Friday, January 25 – The Courageous Disciple

25 Jan – Feast of the Conversion of Paul, apostle

St. Paul (3-65) was a Jewish Talmudic student and a Pharisee. He was a tent-maker by trade. Saul the Jew hated and persecuted Christians as heretical, even assisting at the stoning of St. Stephen the Martyr. On his way to Damascus to arrest another group of them, he was knocked to the ground, struck blind by a heavenly light, and given the message that in persecuting Christians, he was persecuting Christ. The experience had a profound spiritual effect on him, causing his conversion to Christianity. He was baptised, changed his name to Paul to reflect his new persona, and began travelling and preaching. He died a martyr for his faith.

Prayer to St. Paul
O Glorious Saint Paul, after persecuting the Church you became by God’s grace its most zealous Apostle. To carry the knowledge of Jesus, our divine Saviour, to the uttermost parts of the earth you joyfully endured prison, scourgings, stonings, and shipwreck, as well as all manner of persecutions culminating in the shedding of the last drop of your blood for our Lord Jesus Christ.

Obtain for us the grace to labour strenuously to being the faith to others and to accept any trials and tribulations that may come our way. Help us to be inspired by your Epistles and to partake of your indomitable love for Jesus, so that after we have finished our course we may join you in praising him in heaven for all eternity. Amen.

- Patron Saint Index
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Acts of the Apostles 9:1-22

Saul was still breathing threats to slaughter the Lord’s disciples. He had gone to the high priests 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 could find.

Suddenly, while he was travelling to Damascus and just before he reached the city, there came a light from heaven 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 voice answered him, “I am Jesus, and you are persecuting me. Get up now and go into the city, and you will be told what you have 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 even with his eyes wide open 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.

A disciple called Ananias who lived in Damascus had a vision in which he heard the Lord say to him, “Ananias!” When he replied, “Here I am, Lord”, the Lord said, “You must go to Straight Street and ask at the house of Judas for someone named Saul, who comes from Tarsus. At this moment he is praying, having had a vision of a man called Ananias coming in and laying hands on him to give him back his sight.”

When he heard that, Ananias said, “Lord, several people have told me about this man and all the harm he has been doing to the saints in Jerusalem. He has only come here because he holds a warrant from the chief priests to arrest everybody who invokes your name.” The Lord replied, “You must go all the same, because this man is my chosen instrument to bring my name before pagans and pagan kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he himself must suffer for my name.” Then Ananias went. He entered the house, and at once 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.” Immediately it was as though scales fell away from Saul’s eyes and he could see again. So he was baptised there and then, and after taking some food he regained strength.

After he 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. “Surely,” they said, “this is the man who organised the attack in Jerusalem against 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 into complete confusion by the way he demonstrated that Jesus was the Christ.
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Mark 16:15-18

Jesus showed himself to the Eleven and said to them, “Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation. He who believes and is baptised will be saved; he who does not believe will be condemned. These are the signs that will be associated with believers: in my name they will cast out devils; they will have the gift of tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and be unharmed should they drink deadly poison; they will lay their hands on the sick, who will recover.”
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We have just celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which began on Jan 18 and ends today. We had two prayer services for Christian Unity, the first held at Barker Road Methodist Church, which drew about 150 people, mostly Catholics, and the second held at Church of the Risen Christ, which drew a large crowd, but again mostly Catholics. Aside from the religious leaders of the various faith traditions, where were all the other Christians? Did the Catholics who attended not try to bring their non-Catholic Christian friends to attend these prayer services? Why not?

Perhaps we are afraid. I know I can be quite intimidated when I meet non-Catholic Christians – which probably explains why I no longer have any! It can be intimidating because they can really put me on the spot when they ask me certain questions about the Catholic faith, especially those that require long explanations that I am usually not prepared to give on the spot!

It is well-known that our Christian brothers and sisters have far more evangelical zeal that we Catholics do… maybe that’s why they call themselves evangelical Christians. There are, at times, Christians who carry their evangelical zeal too far and turn into zealots or fanatics. Just yesterday, a priest related the story of how a Taoist lady was so distressed when her recently converted Christian relative took advantage of her absence in the house to dismantle the family altar and throw away all the parts.

Indeed it is not very uncommon to hear some Christians claim unashamedly that their unbaptized mother is going to be condemned to hell because she has not accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Surely this is not what Jesus meant when he said what he said to the Eleven in the gospel reading today!

What then are we Catholics to do? Well, firstly, we need to recognise and acknowledge that we have a fear of speaking to non-Catholic Christians. As I shared on Wednesday, fear is only a feeling. Each of us is called to act on our faith, in spite of our fear, just like Ananias did when he approached Paul to give him his sight. And what happened after Saul received his sight? He spent some time with the disciples of the Lord, and immediately went to preach and convert other people.

When we pray for Christian Unity, we often say that we focus on what we have in similar, and ignore the differences between our faith traditions. But that is not true ecumenism, for to ignore the differences is to ignore the reasons why the faith traditions were separated in the first place. Rather, true ecumenism acknowledges the differences and requires Catholics to share our faith tradition with other Christians just as we respectfully listen to theirs.

The majority of non-Catholic Christians are not Catholics not because they choose to be, but because they have never been evangelized by Catholics. This happens when we ignore the differences between our faith traditions. Some of the most famous Catholic apologists, like Scott Hahn and Cardinal John Henry Newman were converts to the Catholic faith from other Christian faith traditions. Like St. Paul, the ’scales’ fell from their eyes and after their conversion, they retained their religious zeal and channelled it towards spreading the Catholic faith to all who have not yet heard of it.

My friends, as we close the week of Prayer for Christian Unity, let us remember St. Paul’s own conversion, and the courage of Ananias who stepped up, in spite of his fear, to follow the Lord’s command and bring healing and sight to the blind. Let us continue to share our Catholic faith bravely, even to our Christian brothers and sisters, for some may not have heard of it or have heard a distorted version of it and, through no fault of their own, continue to persecute the Lord Jesus.
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Prayer:
Dear Lord, grant us the courage to speak openly, loudly, and publicly about our Catholic faith, especially to our Christian brethren who have not had the opportunity to hear the truth. Amen.

Give Thanks to the Lord for: The people who have been instrumental in healing the spiritual blindness of others.

Upcoming Readings:
Sat, 26 Jan – 2 Timothy 1:1-8 or Timothy 1:1-5; Luke 10:1-9; Memorial for Sts. Timothy and Titus, bishops
Sun, 27 Jan – Isaiah 8:23 – 9:3; 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17; Matthew 4:12-23; Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
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