Right Side Up

A priest once mentioned in his homily that God doesn’t turn our world upside down but right side up. This makes perfect sense because God does make all things right. Today our Church celebrates the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle, one of the most recognized conversion stories in Christianity. Paul, the one responsible for the death of the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen, was on his way to capture more Christians and imprison them but Jesus had other plans. Paul was blinded by a great light, falls to the ground and hears Jesus asking him, “Why are you persecuting me?” Three days later he is a firm believer, is baptized and from that moment on he never looked back. God certainly turned his world right side up.

All Christians have a conversion story. Most of them are not as dramatic as Paul’s but that is ok. We are each on our own journey. But one thing holds true for all of us, we have to respond when God acts in our lives. Paul could have gotten up and continued to do what he set out to do. God’s action could have made him more determined to do the opposite of what God called him to do. He could have responded in the beginning and when things got hard return to his old way of life. I have no idea why God reached down from on high and drew me out of my darkness on the day that he did but I will be forever grateful. But unlike Paul, I have struggled. There were times that I asked God why he would do that to me. There were times that I begged for things to be the way they were before. I may have been numb with fear and living in darkness but I was used to it, and it was familiar to me. It has been really hard to live in the light of Christ; to be vulnerable and to be hurt by people that I trusted. But slowly I have adjusted and will never go back to that dark place. I think it is important to share our conversion stories with others because they offer hope. And when sharing our stories we need to be honest about how much of a struggle it can be so that when others have doubts and fears they will know that they are not alone.

Our conversion isn’t a onetime deal and then we’re on the road of righteousness. Our conversion is a lifelong commitment. We live in a broken world and we are all sinners so we must decide every day how we are going to live out our lives. Paul faced many trials, persecutions and imprisonment. Scripture does not tell us how he died but it is believed that he was martyred. We, too, must be willing to suffer for Christ, be zealous in our mission to spread the gospel and be willing to lay down our life for our Lord and Savior. In today’s gospel Jesus reassures the Apostles and us when he says, “These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. 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.” (Mark 16:17-18)