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Today’s homily: The Conversion of St Paul, Apostle

On the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul the Apostle, the Church gives thanks for one of the greatest acts of divine grace after the Resurrection. Saul is struck down, unmade, and remade by Christ. The feast calls each Christian to examine his own ongoing conversion, to repent sincerely, and to grow in holiness,…

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Scio Cui Credidi: The Grace of Conversion and the Call to Holiness

MASS Scio cui crédidi
LESSON Acts 9: 1-22
GOSPEL St Matt. 19:27-29
HOMILIST Mt Revd Jerome Lloyd OSJV

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Beloved in Christ,

Welcome to this broadcast Mass on the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul the Apostle. For brevity, I will not repeat today’s lessons, which you know well and are following in the Mass propers. Instead, I wish to draw us to the heart of this feast.

Since the eighth century, the Church has set this day apart to give thanks for one of the greatest acts of divine grace after the Resurrection itself. The persecutor becomes the Apostle; the enemy of Christ becomes His chosen vessel. This is not persuasion or argument, but intervention. Saul is struck down, blinded, and silenced, because God must first unmake him in order to remake him.

The Introit gives us the key: Scio cui credidi — “I know whom I have believed.” Christianity is not first a system or an idea, but an encounter with a Person. Saul is not converted to a doctrine, but conquered by Christ.

When Our Lord says, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?”, He reveals the mystery of the Church: to persecute the faithful is to persecute Christ Himself. Head and members are one. And yet Saul does not act alone. He is led into the city, he waits, he prays, he submits to Ananias. Grace does not abolish order; it perfects it.

This is why today’s Mass binds Paul so closely to Peter, with repeated commemorations. Paul’s mission is fiery and universal; Peter’s is stabilising and juridical. Charism without authority dissolves into chaos; authority without conversion hardens into tyranny. The Church needs both.

The Gospel presses the lesson home. Only those who leave all can truly follow Christ. Paul leaves everything — status, security, former righteousness — and gains Christ. And that brings us to the unavoidable question of this feast: what about my own conversion?

Conversion is not a single moment in the past. It is a daily reality. Each day we should ask: Am I being converted? Am I being changed? Am I growing in holiness? Do I pray? Examine my conscience? Repent sincerely, especially for deliberate sins? Or do I presume upon God’s mercy and treat repentance lightly?

True repentance is proven by obedience to Christ’s command: Go in peace — and sin no more. This is why the Church places this feast on the threshold of Septuagesima. It calls us to examine our lives and prepare for Lent, not with vague intentions, but with concrete resolve.

The deeper crisis of our time — in the Church and in society — is the lack of real conversion. The world does not listen to the Gospel because too often Christians fail to show, by their lives, the fruits of living with God. Change is possible. The saints prove it. Paul proves it.

If our lives visibly manifested growth in holiness — not only in outward religion, but in thought, word, and deed — belief would once again become credible. Many believe only when they see. What they must see is Christ living in us.

So today we give thanks for the conversion of Saint Paul, a pillar of the Church together with Saint Peter. We ask what sacrifices we are willing to make for our own conversion and for the conversion of others. And we resolve, by God’s grace, to draw closer to Him in real and lasting holiness.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

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