Sunday Vigil
Memorial of Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus. Memory also of Ananias, who baptized Paul, preached the Gospel and died a martyr. Today the week of prayer for the unity of Christians ends. Particular memory of Christian communities in Asia and Oceania.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Acts 9,1-22
Meanwhile Saul was still breathing threats to slaughter the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest and asked for letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, that would authorise him to arrest and take to Jerusalem any followers of the Way, men or women, that he might find. It happened that while he was travelling to Damascus and approaching the city, suddenly a light from heaven shone all round him. He fell to the ground, and then he heard a voice saying, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?' 'Who are you, Lord?' he asked, and the answer came, 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you are to do.' The men travelling with Saul stood there speechless, for though they heard the voice they could see no one. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing at all, and they had to lead him into Damascus by the hand. For three days he was without his sight and took neither food nor drink. There was a disciple in Damascus called Ananias, and he had a vision in which the Lord said to him, 'Ananias!' When he replied, 'Here I am, Lord,' the Lord said, 'Get up and go to Straight Street and ask at the house of Judas for someone called Saul, who comes from Tarsus. At this moment he is praying, and has seen a man called Ananias coming in and laying hands on him to give him back his sight.' But in response, Ananias said, 'Lord, I have heard from many people about this man and all the harm he has been doing to your holy people in Jerusalem. He has come here with a warrant from the chief priests to arrest everybody who invokes your name.' The Lord replied, 'Go, for this man is my chosen instrument to bring my name before gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer for my name.' Then Ananias went. He entered the house, and laid his hands on Saul and said, 'Brother Saul, I have been sent by the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, so that you may recover your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.' It was as though scales fell away from his eyes and immediately he was able to see again. So he got up and was baptised, and after taking some food he regained his strength. After he had spent only a few days with the disciples in Damascus, he began preaching in the synagogues, 'Jesus is the Son of God.' All his hearers were amazed, and said, 'Surely, this is the man who did such damage in Jerusalem to the people who invoke this name, and who came here for the sole purpose of arresting them to have them tried by the chief priests?' Saul's power increased steadily, and he was able to throw the Jewish colony at Damascus into complete confusion by the way he demonstrated that Jesus was the Christ.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Paul's conversion is one of the most known episodes of the New Testament. In order to underline its importance, Luke tells three times that Paul changed his life and was made a witness to the risen Jesus, an Apostle of his Word. What does it mean for us to remember a conversion, a change? We often find ourselves men and women who let ourselves be carried away by habits. Change frightens us, so much are we tied to the present and uncertain and fearful of the future. Paul's story speaks to us of the extraordinary power of the Gospel that changes hearts and continues to transform them. And it asks each one of us not to resign ourselves to the present but to allow ourselves to be guided by the Word of God towards the future that is preparing us. Paul - "Saul" according to the name he had before his conversion -, was a strong man, authoritative and, as he himself would say, "fierce in tradition," that is, strong in his convictions and ideas. In his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, he experiences limitation, fragility, the need of others. Conversion, change, is never the consequence only of one event, but rather of a process. And it is significant that Paul discovers more about the Jesus he persecuted through the community of Damascus. One does not convert alone. All believers need a community to accompany them, brothers and sisters, like Ananias for Paul, who welcome and help him. It is in this communion that the apostle will understand the great truth that he will communicate in the Letter to the Corinthians: "When I am weak, it is then that I am strong." In weakness, which so often frightens and which we want to push away, there is the strength through which we can experience the power of the Word of God that generates hope, friendship, solidarity, and all those signs that accompany those who live and proclaim this Word.