RBWords

     It would be difficult to overestimate the impact of the conversion of St. Paul on the history and theology of Christianity!  He was not the only Christian missionary of his time (his letters speak of others), but it is HIS letters and theological reflections that were preserved and became part of what is considered divine revelation!  Some scholars have referred to him as the "second founder" of Christianity!  However, there ARE other "schools of thought" in the New Testament (the gospels, the letters of John, etc.) that balance Pauline thought.  I think what propelled his thought to the forefront was the memory of the man himself.  His personality was one of those dramatic and passionate types that not only fill a room but completely fill a movement and galvanize it.  If the Pentecost event is what made the fearful Twelve into missionary preachers, the "conversion event" of Saul of Tarsus insured that the fire would spread!  His "version" of Christianity would eventually clash with that of the Twelve and result in a compromise between the Jewish and non-Jewish "versions" that freed Christianity to spread even beyond the Jewish "diaspora" to the larger Greco-Roman world and then beyond that!

     One person CAN make a big difference in matters of faith!  We, of course, start with Jesus!  But figures like Mary, Paul, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Catherine of Siena, Martin Luther and other heroes and heroines of history remind us of the power of faith working in individual personalities to shape an entire world!  Today we celebrate the "conversion" of one such person to whom we owe a great deal.  There may be aspects of his writings that offend some folks, but he cannot be ignored entirely because he has shaped Christian theology so thoroughly!  I recommend taking a few minutes today to simply read the first parts of Romans or 1 and 2 Corinthians and feel the personality come through.  He was not a man who could be ignored!   AMEN