Gospel: January 25, 2024
(Thursday)
Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle
Psalter: Proper / (White)
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 117: 1bc, 2
Go out to all the world and tell the Good news.
1st Reading: Acts 22: 3-16 (or Acts 9: 1-22)
Gospel: Mk 16: 15-18
Then he told them, “Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News to all creation. The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; the one who refuses to believe will be condemned. Signs like these will accompany those who have believed: in my name they will cast out demons and speak new languages; they will pick up snakes, and if they drink anything poisonous, they will be unharmed; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.”
Reflection:“To be changed by God’s word.”
Before his conversion, St. Paul was a persecutor of Jesus’s followers. On his way to Damascus, as recounted in the Acts, he encountered the Lord. This encounter is characterized by his falling to the ground and his rising. It is only when Paul experienced falling to the ground that he was able to hear Jesus’ voice. Prior to his conversion, perhaps, Paul’s life was characterized by self-righteousness, only to be confronted with the fact that everyone can only rely on God’s righteousness. He might have been thinking all the while that he was hearing God’s voice but in reality, he was just hearing his ego, trying to prove that he could accomplish his duty as a Pharisee. Through God’s righteousness, Paul would become the Apostle to the Gentiles. As Christians, we are mandated by the Gospel to proclaim the Good News to all creation. But before we are able to do such mandate, we first need to be changed by God’s word. In our faith journey, it is when we experience falling that God would take us up by the hand and that we may rise again as new persons.
