Sunday, Jan. 25, 2009 is the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B, Cycle 1). In this Year of St. Paul, the Conversion of St. Paul may be celebrated this Sunday.

Vatican

Jan. 25 at 5:30 p.m. (10:30 a.m. CST), Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate vespers for the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

Parish

FaithandFamilyLive.com is the website of Faith & Family.

NCRegister.com provides the weekly papal audience.

Vatican.va is the Vatican’s website. Click “Pauline Year.”

Pauline.org/store is the Daughters of St. Paul’s Books & Media online store.

It’s not too late to celebrate the Pauline Year. Some ideas:

• Start a group study of a Pauline Letter. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia offers excellent resources. Find the link under “Resources” at the Faith & Family Live! site.

• Invite a guest speaker to talk about some aspect of St. Paul.

• Priests: Preach on the second reading (when it is from Paul) more often this year. Quote Pope Benedict XVI’s catechesis on St. Paul in your bulletin. Or simply add a Pauline Scripture quote each week.

• Create a Pauline information presentation on the parish bulletin board that includes maps of his missionary journeys and the key events and achievements of his life, available at the Vatican’s website.

• Distribute a prayer card featuring an image of Paul and one of his prayers, and make available in your parish library or book center materials available from the Daughters of St. Paul.

Family

It’s natural that children, as they grow older, will experience doubts and questions about their faith. They might not understand that their parents went through the same things.

The feast of the Conversion of St. Paul is a good opportunity to tell your own conversion or “reversion” story. If you have always been more or less faithful and have no story, then tell your own “Ananias story” (see “Our Take” below).

Readings

The Lectionary offers two choices for Jan. 25. We will focus on the Year of St. Paul readings.

Acts 22:3-16 or Acts 9:1-22; Ps 117:1bc, 2; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 16:15-18.

EPriest.com offers free homily packs for priests.

Media

A movie can awaken children to St. Paul’s story. Use it as part of a larger effort to teach about the apostle in the Year of St. Paul. We have watched the main three recent movies about St. Paul. None is great, and none is entirely worthless. With each, be ready with the fast-forward.

Paul the Emissary (1998, starring Garry Cooper, 54 minutes).

Pros: accurate; shorter than the others (maybe too short); Paul’s preaching voice.

Cons: goofy special effects.

Conversion scene: awkward; you see Jesus himself. He looks and sounds odd. (Perhaps fast-forward this part, and read it instead.)

Warnings: none.

Peter & Paul (1981, starring Anthony Hopkins, 194 minutes)

Pros: makes the early Church real; Anthony Hopkins is excellent; muted special effects.

Cons: important: accentuates the apostles’ weaknesses to the exclusion of their strengths; John is all wrong; Peter is ineffectual and weak, and the movie is too long (to solve both problems, fast-forward all the parts with Peter, until after Paul dies).

Conversion scene: so-so; focused on a bulging sun.

Warnings: turned the story into “faith-alone” Paul vs. institutional Christianity, ignoring Paul’s deeply sacramental outlook. The movie changes the Bible’s story to remove Peter’s central role in the Church.

St. Paul the Apostle (2000, starring Johannes Brandrup, 180 minutes)

Pros: exciting fight scenes boys will like; visually appealing; colorful.

Cons: not at all true to the story; too long.

Conversion scene: scary; done with weird lighting and strange colors.

Warnings: nudity and one wedding night scene Dad had to fast-forward and block.

Our Take

The story of the conversion of St. Paul is so rich in meaning, it’s told three times in the book of Acts — once in Luke’s narrative, and twice in Paul’s own words.

Some features of the story that stand out:

1. The nature of conversion. Paul has a very intense, personal experience of Christ that is unique to him. Christ calls him by name. The other people around him don’t hear or see this encounter, but they do see a light. This nicely describes what usually happens in a conversion: A personal drama goes on in an individual soul, but even those who can’t share the details nonetheless “see a light.” They know something is happening, and are there to help.

2. “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Christ rebukes Paul not for rounding up others and punishing them, but for going after Christ himself. There are two lessons to learn from this: First, when we sin, the harm isn’t limited to ourselves and those we injure. Since we are all connected in Christ, it hurts everyone in a mystical but no less real way. Second, if we are persecuted in any way, from social slights to calumny to actual physical harm (which is not at all uncommon in our world today), we are not alone. Christ identifies himself with us.

3. Paul’s blindness. Throughout the Gospels, blindness is a kind of real-life metaphor for conversion, but usually, it is the other way around. “Lord, I want to see” is a beautiful Gospel prayer worth repeating in our own prayer life. But conversion can be more disorienting than illuminating. By stripping away our accustomed way of thinking of things, we find ourselves blinking and trying to find our bearings in a new world. We must learn as Paul did, to allow our companions and Christ to guide us.

4. Ananias’ task. An often overlooked character in Paul’s conversion story is Ananias. Christ made the future of Christianity in some way dependant upon Paul. In Paul’s travels and letters, the foundation of Western civilization was laid. Christ reached Paul directly, but even then, he relied on Ananias to complete the job. Often, God has prepared another soul to receive his graces and uses us to “activate” them. Our greatest legacy will be in inspiring someone else to do great things.