Our Venerable Father Theodore Trichinas. Holy Anastasius of Mt. Sinai (686).
Acts 9:20-31. John 15:17-16:2.
Read Acts 9:20-31
Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!
Perhaps, brothers and sisters, you know someone who has made an “about-face” when it comes to their religious belief? This encounter can be quite unsettling to say the least. At one moment you are under the firm conviction that you know someone, and the next moment these deep-seeded convictions that define your friend or relative have changed. The person standing before you now seems completely unfamiliar to you: someone completely new.
The last two centuries have shown us several famous vocal atheists who, after startling conversions, boldly proclaim their belief in God and in His Son Jesus Christ: CS Lewis, Alister McGrath, Antony Flew and Jennifer Fulwiler a just to name a few. Their conversions were not quiet affairs, but having come to know Christ they shared this newfound truth far and wide through their writing and witness.
Saul of Tarsus (St. Paul) startles the world in a similar fashion in our epistle reading today. Having been sent on a mission to destroy the teachings of Jesus, he stands boldly among the same people that ran St. Stephen out of town and executed him and proclaims the Divinity of Christ! People are “beside themselves” in confusion and anger and when they finally come to grips with this and recognize there is no “changing Saul back” decide on a plot to capture and kill him!
We can take great comfort and hope from the fact that God can take those so dead set against His gospel and point their hearts towards Himself. St. Paul will go from the stoning of St. Stephen to become the greatest evangelist of all time, preaching around the world three times and composing most of the New Testament. His witness vindicates our Lord who told His disciples before His Passion not to fear as He has overcome the world!