Today’s first Mass reading is one of the two accounts of the conversion of St. Paul. And it is a story I never tired of hearing.
Saul is a pretty bad guy. Forget the “pretty” – a really bad buy. He is not harmlessly misguided, not just a slackard with no appetite for serious prayer and deepening his life with God, not just a bumbler who doesn’t have a clear sense of the road forward.
Saul is a murderous persecutor of Christians. He stands by watching Stephen stoned to death because of Stephen’s proclamation of his faith in Christ. At the beginning of today’s first Mass reading from Acts, Saul, “still breathing murderous threats” against Jesus’ disciples, “went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, that, if he should find any men or women who belonged to the Way, he might arrest them.
But God doesn’t discard him. Instead, he has great plans for Saul.
And when Saul encounters Jesus on the road to Damascus, he is irrevocably changed. Jesus appears to him, speaks to him, invites him and he becomes a different man. No longer Saul, he is now Paul, “a chosen instrument of [Jesus] to carry [Jesus’] name before Gentiles, kings, and children of Israel.”
If even someone as seemingly beyond redemption as Saul, can be turned from darkness toward the light, how can we doubt the healing power of Jesus? There are some people who have a tendency to think, “It’s too late for me” or “After what I’ve done, God can’t possibly have any use for me.” The story of the conversion of St. Paul is a vivid demonstration of the fallacy of such thoughts. It is never too late for any of us.
Conversion is always possible – for everyone.
Creo en Dios! 
Yes, how like Saul good Catholics are.
Following rules and then after encountering Christ becoming stumbling blocks and troublemakers to our Organization.
And yet we dare to judge Saul as a murderous persecutor.
The whole story/metaphor continues to say that Paul was struck blind I believe.
Yes, how like Saul we all are.
Blessings,
Bonnie