Rise and go!
On January 25, Christians around the world celebrated one of the greatest upheavals in one person’s life, a man who went from being persecutor of Christ and his followers to becoming one of the most important witnesses of the Christian faith – Paul of...
On January 25, Christians around the world celebrated one of the greatest upheavals in one person’s life, a man who went from being persecutor of Christ and his followers to becoming one of the most important witnesses of the Christian faith – Paul of Tarsus. Not surprisingly, Paul faced a fair share of scepticism and fear from the first Christians he met as a convert, in what would have been the perfect inside job in bringing down the nascent Christian community.
Like us, Paul lacked a physical encounter with Jesus, something which the 12 apostles experienced for a number of years. Paul meets Jesus “on the way” to accomplishing another one of his crusades against Christians. A learned and confident man suddenly finds himself humbly on the ground. The artistic tradition has Paul falling off a horse, a symbol of power and might, looking helplessly upwards.
Rather than feeding into our imagination to explain what this experience might have looked like, it is easy to empathise with Paul’s encounter with Jesus when we recall the times in our life when we are stopped in our tracks by our fearful anticipations, when we hit the brick walls of our crushed expectations, when our plans suddenly turn sideways. There is something equally blinding and enlightening in moments like these. However, for the attentive of heart these moments are not mere confusion, but pregnant with a Word that desires to speak. Paul himself could only utter two questions in response to this traumatic experience: “Who are you Lord?”, and the unavoidable “what shall I do?”
The answer Paul hears for the latter question is emblematic: “Rise and go!” An invitation Jesus frequently made to those he found trapped in their darkness. “Rise!” and do not settle in your slumber.
The first step towards real personal change always requires a change of pace, a harkening of a call received deep within, convincing ourselves that our former ways, as comfortable as they might have become, do not lead us to life. Conversion always implies the death of the old self, and the birth of something or rather someone new, the painful but necessary passage that does not just patch things up but builds upon new and more solid foundations.
Mighty Paul rises not through his strength but he is led by others, because real conversions are never just the work of the individual, but the synergy of those who are sent to help us at the right time.
The second invitation for Paul is to “go” to Damascus. It might seem strange that Paul still heads to his original destination. What changed in this dramatic encounter? Paul himself has started to become another person, he heads to Damascus another man, not because of an exterior phenomenon he witnessed, but due to a hidden process that has been kindled in his heart. Like yeast fermenting the dough from within, Paul’s heart will become infused with the Holy Spirit, and Jesus will no longer be a ghost he chases away but a reality in which he finds himself grounded and renewed.
Authentic conversions never alienate us from our everyday life and the roles we are entrusted with. They allow us to live them as new people sustained by the One who calls us to “rise and go”.
Fr Alexander Zammit, member, Missionary Society of St Paul