Week of Prayer for Christian Unity  Day 8

"They left for their own country by another road” (Mt 2:12)

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊  

Acts 22:3-16 (or Acts 9:1-22)

 “I am a Jew,

Born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up here in this city where I was educated in the school of Gamaliel, according to the strict observance of our Law. And I was dedicated to God’s service, as are all of you today.  As for this way, I persecuted it to the point of death and arrested its followers, both men and women, throwing them into prison.

 The High Priest and the whole Council of elders can bear witness to this. From them I received letters for the Jewish brothers in Damascus and I set out to arrest those who were there and bring them back to Jerusalem for punishment.   

But as I was traveling along, nearing Damas­cus, at about noon a great light from the sky suddenly flashed about me.   I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me: ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’   I answered: ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said to me: ‘I am Jesus the Nazarean whom you persecute.’

  The men who were with me saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me.   I asked: ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord replied: ‘Get up and go to Damascus; there you will be told all that you are destined to do.’   Yet the brightness of that light had blinded me and so I was led by the hand into Damascus by my companions.

 There a certain Ananias came to me. He was a devout observer of the Law and well spoken of by all the Jews who were living there.  As he stood by me, he said: ‘Brother Saul, recover your sight.’ At that moment I could see and I looked at him.  

He then said, ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see the Just One and to hear the words from his mouth.   From now on you shall be his witness before all the pagan peoples and tell them all that you have seen and heard. And now, why delay? Get up and be baptized and have your sins washed away by call­ing upon his Name.’

 

Ps 117:1bc, 2

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

 

   ＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊   

Mark 16:15-18

Then he told them, “Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News to all creation.   The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; the one who refuses to believe will be condemned.

 Signs like these will accompany those who have believed: in my Name they will cast out demons and speak new langu­ages;   they will pick up snakes and, if they drink anything poisonous, they will be unharmed. They will lay their hands on the sick and they will be healed.”

 Conversion or Vocation?

Christians tend to think of Paul as one who rejected Jewish faith and embraced Christianity. And Jews denounce him for the same reason as well. However, Krister Stendahl, in his book Paul Among Jews and Gentiles, observes that “called rather than converted.”

Born as a Jew, Paul remains and dies a Jew. See how his testimony begins in today’s first reading: “I am [not was’]a Jew…”Before the “experience” he saw only differences between peoples,and sought to eliminate the ‘other.’

After the “experience”he sees the continuity and oneness of all, and seeks to build bridges. Thus, Paul’s conversion is truly a vocation to live continuity and inclusiveness rather than rejection of one for the other. The need of the world, and our individual lives, is to arrive at such conversion that seeks to build bridges rather than walls.