SAINTS PETER AND PAUL CHURCH - STAINED GLASS - 64, originally uploaded by JERRY DOUGHERTY'S CONNECTICUT - TWO.

When we first meet Paul in the Book of Acts (7:58-8:1) it is as Saul; and later, Acts 13:9 describes him as “Saul, who is also called Paul.” As a Jew he bore the name of Israel’s first king (1 Samuel 9:2, 17); but as a free citizen of the Empire, he also bore a Roman name. Many Jews of this period in history had two names, one Semitic and the other Greek or Roman. A child of the tribe of Benjamin (Romans 11:1; Philippians 3:5; 2 Corinthians 11:22), Paul proudly identified himself as an “Israelite” and a “Hebrew born of Hebrews, as to the law a Pharisee” (Philippians 3:5) “extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers” who excelled his peers “in Judaism” (Galatians 1:14). But he was also proud to be “a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city” (Acts 21:39). Tarsus was a Hellenized city, famous for its university, gymnasium, theatre, art school and gymnasium. It became the capital of the province of Cilicia during Pompey’s reorganization of Roman Asia Minor in 66 BC. Later on, Mark Antony – famous as Cleopatra’s lover – granted freedom and Roman citizenship to the people of Tarsus. In an age when most of the people living within the boundaries of the Pax Romana were slaves, Paul was born a free citizen of the Empire.

St. Paul was “educated strictly according to the law of our fathers” at the rabbinical school conducted in Jerusalem by the great rabbi Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). Gamaliel was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin, “a teacher of the law respected by all the people” (Acts 5:34). Although Gamaliel is depicted in the New Testament as lenient towards Christians (Acts 5:33-39), his disciple Saul was active in the earliest persecutions of Christianity and attended the stoning of St. Stephen the deacon and first Christian martyr (Acts 7:58). Paul “persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women” (Acts 22:4).
CONVERSION

Intent on exterminating the new faith, Paul sought to travel to Damascus to undertake the persecution of Christians there. It was during his trip from Jerusalem to Damascus in Syria that his life would take a crucial turn when he encountered the risen Jesus in a searing vision of light that left him temporarily blind. This experience was revolutionary, engendering a complete transformation and redirection of his life. As a result of this “revelation” (Galatians 1:12), Saul, the bloodthirsty persecutor of Christianity converted to the faith he once hated, was baptized by Ananias and received into the Church of Damascus, the very community he had set out to suppress (Acts 9:10-31). From this moment on, he became a “slave of Jesus Christ” (Romans 1:1) and in that slavery discovered “the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).

Luke recounts this Damascus experience three times in the Book of Acts: once in the narrative, Acts 9:3-19; and twice, in speeches, before a crowd in Jerusalem (22:6-16) and before Festus and King Agrippa (26:12-18).

“Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord,

went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues of

Damascus, so that if he found any that belonged to the Way,

men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.”

“While I was on my way and approaching Damascus, about noon, I saw

a great light from heaven, brighter than the sun, that suddenly shone

around me and my companions. When we had all fallen to the ground,

I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language,

‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’

I answered, asking, ‘Who are you, Lord?’

The Lord answered, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

But get up and stand on your feet!

I have appeared to you for this purpose:

to appoint you to serve and testify to the things you have seen.

I will rescue you from your people and the Gentiles – to whom I am sending you,

to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light

and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of their sins

and a place among those who are being made holy by faith in Me.”

This vision of the glory of God - what later theologians and saints will call the uncreated light - is the call by which Paul becomes the Apostle to the Gentiles, the greatest missionary in the history of Christianity. It is through his missionary efforts that Christianity, originally a sect of Judaism, becomes a world religion.

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