＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

Acts 9:1-20*

Meanwhile Saul considered nothing but violence and death for the disciples of the Lord.

 He went to the High Priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues of Damascus that would authorize him to arrest and bring to Jerusalem anyone he might find, man or woman, belonging to the Way.

As he traveled along and was approaching Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him.   He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me?”  And he asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The voice replied, “I am Jesus whom you persecute.  Now get up and go into the city; there you will be told what you are to do.”

The men who were traveling with him stood there speechless: they had heard the sound, but could see no one.  Saul got up from the ground and, opening his eyes, he could not see. They took him by the hand and brought him to Damascus.  He was blind and he did not eat or drink for three days.

There was a disciple in Da­mas­cus named Ananias, to whom the Lord called in a vision, “Ana­nias!” He answered, “Here I am, Lord!”  Then the Lord said to him, “Go at once to Straight Street and ask, at the house of Ju­das, for a man of Tarsus named Saul. You will find him pray­ing, for he has just seen in a vision that a man named Ana­nias has come in and placed his hands upon him, to restore his sight.”

Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many sources about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Je­ru­salem,   and now he is here with authority from the High Priest to arrest all who call upon your name.”  But the Lord said to him, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to bring my name to the pagan nations and their kings, and the people of Israel as well.  I myself will show him how much he will have to suffer for my name.”

So Ananias left and went to the house. He laid his hands upon Saul and said, “Saul, my brother, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me to you so that you may receive your sight and be filled with Holy Spirit.”  Immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he could see; he got up and was baptized. Then he took food and was strengthened.

• For several days Saul stayed with the disciples at Damascus, and he soon began to proclaim in the synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God.

 

Ps 117:1bc, 2

Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

John 6:52-59 (or Mt 13:54-58)

 The Jews were arguing among themselves, “How can this man give us flesh to eat?”   So Jesus replied, “Truly, I say to you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood live with eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day.

My flesh is really food and my blood is drink.  Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood, live in me and I in them.   Just as the Father, who is life, sent me and I have life from the Father, so whoever eats me will have life from me.   This is the bread which came from heaven; unlike that of your ancestors, who ate and later died. Those who eat this bread will live forever.”

Jesus spoke in this way in Capernaum when he taught them in the synagogue.

 

 Gospel Reflection：

It is amazing to think that the young man who had approved of Stephen’s death and who had been spewing murderous threats against the early Church ends up preaching the very Good News which he had earlier sought with all his might to discredit. But this didn’t come because of some intellectual enlightenment.

Saul had no time to enter into arguments with the early Christians. All he wanted to do was round them up and throw them in jail and, if possible, even have them executed. No. Saul’s conversion happened because of a very personal encounter with Jesus himself, and encounter that literally “threw him off balance” and made him fall.

Faith, if it is genuine, is rarely an encounter with an idea or even an ideal, no matter how lofty and noble. Rather it is an encounter with a person, and his name is Jesus. This was Saul’s experience; it should also be ours.