Conversion of St. Paul

The Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, the Apostle, is a feast celebrated during the liturgical year on January 25, recounting the Conversion. Paul’s entire life can be explained in terms of one experience—his meeting with Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus. During this remarkable moment, Paul comes face to face with Jesus and gets converted.

I guess there cannot be a more magnificent example of the love, grace and mercy of God than the conversion of St. Paul. Before his conversion, Paul had been a leading persecutor of Christians. While journeying to Damascus to persecute more Christians, Paul had his conversion. In memory of this day, every year January 25 is celebrated as the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul which concludes the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

It is believed that Paul lived at the time of Jesus but as far as it is known they never met. Paul was first called Saul. He was a highly educated, devout Jew, who got converted to Christianity on the road to Damascus. He was a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, and was born at Tarsus, the capitol of Cilicia.

Honestly, January 25 gives me a great occasion to reflect on my own faith journey which started approximately the same day in 2012. Since then I have been thriving hard to live a righteous life. It’s very difficult – I fumble and fall every day but because of the grace of my Lord upon me, I am able to get up and start anew every day.

In Acts 22:2-16, Paul describes his change from zealous persecutor of Christians to becoming a follower and missionary of the crucified and risen Lord. He has been my greatest inspiration in my faith journey and like St. Paul’s conversion to the Faith is a key event in the worldwide spread of the Church, my own conversion on that day last year is the key event of my own life.

Truly St. Paul is called the Father of Christianity because it was because of him that Christianity spread into every nook and corner of the world. It was Paul who proclaimed the truth of Christ to the entire world.

One of St. Paul’s beautiful quote is – “Of ourselves we can do nothing, but with God we can do everything”. With God’s help St. Paul, from being an opponent of Jesus Christ, became one of the foremost missionaries of Him. With God’s help I have become one of His faithful servants and working extremely hard to remain His ever faithful servant. Amen!!!