Ananias

I love this time of liturgical year after Easter as we get to hear everyday about the early Church through the Acts of the Apostles. I am struck not just by how the apostles responded but maybe even more when hearing about ordinary people who changed and converted and how they responded. These were ordinary people like us who heard about Jesus - received the Holy Spirit and then lived it to the point of suffering and martyrdom.

Todays first reading from Acts which describes Saul's conversion and which I heard so many times before hit me differently.It's amazing how Holy Spirit works to open your mind every time Scripture is proclaimed! Today, I thought if Ananias did not listen to God and despite his fear go to Saul and help him, then we might never have had St. Paul. The message to me is am I willing to be an " Ananias" ? To go out to world and bring Christ - and proclaim Him. And not in some big type of way but maybe simply to family, friends, colleagues... like Ananias i might be afraid a bit but he nonetheless did it. I suppose it does not even need to be with words- maybe just how we live? Not to be afraid to show the world, I am a sinful, mortal man and I need Jesus Christ who because of His death and resurrection has redeemed me.

As this world continues to go darker, asking God for courage and really the grace to be more like Ananias.


Acts 9:1-20
Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord,
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 bring them back to Jerusalem in chains.
On his journey, as he was nearing Damascus,
a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him.
He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him,
"Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"
He said, "Who are you, sir?"
The reply came, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do."
The men who were traveling with him stood speechless,
for they heard the voice but could see no one.
Saul got up from the ground,
but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing;
so they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus.
For three days he was unable to see, and he neither ate nor drank.

There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias,
and the Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias."
He answered, "Here I am, Lord."
The Lord said to him, "Get up and go to the street called Straight
and ask at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul.
He is there praying,
and in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias
come in and lay his hands on him,
that he may regain his sight."
But Ananias replied,
"Lord, I have heard from many sources about this man,
what evil things he has done to your holy ones in Jerusalem.
And here he has authority from the chief priests
to imprison all who call upon your name."
But the Lord said to him,
"Go, for this man is a chosen instrument of mine
to carry my name before Gentiles, kings, and children of Israel,
and I will show him what he will have to suffer for my name."
So Ananias went and entered the house;
laying his hands on him, he said,
"Saul, my brother, the Lord has sent me,
Jesus who appeared to you on the way by which you came,
that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit."
Immediately things like scales fell from his eyes
and he regained his sight.
He got up and was baptized,
and when he had eaten, he recovered his strength.

He stayed some days with the disciples in Damascus,
and he began at once to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues,
that he is the Son of God.

 

Paul's mystical experience of being illuminated by the light of Christ, both inwardly and outwardly, runs counter to any path of pride or self-deification. He recognized himself as the great sinner he had been and as the least of God's saints—a supreme symbol of Jewish persecuting power who later became the Apostle to the Gentiles.

His path of conversion began with a mystical experience, self-knowledge, and contrition. How many sinners have received mercy precisely because they reached the depths of moral ruin and then, in the light of Christ, came to see the true state of their souls?

Later, he became a victim soul, completing in his own flesh the sufferings of Christ. I believe this clearly distinguishes the practical concept of predestination in Catholicism from that found in Protestantism. While the former requires the fruits of holiness and, in some cases, mortification, the latter, in certain traditions, is content with faith without works. This is the result of a serious misinterpretation of the Epistle to the Romans.

1 Corinthians 15:9

9 For I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

 

That must have been amazing. What a great gift to be there. I like St Paul very much. I didn't always but I have grown up enough now to appreciate him. So many things he says resonates with me out of my own experience with the spiritual life. The very first thing Christ spoke to me when I first reverted to the Faith came out of St Paul. I was telling Our Lord that I believed and that I wanted yo follow Him but I knew I would fail because His Way flies in the face of all my human impulses. Immediately I heard in mY mind a very direct word. " Corinthians 12:9" i got my Bible and found second Corinthians 12:9.
The translation read "He said to me 'Don't worry. I am enough for you. I show up best in weak people." A direct Word from Jesus through St Paul's letter. Wow. I said " it's really You! You spoke to me! You are going to do it through me aren't You?" And I stopped worrying about it. I just prayed "show up in me Lord please"
I love the letters of St Paul. Jesus breathes through them.

 

All I have to say about this thread is Wow, just Wow.