From today’s first reading:
Acts 9
1 Now Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, that, if he should find any men or women who belonged to the Way, he might bring them back to Jerusalem in chains. 3 On his journey, as he was nearing Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” 5 He said, “Who are you, sir?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6 Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do.” 7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, for they heard the voice but could see no one. 8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus. 9 For three days he was unable to see, and he neither ate nor drank.
Caravaggio made a famous painting of this incident, which shows Paul toppled off a great horse he was riding. In actuality, it is quite unlikely Paul would have been riding a horse when this happened. But artists can be sly–the light, the voice, the sight of Jesus–Paul was certainly knocked off his high horse!
Paul is qualified to be an Apostle because he both heard and saw the Risen Lord. Jesus appears to him in the day time so Paul can see him clearly, and Jesus speaks directly to Paul (Paul only–the “voice” heard by the others might be better translated “sound”). Paul, though, hears the voice of Jesus saying these specific words to him: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” These words are repeated, exactly, in each of the three times this is recounted in Acts. This voice calls his name twice, just as we find in God’s addresses to Abraham, Moses, and others–between that and the flash of light, Paul knows he is being spoken to from Heaven. Jesus, from Heaven, questions why Paul is persecuting Him, which implies that He is somehow identified with the human beings Paul is dragging away in chains. Pondering that will completely change everything Paul thought he knew about Jesus and Jesus’ followers. It will inform everything he writes in all his letters that we have in the New Testament. And it will shape all Christian theology from then on. Those with faith in Jesus are so connected to Jesus (they are “in Christ”) that they are Jesus’ presence, now, on this earth.
That fact has many important implications… .