Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today the Church marks the occasion of the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle, marking the moment when the once hostile and fervent anti-Christian young Jew and Pharisee named Saul turned over a new leaf completely in his life, becoming then the courageous defender of the Christian faith, changing his name into Paul as the sign of this conversion and embarking into a new life and mission blessed by God. And this day all of us are reminded not to give up hope in the Lord because in Him alone lies our salvation and hope, and He has generously showed us all His love and grace, His persistent care and compassion towards all of us, and His desire to be reunited with us. God has always called us all to holiness, and He provided us with the sure path through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour.

In our first reading today, we heard the story of the conversion of St. Paul himself, highlighting to us the moment when as mentioned, Saul the Pharisee encountered the Lord and was converted to the true faith. Up to that moment Saul had always been a very energetic and fanatical Pharisee who had been very active in persecuting the early Christians, arresting many of them throughout Jerusalem, Judea and other regions, and he was also present at the time of the martyrdom of St. Stephen, the very first martyr of the Church. Essentially he was a great enemy of the Church and the early Christian believers. And that mistaken zeal was what drove the young Saul to seek permission from the Jewish leaders to go to Damascus to continue rooting out the early Christians and persecuting them for their faith in the Lord.

But as we all know, God had a very different plan for Saul. As we heard from the account from the Acts of the Apostles, Saul had an encounter with the Lord Jesus Himself Who appeared to Him on the way to Damascus, and Who revealed Himself and His truth to the misguided and overzealous young man. It was thus the beginning of the conversion journey of Saul, who met Ananias, one of the Lord’s disciples who was in Damascus, and it was Ananias who baptised Saul and gave him the first teachings and truth of the Christian beliefs, opening the eyes of Saul to what the truth about Jesus Christ, the Saviour has brought into this world, which he and many other Pharisees, clouded by pride, greed and ego, and by falsehoods, refused to believe and ended up persecuting.

Saul therefore completely changed his ways, so much so that many people were astonished by the change, both those Pharisees who once persecuted Christians with him and also the persecuted Christians themselves. But Saul continued to grow in wisdom and power of the Lord through the Holy Spirit, and he took upon the new name of Paul to signify this conversion and change, much as how in the Scriptures, people had their names change to indicate significant events in their lives. From a great enemy and persecutor of Christians, St. Paul became the great champion of the Christian faith, dedicating and committing himself to the cause of the Lord, proclaiming the truth of God faithfully wherever he went, labouring hard for the Lord’s sake and enduring a lot of hardships and persecutions that he himself once inflicted upon the Christians.

The story of the conversion of St. Paul the Apostle is truly a very amazing story of hope and change which all of us should be inspired by. The great examples shown by St. Paul the Apostle and his dedication to the Lord after having committed great mistakes and harm to the Church earlier in his life is one of the story of hope reminding us that there is no one excluded by the Lord and that each and every one of have the same opportunity and chance which God Himself has provided most generously to us because He wants us all to be saved and redeemed through Him, and no longer be lost because of our sins and disobedience against Him. If even a great sinner and someone who had once committed grievous sins and acts that endangered many of the early Christians like St. Paul could become a great servant of God and exemplary follower of the Lord, then who we are to say that we cannot do the same as well?

In our Gospel passage today from the Gospel according to St. Mark the Evangelist, we heard the words of the Lord Jesus to His disciples in which He commanded all of them to go forth and spread throughout the world, proclaiming His Good News and salvation, all of which He has promised to us through the same Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all. This commissioning took place after the Lord has suffered and died on His Cross, and then risen gloriously from death. It is the mission which the Lord has entrusted to all of us as His disciples, to be the bearers of the Good News of His triumphant victory over sin and death, over the chains of evil and the dominion of Satan, all those things that had prevented us from coming towards the Lord and His salvation, His grace and love.

Each and every one of us have been given such great grace from God and we should indeed be thankful for everything that He had done for us. He has loved us so dearly and patiently even when we have often rebelled against Him and disobeyed Him, resolving to forgive us all and continuing to open the path of redemption to all of us. That was what St. Paul had accepted, the generous offer of mercy and forgiveness, and he showed us all that all saints were sinners just like us too, but what matters is that they all changed their ways and abandoned their past sins, corruptions and all the things which had kept them from truly being able to live their lives faithfully as God’s holy servants and people. They cast aside the temptations and false pleasures of the world, putting their faith and trust fully in God, becoming great role models and inspirations for us to follow.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we willing and able to commit ourselves henceforth to the Lord like how St. Paul and many other saints had done? Are we willing and able to reject the temptations of the evil one, all the pleasures and allures of worldly glory, ambition, corruptions and all the things that often distract us from the right path towards the Lord? God has given us all the freedom to choose our path in life, and we need to make the conscious effort to firmly reject all those that can bring us away into the path towards our downfall and destruction. This is why we should always put the Lord at the centre of everything that we believe in, and make Him to be the reason and the focus of everything that we say and do. We should not allow anything to keep us away from God and His truth, His love and Presence. Every one of us as sinners still have path path forward, and that is through God’s love, compassion and mercy.

Let us all continue to live our lives to the fullest in faith, committing ourselves each and every moments to walk ever down this path that God has shown us, and be the good and worthy disciples and followers of the Lord, the shining beacons of His truth, His Good News and love in this world. May the Lord be with us all and may He continue to help and guide us so that we may continue to be led towards Him and that we will not lose our paths and bearings in life, continuing to trust in God’s love and mercy, now and always, ever proclaiming that love and mercy to the whole world. Amen.