Reflection for the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, Apostle – 25th January – Fr Kevin O’Gorman SMA

In his Apostolic Exhortation The Word of the Lord written after the 2009 Synod of Bishops on the Word of God – Pope Benedict XVI wrote that ‘throughout the Synod we were accompanied by the testimony of the Apostle Paul’, on account of ‘the year dedicated to the great Apostle of the Nations on the two thousandth anniversary of his birth. Paul’s life was completely marked by his zeal for the spread of God’s word’.[1] It was down to the genius of Paul and the grace of the Holy Spirit that the Gospel was galvanised to go to the ends of the earth. As Benedict added ‘we cannot but think of Saint Paul and his life spent in spreading the message of salvation in Christ to all peoples’.

Today we celebrate the Conversion of Saint Paul, the remarkable reversal and role of the man who absolutely altered the course of his life, from being an attacker of the church to becoming an Apostle, the one sent to the Gentile world to announce the faith, love and hope that the Gospel gives. From being persecutor and prosecutor of those disciples who – we are told in the Acts of the Apostles, ‘in Antioch were first called “Christians”’ (11:26) – Paul became the proclaimer of Christ and proponent of the church. Tomes, theses and talks have poured out and been pored over on the person who is probably best perceived and presented in the short yet succinct title of a book published nearly fifty years ago – Paul, Mystic and Missionary.[2]

Sometimes controversial yet always clear and concise, Paul captures and communicates the message of the Gospel that comes to us through the centuries. A man in a hurry, he left the details of the message of Christ’s life, teaching and Passion to his protégé Luke (and the other evangelists). For Paul the point of departure is the Resurrection of Jesus who revealed himself to Paul in a dramatic fashion. In this week of both Prayer for Christian Unity and Catholic Schools, Paul is Patron of all that is authentically apostolic and genuinely Gospel oriented. Zealous to the end, Paul left a legacy in his letters which are still the zenith of Christian spirituality.

Fr Kevin O’Gorman SMA 

^{[1] Verbum Domini – The Word of the Lord, Rome, September 2010, par. 4.}

                                                                                                       ^{[2] Bernard T. Smyth, Paul, Mystic and Missionary, Maryknoll, New York, Orbis Books, 1980.}