Saul, my brother, the Lord has sent me,
Jesus who appeared to you on the way by which you came,
that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Immediately things like scales fell from his eyes
and he regained his sight.
He got up and was baptized,
and when he had eaten, he recovered his strength.
— Acts 9 1-20
The peace of the Lord be with you. Today we read about the conversion of Saul, later to be known Paul, who became one of the greatest evangelist and teachers in church history.
Saul was righteous and good man. A man who was a defender of his faith and righteousness. What he saw and feared in the early Christian community was a watering down and an erroneous path away from Judaism. The difficulty for Saul was that he could not see how the path of salvation was occurring through the Christian community.
Sometimes it’s very difficult to see how God is working and moving among us — even when we are very close to Him. Saul does not come to this realization on his own but through a situation that caused him to pause, fast, and contemplate. It was then, through the intervention of the community through which the graces of the Lord flowed, that those scales dropped from his eyes and he could see the correct course of action ahead of him.
We too are subject to the same propensity for misunderstanding, and sometimes even though our intentions might be good, our actions can also be misguided. Through the love of God, and through God’s interaction with the community, may we be open to these corrections and revelations. May these moments of clarity help us to see the variety of ways that God is at work in this time. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.