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Commentary on the Gospel for Saturday, January 25, 2025
I’m not entirely sure why we all assume that Paul fell off a horse during his mysterious encounter with Jesus, where he was confronted for persecuting Christians. So much so that in our language, the expression “falling off the horse” (or the more humble “falling off the donkey”) has stuck. But the truth is, nowhere in the Bible does it say that Paul was riding a horse or a donkey on the road to Damascus. All it says is that he fell.
It must have been quite a fall because it radically changed his life. What was black became white, and vice versa. The orthodox Pharisee and persecutor of Christians became an apostle of Jesus. According to the Acts of the Apostles and the letters attributed to him, we owe it to Paul that Jesus’ message broke out of the narrow confines of the Jewish world at the time and spread throughout the Roman Empire and even beyond. Because of Paul, the followers of Jesus transformed from a small, heterodox Jewish sect into a church—a community of believers where everyone is welcome. As Paul himself wrote: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).
Today we celebrate Paul’s conversion, but it shouldn’t just be a moment to marvel at the radical change he embraced after that “fall.” It’s not enough to simply thank God for giving us Paul, the apostle who carried Jesus’ message to the ends of the known world. That’s all good and worthwhile, but this day also invites each of us to take a step forward on our own journey of conversion.
Just as Paul had to leave behind the paths where he felt secure to redirect his life, perhaps we too need to let go of our usual comforts to encounter the real and authentic Jesus—the one who speaks to our hearts through the Gospels. And, like Paul, we are called to begin walking paths of fraternity, justice, love, and forgiveness.