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A call to hope and conversion

Today is Jan. 25, the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul.

At today’s Mass we read, “The God of our ancestors designated you to know his will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear the sound of his voice; for you will be his witness before all to what you have seen and heard” (Acts 22:14-15).

Paul’s conversion began with a moment of confrontation. Knocked to the ground, Christ calls Saul by name. Irrespective of his past, Jesus invited Saul to become an apostle, a great preacher of the Gospel.

In the same way, God meets us where we are, even in our sin and stubbornness. He sees not just who we are and who we have been, but who we are meant to become. The same voice that asked, “Why are you persecuting me?” now calls us, “Why are you running from my love?”

A response to God’s initiative

Hope is a mystery, albeit one that always calls us to conversion. In this Jubilee Year of Hope, St. Paul’s story reminds us that hope is not merely a wish for better days but a response to God’s initiative. Paul asked, “What shall I do, sir?” — a question born of surrender. True hope compels us to listen, to trust, and to act. It reminds us that every fall can lead to a rising, every blindness can lead to sight, and every sin can be forgiven.

When he opened the Jubilee Door at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, Cardinal Harvey quoted St. Paul’s great testimony to hope in his Letter to the Romans: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Like St. Paul, we are called to encounter Christ personally and to share that encounter with others. The same Christ who healed Paul’s blindness and gave him a mission now entrusts us with the mission of proclaiming hope to a wounded world. Let us not delay. Let us rise, be washed clean in the mercy of God, and carry His light to those still searching in darkness.

Let us pray,

O God, who taught the whole world through the preaching of the blessed Apostle Paul, draw us, we pray, nearer to you through the example of him whose conversion we celebrate today, and so make us witnesses to your truth in the world. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.