An Encounter that Changed Pauls Life

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An Encounter that Changed Pauls Life

• Who is Paul?
• What do we know about Paul?
• Have we red his letters?

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A saint of countless failings
All through his letters he reveals himself

• as a Jew he was a man of integrity
• as a Christian he remains in character
• he is a man utterly caught up in his ministry
• what counts for him is love for his Lord
• and the service of the communities he founded

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DAMASCUS BEFORE AND AFTER
Who is Paul?

• We have to see who is Paul before and after
  his experience on the road to Damascus.
• Paul himself tells us who he is in his letters
  to the communities he founded.
• As far as Paul is concerned, everything
  starts from the Damascus experience.

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DESCRIPTION OF PAULS CONVERSION
Acts chapters 9, 22, 26

• Acts 9 1-19 Paul narrates the experience he had
  on the Road to Damascus
• Starting point to clarify
• the questions we need to ask Paul
• to listen to the answers he gives us in his
  letters.

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Vision of Christ on the Road to Damascus
Read Acts 9 1-19
Paul himself describes the event of Damascus
and the encounter with Christ as an
enlightenment that helps him to see his life in
a new light.

• An encounter
• of Light

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A light from above
that wraps up his life inviting him to change
his direction in life A light so dazzling that
Paul falls on the ground And his deprivedof
his light.
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Pauls
Profound change
conversion
He understands that the Lord is asking him a
profound change of life.
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Important elements of Damascus event
Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Christ
identifies himself with the Christians Saul is
persecuting.
Get up and go into the city and you will be
told what you are to do. The mission Paul
has to accomplish will be revealed to him in
the Church and through the Church.
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Jesus takes Paul by surprise in order to
introduce him to the Church

Go, for this man is my chosen instrument to
bring my name before gentiles and kings and
before the people of Israel I myself will show
him how much he must suffer for my name.
These are important elements that characterize

• - the whole mission of Paul
• the stronghold, the foundation - and the secret
  of his personality as missionary

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We ask Paul three questions
1. What was the situation out of which the Lord
called you on the Damascus road and where were
you when the Lord caught up with you?
2. In which direction did this fundamental event
in your life take you?
3. How did it come about, this Passover of yours
from death to life, from darkness to light, from
not knowing God to knowing him?
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Where were you when the Lord caught up with
you?

• Phil 3 5-9

Christ reached him when he was in full possession
of fundamental values won at great cost. These
are the things that belong to the glorious
history of Paul

• Circumcised on the eight day
• Born of the race of Israel
• Of the tribes of Benjamin
• A Hebrew born of Hebrew parents
• In matter of legal observance, a Pharisee
• As for zeal, a persecutor of the Church
• As for my keeping the Law, faultless.

Paul is taken in a situation in which he
possesses traditions, personal commitment, zeal,
and righteousness.
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Pauls religious heritage
A treasure to be jealously guarded

• Intolerance towards the Christians
• Need to exterminate them
• Fight against them

We are in a position to understand Pauls
selfaccusation in the first letter to Timothy
113 I had been a blasphemer, a persecutor, a
violent man
Not in the sense that he turned against God but
in the sense that, without knowing it, he turned
against Christ, in order to defend his treasure.
This is the meaning of his conversion
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This is the drama of Pauls life A profoundly
religious man which nearly led to a radical
distortion of Gods image in him. This is the
situation he came from - Ideological violence -
Fanaticism, - inability to understand others,
unless they have his own ideas.

• This was the confusion in which Paul lived.
• The situation which he came from.

• From here springs a new
• understanding
• Of the Gospel
• Of grace and mercy
• Of the divine initiative

Parable
The Pharisee and the Tax (Luke 18 9-14)
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In which direction did the Lord take you?
Phil 3 7- 9
To a turning pointPaul himself explains the
significance of this direction in the letters
to the Philippians Galatians.
a) The Lord led him to a total detachment
from what had seemed supremely important to
him. Phil 3 7 9 The Lord led him to a new
outlook on everything.

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A second indication of what direction he was
taking is found in
Gal 1 15
But when God set me apart from the time when I
was in my mothers womb, called me through his
grace and chose to reveal his Son in me, so I
should preach him to the Gentiles.
b) This is the mission entrusted to Paul. The
very moment that Jesus makes him realise that he
got everything wrong, he entrusts everything to
him.This moment sums up for Paul all the
mistakenideas he had of God.
Darkness becomes light. Violence is changed into
mercy. The meeting with Jesus makes Paul
experience the mercy and the trust of the Father.
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How did this transition come about?
Paul speaks of revelation rather than conversion

• Everything was given to him as a gift so that he
  could be a sign to all people of the mercy of
  God .
• Gal 115 But when God, who had set me apart
  from the time when I was in my mothers womb,
  called me through his grace and chose to
  reveal his Son in me, so I should preach him
  to the gentiles.
• The subject of his conversion is not Paul it is
  God.
• All his knowledge of Christ was given to him.
  Paul, in fact describes his conversion in
  terms of a meeting.
• 1Cor 15 8 Last of all he appeared to me too,
  as though I was a child born abnormally.

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The meeting with Christ changes Paul.
- Paul always lived with great passion. - His
way to face life with a radical and serious
commitment does not change.

• What changes is the motivation, the reason
  of his choices.

Before Damascus he lives for a cause After
Damascus he lives for a Person
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Now Paul measures his perfection by his capacity
to love with the love of Christ
Life for me is Christ.
Christ
I made myself all to all
1Cor 13
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Paul, by the grace of his conversion, announces
the Gospel to all
faithful to his first encounter with Christ.
He share everything with others
I put myself in slavery to all people, to win
as many as I could (1Cor 919)
Paul, Apostle of Jesus Christ
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The mystery of Damascus
The one episode that stood clearly before his
eyes.
Yet he hardly mentioned itdirectly.
But when he who chose me even from my mothers
womb and called me by his grace, was pleased the
reveal his Son to me so that I might proclaim him
among the Gentiles.
Few texts in whichDamascus experience is
described, among them Galatians 1 15-16
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The experience is described essentially as the
revelation of Christ and for the sake of the
mission.
Woe to me if I do not evangelize.
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After the Example of Paul
As Paul we too can experience a profound change
in life and let ourselves be transformed by the
person of Christ who reveals himself to us
through his Word and the Eucharist.
What is needed is an act of courage to

• Look at myself in order to discover my reality,
  to discover all the potentialities present in
  me
• address them towards the right direction, to
  motivations that make my life more intense,
  more joyous and authentic.

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• To look at Christ who, while he makes me
  discover my truth, also reveals the love of
  the Father for me. He is ready to accept me
  as I am, puts his trust in me and wants me to
  live more intensely my Christian life.

It is a matter of letting go what is of no value
in order to welcome the true treasure.
The precious pearl
Once we have found the precious pearl we will
discover the source of a profound joy and of an
authentic love.
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MY ENCOUNTER WITH CHRIST
How do I live my Christian life?
As Paul before Damascus, bound to his treasure
or as Paul after Damascus?
To discover this and give an answer to ourselves
we can reflect on the attitudes we have in life,
verifying which are our goods.
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What prevents me to grow
This does not bring me - to a real encounter
with myself and the problems I face - does not
bring me to a positive encounter with the reality
in order to look for the seeds of hope that
are in others with whom to build my life.

• To pretend not to see the positive realities,
  the values, the potentialities, the problems
  that are in me and in the context in which I
  live and am called to grow.

Let us look at the culture in which we live to
discover my identity as Christian who I am and
what I want.
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What is the dominant culture?
1. Search for pleasure, of what I like here and
now. There is difficulty in committing
oneself day by day.
2. The exaggerated cult of the body. I am the
centre of the world the relationships with
others are marked by indifference, violence
3. To live once life refusing to assume
responsibility. Why should I do this?
4. Search for success, money
These attitudes do not offer us lasting joy,
rather insecurity, anger, powerlessness.
Ultimately what is missing is the trust in the
possibility to build up ourselves and live a
joyous Christian life. We all are called to
holiness.
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FATHER
We thank you with joy, because in Jesus you have
filled us with every good thing and you have
blessed us with every blessing, calling us to
become your children for the glory and praise of
your name.

• Amen