Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Tuesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

(Galatians 1:13-24; Luke 10:38-42)

LeBron James, the designated king of basketball, is returning to his hometown.  He feels called back to Cleveland to win a championship for the people among whom he grew up.  To say the least, he is gifted enough to be a major factor in a victorious.  He might be compared to St. Paul on that fated journey to Damascus which he mentions in the first reading today.

As Paul describes himself, he was well prepared for the task to which God was calling him.  He knew the Scriptures as well as anyone and had zeal beyond compare.  God, it seems, planned the encounter between him and God’s Son.  Paul is reticent to say exactly what took beyond that Jesus was revealed to him.  In the First Letter to the Corinthians Paul mentioned that Jesus “appeared” to him but without any elaboration.  The event must have been monumental to turn completely around this rock-hard persecutor of the Church.


Hearing the story again, we stand in awe.  Paul not only gave the rest of his life to preaching the gospel but in the end suffered martyrdom for it.  We are more certain that what we believe is true because of his eloquent testimony.