The second reading of today’s (the 5th Sunday of Easter) Liturgy of the Word narrates the arrival of Saul (Paul) in Jerusalem and is met with fear by the disciples but with the help of Barnabas, he is able to speak of his experience of the Lord. We first met Saul at the time of Stephen’s martyrdom (Acts Chap. 9). “They laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.” “Now Saul was consenting to his (Stephen’s) execution.” Acts Chap. 9 also narrates Saul joining in the persecution of the disciples of the Lord and his plans to travel to Damascus to further the persecution. Saul was a highly educated young man and probably a Pharisee. For three or four years, he had studied the Torah under the guidance of Gamaliel, a teacher of the Law, a well respected Rabbi and member of the
Sanhedrin.

Chap. 9 of Acts goes on to narrate the Conversion of Saul, one of three accounts of this conversion in Acts. As Saul nears Damascus “. . . a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him and he fell to the ground and he heard a voice saying: ‘Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me?’” Modern interpreters of Paul’s Letters as well as the Acts of the Apostles raise the question whether Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus should be labeled a “conversion” or a “call.” In comparison, St. Augustine underwent a real conversion experience but Paul’s experience is quite different.

We have no insight into what actually happened to Paul on the road to Damascus. Luke does not try to analyze Paul’s experience in any of his three different accounts. What we do know is that Paul not only became the Apostle of the Gentiles but it would not be an exaggeration to state that Paul was the greatest Apostle of Christianity. Almost two-thirds of the Acts of the Apostles centers on Paul’s missionary work, his three missionary journeys traveling through the known world and his suffering many hardships. –Fr. Bill