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Friends,
today we reflect on the significance of the conversion of St. Paul.
Paul’s encounter on the road to Damascus was an answer to this question:
when through Israel, would God gather the nations and bring his rule to
the whole world? When Paul met Jesus he realized that the promises of
God had been fulfilled, that the expectations of the prophets had been
met—but in a most unexpected and extraordinary way.
He
knew from his tradition that God, through Israel, would deliver the
world from sin, gather the nations, and establish peace and justice
everywhere. That was the hope. The usual version of that hope was
something like an avenging military/political ruler like Solomon or
David, or a great law-giver/leader like Moses.
What
Paul saw in Jesus was someone greater than Moses, Solomon, or David—and
someone wholly unexpected. God is establishing his justice, his right
order, his way, through a crucified and risen criminal, and now returned
from the dead? Forgiveness, compassion, nonviolence, having no truck
with the ways of death? This is God’s justice, and it judges all of the
fallen powers and kingdoms of the world.
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