?
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May we continue to “fight the good fight” until the Lord of glory calls us home, leaving the next generation to continue making disciples of all nations.
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Image credits: (1) Overview Bible (2) The Conversion of St. Paul, Caravaggio (3) A-Z Quotes