Reflection on the Gospel of the Tuesday Of The Third Week In Ordinary Time(Feast: Conversion of St. Paul The Apostle, Christian Unity Week) |
Mark 16:15-18 |
Today we celebrate the Transformation of St. Paul. As Scott Hahn says, Paul did not convert to a new faith, but his eyes were opened and in Jesus Crucified and Resurrected he saw the culmination of the faith he had lived all his life.
Today’s gospel is appropriate for this great Man, who directly or in directly influences our faith with what he realised and understood on that road to Damascus. His thoughts and understanding come to us in the New Testament, where he and his disciples have written 15-17 of the 27 Books. He literary is a living proof of this Gospel passage in his own life. In 2 Cor 11:24-27, he tells
Five times I have received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I have been beaten with rods; once I was stoned. Three times I have been shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brethren; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
Even through he experienced all these hurdles and difficulties, all these could not lessen his thirst to please Jesus by preaching the Gospel all over.
But today’s Gospel Passage is also a promise to us to be God’s grace to others. Grace to transform lives all around yourself. This is what happened in the Early Church, opponents and persecutors saw these things happening in the lives of the Christians, and they themselves became Christians. This is also possible today and in each of our lives. Believe in this promise of Jesus, and hold on to it and live it in your life, and experience God’s transforming grace in your life.
