Acts 9:1–22 & Matthew 19:27–30 The Feast of the Conversion of St Paul, which we commemorate today, is one of the most dramatic and perhaps even most important parts of the Bible. Saul, as he was then known, was going about offering threats and violence, and travelling presumably with a desire to continue his persecution of people who followed Jesus, and he is stopped in his tracks. There was a light from heaven, a voice that he could not ignore and a question that stunned him: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” It is dramatic, yes — but it is also deeply personal. Saul is not given a lecture. He is not handed a list of doctrines. He is confronted with a person. He meets Jesus. And that is at the heart of today’s readings. Saul had, in an incredible way that he would never have expected, met Jesus, and I think the Conversion of St Paul also perhaps challenges us to say, “We want to see Jesus.” Not an idea, not a theory, not a distant memory, not a tradition — but Je...
There are moments in life when something catches our attention, perhaps it’s a story, a person, an experience, and we find ourselves thinking that we need to look a bit closer…Sometimes it’s because we’re searching for meaning, sometimes because we’re longing for hope and sometimes because something within us suggests that there is more to life than what we’ve settled for. And very often God begins his work in us simply by inviting us to look again. Life, as we know, is full of ups and downs, successes and disappointments, moments of clarity and moments of confusion. We achieve things that go unnoticed, and at other times we seem to do very little and people call it a triumph. Success means different things to different people, but whatever form it takes, we should want to celebrate it. We point to people who make a difference, whether that difference is real or only perceived. In today’s gospel reading (John 1:29–42), something very similar is happening. John the Baptist has been prea...