The conversion of St. Paul is a pivotal event in the history of Christianity. Paul never encountered Jesus during his earthly ministry. By the time Paul starts to persecute Christians, Jesus has already died and risen from the dead. He has ascended into Heaven and has sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
Nevertheless, on the road to Damascus, Paul has a personal encounter with Christ. As a result, he abandons everything and changes his life completely. Christ becomes the organizing principle of his whole existence.
The conversion of St. Paul shows that Christ is not like other great figures of history. With other great figures, we might follow their teachings or emulate the example of their actions. For example, I could base my philosophical world view on the writings of Plato or I could seek to follow the example of Mother Teresa in taking care of the poorest of the poor. But I would not worship the person of either Plato or Mother Teresa.
But the relationship we are to have with Christ is one of worship. More than just following his teachings and emulating his example, we are called to worship Christ as our Lord and Master. We are to allow him to become the organizing principle of our existence.
The New Testament, especially The Gospel of John, makes it clear that Christ is not just one possible way among many others. Christ is the only way to true life. As we see in the passage today, without Christ we wither away and die spiritually.
Our faith teaches us that we enter into union with Christ by being cleansed in baptism, being sealed with the Holy Spirit in Confirmation, and receiving Christ himself in Communion at Mass. We stay grounded in Christ through the ongoing practice of our faith. To maintain our union with Christ, we need to receive him in the Eucharist at least once a week. We need to maintain a consistent, daily prayer life. We need to avail ourselves of the Sacrament of Reconciliation when we have fallen into serious sin. We should seek him in the Scriptures, in the sacraments appropriate for our vocation and state of life, in the good works he enjoined upon us, and, in general, in the vast treasure-trove of prayers and practices of Holy Mother Church.
We do not need new insights, new discoveries to find Christ. The Church has shown us the way for centuries. All we need to do is to keep to the path that so many before us, including great saints and popes and theologians and artists, have trodden for so many years.
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The readings for the Fifth Sunday of Easter Sunday, Cycle B are:
Acts 9:26-31
Ps 22:26-27, 28, 30, 31-32
1 Jn 3:18-24
Jn 15:1-8
The full text can be found at the USCCB website.
Photo Credit: St. Stephen's Gate in Jerusalem, outside of which the as yet unconvrted Paul guarded the cloaks of St. Stephen's executioners by Zoltan Abraham (c) 2016.