⚔️ The glorious Apostle of the Gentiles, Saint Paul, born Saul in Tarsus of Cilicia, was a zealous Pharisee and Roman citizen, educated at the feet of Gamaliel, who initially persecuted the nascent Church with fury, consenting even to the death of Saint Stephen. His conversion, celebrated liturgically on this day in a singular way (for of other saints one celebrates the birth into heaven, but of Paul one celebrates also the transformation by grace), occurred around the year 34 or 35 A.D., on the road to Damascus, where a divine light struck him down and the voice of the Risen Christ questioned him, revealing the mystical union between Jesus and His faithful. From a relentless persecutor, he became the "Vessel of Election", the most ardent missionary of the Gospel, tirelessly traversing the Mediterranean world, founding communities and writing the Epistles that constitute a large part of the New Testament and the theological basis of Christian doctrine on grace and redemption. After years of toils, imprisonments, shipwrecks, and sufferings for the love of the Name of Jesus, he sealed his testimony with martyrdom in Rome, being beheaded under the Emperor Nero, around the year 67 A.D., at the "Three Fountains".
📖 Introit (II Tim 1, 12 | Ps 138, 1-2)
Scio, cui crédidi, et certus sum, quia potens est depósitum meum serváre in illum diem, justus judex. Ps. Dómine, probásti me et cognovísti me: tu cognovísti sessiónem meam et resurrectiónem meam.
I know whom I have believed, and I am certain that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him, against that day, being a just judge. Psalm: Lord, Thou has proved me, and known me: Thou hast known my sitting down, and my rising up.
✉️ Epistle (Acts 9, 1-22)
In diébus illis: Saulus adhuc spirans minárum et cædis in discípulos Dómini, accéssit ad príncipem sacerdótum, et pétiit ab eo epístolas in Damáscum ad synagógas: ut, si quos invenísset hujus viæ viros ac mulíeres, vinctos perdúceret in Jerúsalem. Et cum iter fáceret, cóntigit, ut appropinquáret Damásco: et súbito circumfúlsit eum lux de cœlo. Et cadens in terram, audívit vocem dicéntem sibi: Saule, Saule, quid me perséqueris? Qui dixit: Quis es, Dómine? Et ille: Ego sum Jesus, quem tu perséqueris: durum est tibi contra stímulum calcitráre. Et tremens ac stupens, dixit: Dómine, quid me vis fácere? Et Dóminus ad eum: Surge et ingrédere civitátem, et ibi dicétur tibi, quid te opórteat fácere. Viri autem illi, qui comitabántur cum eo, stabant stupefácti, audiéntes quidem vocem, néminem autem vidéntes. Surréxit autem Saulus de terra, apertísque óculis nihil vidébat. Ad manus autem illum trahéntes, introduxérunt Damáscum. Et erat ibi tribus diébus non videns, et non manducávit neque bibit. Erat autem quidam discípulus Damásci, nómine Ananías: et dixit ad illum in visu Dóminus: Ananía. At ille ait: Ecce ego, Dómine. Et Dóminus ad eum: Surge et vade in vicum, qui vocátur Rectus: et quære in domo Judæ Saulum nómine Tarsénsem: ecce enim orat. (Et vidit virum, Ananíam nómine, introeúntem et imponéntem sibi manus, ut visum recípiat.) Respóndit autem Ananías: Dómine, audívi a multis de viro hoc, quanta mala fécerit sanctis tuis in Jerúsalem: et hic habet potestátem a princípibus sacerdótum alligándi omnes, qui ínvocant nomen tuum. Dixit autem ad eum Dóminus: Vade, quóniam vas electiónis est mihi iste, ut portet nomen meum coram géntibus et régibus et fíliis Israël. Ego enim osténdam illi, quanta opórteat eum pro nómine meo pati. Et ábiit Ananías et introívit in domum: et impónens ei manus, dixit: Saule frater, Dóminus misit me Jesus, qui appáruit tibi in via, qua veniébas, ut vídeas et impleáris Spíritu Sancto. Ei conféstim cecidérunt ab óculis ejus tamquam squamæ, et visum recépit: et surgens baptizátus est. Et cum accepísset cibum, confortátus est. Fuit autem cum discípulis, qui erant Damásci, per dies áliquot. Et contínuo in synagógis prædicábat Jesum, quóniam hic est Fílius Dei. Stupébant autem omnes, qui audiébant, et dicébant: Nonne hic est, qui expugnábat in Jerúsalem eos, qui invocábant nomen istud: et huc ad hoc venit, ut vinctos illos dúcere ad príncipes sacerdótum? Saulus autem multo magis convalescébat, et confundébat Judǽos, qui habitábant Damásci, affírmans, quóniam hic est Christus.
In those days, Saul, as yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues: that if he found any men and women of this way, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. And as he went on his journey, it came to pass that he drew nigh to Damascus: and suddenly a light from heaven shined round about him. And falling on the ground, he heard a voice saying to him: Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? Who said: Who art Thou, Lord? And He: I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the goad. And he trembling and astonished, said: Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? And the Lord said to him: Arise, and go into the city, and there it shall be told thee what thou must do. Now the men who went in company with him, stood amazed, hearing indeed a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. But they leading him by the hands, brought him to Damascus. And he was there three days without sight, and he did neither eat nor drink. Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias. And the Lord said to him in a vision: Ananias. And he said: Behold I am here, Lord. And the Lord said to him: Arise, and go into the street that is called Strait, and seek in the house of Judas, one named Saul of Tarsus. For behold he prayeth. (And he saw a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hands upon him, that he might receive his sight.) But Ananias answered: Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to Thy saints in Jerusalem. And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that invoke Thy name. And the Lord said to him: Go thy way, for this man is to Me a vessel of election, to carry 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. And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house. And laying his hands upon him, he said: Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus hath sent me, He that appeared to thee in the way as thou camest; that thou mayest see, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it were scales, and he received his sight; and rising up, he was baptized. And when he had taken meat, he was strengthened. And he was with the disciples that were at Damascus, for some days. And immediately he preached Jesus in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God. And all that heard him were astonished, and said: Is not this he that persecuted in Jerusalem those that called upon this name: and came hither for that intent, that he might carry them bound to the chief priests? But Saul increased much more in strength, and confounded the Jews who dwelt at Damascus, affirming that this is the Christ.
✠ Gospel (Mt 19, 27-29)
In illo témpore: Dixit Petrus ad Jesum: Ecce, nos relíquimus ómnia, et secúti sumus te: quid ergo erit nobis? Jesus autem dixit illis: Amen, dico vobis, quod vos, qui secúti estis me, in regeneratióne, cum séderit Fílius hóminis in sede majestátis suæ, sedébitis et vos super sedes duódecim, judicántes duódecim tribus Israël. Et omnis, qui relíquerit domum, vel fratres, aut soróres, aut patrem, aut matrem, aut uxórem, aut fílios, aut agros, propter nomen meum, céntuplum accípiet, et vitam ætérnam possidébit.
At that time, Peter said to Jesus: Behold we have left all things, and have followed Thee: what therefore shall we have? And Jesus said to them: Amen I say to you, that you, who have followed Me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the seat of His majesty, you also shall sit on twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And every one that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for My name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting.
🔥 The Mystery of Grace and the Unity of the Mystical Body
The liturgy of today places before us one of the greatest miracles in the history of salvation: the transformation of a "ravening wolf" into a "lamb" and shepherd. The conversion of Saint Paul is not merely a biographical event, but a profound theological revelation about the nature of the Church and the operation of Divine Grace. Saint Augustine, reflecting on this episode, highlights the inseparable union between Christ and His members. When the celestial voice cries out "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?", Jesus does not ask why Saul persecutes His servants, but identifies Himself fully with them. The Head cries out in Heaven for the pains that the Body suffers on earth (Saint Augustine, Sermon on the Conversion of Saint Paul). This doctrine of the Christus Totus (the Whole Christ) is the key to understanding that to wound the Church is to wound God Himself. Furthermore, Jesus' response to Peter in the Gospel, promising the hundredfold to those who have left everything, manifests itself vividly in Paul: he left his position of prominence in Judaism, his "justice according to the law", considering everything as loss to gain Christ (Phil 3:8), and received in exchange not only eternal life, but spiritual fatherhood over countless nations. Saul's physical blindness was the remedy for his spiritual blindness; it was necessary for the lights of the outer world to be extinguished so that the uncreated light might shine within him, teaching us that true conversion often requires the humiliation of our intellectual pride and total submission to the divine will, expressed in the fundamental question of Christian discipleship: "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?".
See English version of the critical articles here.
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