Today,
the Church commemorates the conversion of St. Paul, apostle. The
short fragment of the Gospel according to St. Mark contains part of
the address on the mission bestowed to the apostles by Jesus,
resurrected. His exhortation to go out to the whole world and
proclaim the Good News includes the thesis that faith and baptism and
necessary essentials for salvation: «The one who believes and
is baptized will be saved; the one who refuses to believe will be
condemned» (Mk 16:16). Furthermore, Christ guarantees
that preachers will be given the faculty to work out miracles or
prodigies which will support and confirm their missionary preaching
(cf. Mk 17:18). The mission is big —«Go out to the
whole world»—, but it will not be without the Lord's
escort: «And surely I am with you always, to the very end of
the age» (Mt 28:20).
Today's collect, tells
us: «O God, who, by the preaching of your apostle Paul, has
caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world: grant,
we beseech you, that we, having his wonderful conversion in
remembrance, may show forth our thankfulness to you for the same by
following the holy doctrine which he taught». A gospel God has
allowed us to know and that so many souls would desire to have: we
have the responsibility to transmit this wonderful heritage to
whatever extent we are able to.
St. Paul's conversion
is a great event: from persecuting Jesus' followers he converted into
a servant and defender of the cause of Christ. Quite often, perhaps,
we have also been “persecutors”: and, as St. Paul, we
need to convert from “persecutors” into servants and
defenders of Jesus Christ.
With
the Virgin Mary, we should realize the Almighty has also noticed
us and has chosen us to share and carry out the priestly and
redeeming mission of his divine Son: Regina apostolorum, Queen
of the apostles, pray for us!; give us courage to bear witness of our
Christian faith in this world of ours.
