Today's Gospel - January 25, 2012 with reflection

 Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, Apostle

1^st READING - Acts 22:3-16 (or Acts 9:1-22)

P S A L M -Psalm 117:1, 2

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

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

I chose you from the world, to go and bear fruit that will last, says the Lord.

Mark 16:15-18

15 Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. 18 They will pick up serpents with their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” 

LIST

SABBATH

Creative Passion Once there was a religious skeptic who ridiculed people who take their faith seriously. He had a neighbor who was a very holy and prayerful woman. Every morning, he would hear her pray aloud her petitions to God. One time, he heard the woman pray for bread. So he decided to put bread at her door, knocked, and hid behind a tree. When the woman opened the door and saw the loaf of bread, she prayed aloud and said, “Thank you, Lord, for this answered prayer!” “You fool,” said the man, “don’t you know I was the one who put bread at your door? I answered your prayer, not God.” The woman calmly retorted, “No, God always answers my prayers, even if sometimes He had to use the devil to answer them.” Today’s First Reading from Acts 22 is a first person account of St. Paul’s conversion, which we celebrate today. Paul himself said, “I persecuted this new way to the point of death. I arrested and imprisoned both men and women.” The same Paul who used to destroy Christ’s Church will be the same Paul who will build it up and make it flourish beyond Israel.  More than the personal conversion of Paul, we celebrate today the fact of God’s grace working in and through unworthy instruments. Even after his conversion, Paul would often refer to himself as “the least of all the apostles.” He was a passionate man but his passion was misdirected and destructive. But God redirected his passion. From one who passionately persecuted and killed Christians, he became one who would be persecuted and killed for Christ. That is conversion. When one is converted, what is really changed is the heart of the inner person. Friends, don’t fall into the temptation of thinking that you are not worth anything. You are worth something. On this feast of Paul’s conversion, let us make an inventory of how we have been using the gifts that God has given us. Let us lift them up to God and allow His grace to transform them into positive energies for good. Like Paul, be surprised at what God can do in and through you, to yourself and to others! Fr. Joel Jason REFLECTION QUESTION: How are you using the gifts that God has given you? “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me; I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see. ‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear. And grace, my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed.”