From: Acts 9:1-20
Saul on His Way to Damascus
[1] But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord,
went to the high priest [2] and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damas-
cus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring
them bound to Jerusalem. [3] Now as he journeyed he approached Damascus,
and suddenly a light from Heaven flashed about him. [4] And he fell to the ground
and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?” [5]
And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are per-
secuting; [6] but rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”
[7] The men who were travelling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but
seeing no one. [8] Saul arose from the ground; and when his eyes were opened,
he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damas-
cus. [9] And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
[10] Now there was a disciple at Damascus called Ananias. The Lord said to him
in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” [11] And the Lord said to
him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas
for a man of Tarsus named Saul; for behold, he is praying, [12] and he has seen
a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain
his sight.” [13] But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this
man, how much evil he has done to Thy saints at Jerusalem; [14] and here he
has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call upon Thy name.” [15] But
the Lord said to him, “Go for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry My name
before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; [16] for I will show him how
much he must suffer for the sake of My name.” [17] So Ananias departed and en-
tered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord
Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me that
you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” [18] And immedia-
tely something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. Then he
rose and was baptized, [19] and took food and was strengthened.
For several days he was with the disciples at Damascus.
Paul Begins His Apostolate
[20] And in the synagogues immediately he proclaimed Jesus, saying, “He is
the Son of God.”
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Commentary:
1-3. Roman authorities recognized the moral authority of the Sanhedrin and even
permitted it to exercise a certain jurisdiction over members of Jewish communi-
ties outside Palestine—as was the case with Damascus. The Sanhedrin even had
the right to extradite Jews to Palestine (cf. I Maccabees 15:21).
Damascus was about 230-250 kilometers (150 miles) from Jerusalem, depending
on which route one took. Saul and his associates, who would probably have been
mounted, would have had no difficulty in doing the journey in under a week. This
apparition took place towards the end of the journey, when they were near Da-
mascus.
2. “The Way”: the corresponding word in Hebrew also means religious behavior.
Here it refers to both Christian lifestyle and the Gospel itself; indirectly it means
all the early followers of Jesus (cf. Acts 18:25ff; 19:9, 23; 22:4) and all those who
come after them and are on the way to Heaven; it reminds us of Jesus’ words,
“The gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it
are few” (Matthew 7:14).
3-19. This is the first of the three accounts of the calling of Saul—occurring proba-
bly between the years 34 and 36—that are given in the Acts of the Apostles (cf.
Acts 22:5-16; 26:10-18); where important events are concerned, St. Luke does
not mind repeating himself. Once again the Light shines in the darkness (cf. John
1:5). It does so here in a spectacular way and, as in every conversion, it makes
the convert see God, himself and others in a new way.
However, the episode on the road to Damascus is not only a conversion. It marks
the beginning of St. Paul’s vocation: “What amazes you seems natural to me:
that God has sought you out in the practice of your profession!
“This is how He sought the first, Peter and Andrew, James and John, beside their
nets, and Matthew, sitting in the custom-house.
“And — wonder of wonders! — Paul, in his eagerness to destroy the seed of the
Christians” (St. J. Escriva, “The Way”, 799).
The background to St. Luke’s concise account is easy to fill in. There would have
been no Hellenist Christians left in Jerusalem: they had fled the city, some going
as far afield as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch. Many had sought refuge in Da-
mascus, and Saul must have realized that their evangelizing zeal would win ma-
ny converts among faithful Jews in that city. Saul genuinely wanted to serve God,
which explains his readiness to respond to grace. Like most Jews of his time,
he saw the Messiah as a political liberator, a warrior-king, a half-Heavenly, half-
earthly figure such as described in the apocryphal “Book of Enoch”, 46: “It is im-
possible to imagine how even his glance terrifies his enemies. Wherever he turns,
everything trembles; wherever his voice reaches everything is overwhelmed and
those who hear it are dissolved as wax in fire.” A hero of this type does not fall
into the power of his enemies, much less let them crucify him; on the contrary,
he is a victor, he annihilates his enemies and establishes an everlasting king-
dom of peace and justice. For Saul, Jesus’ death on a cross was a clear proof
that He was a false messiah; and the whole notion of a brotherhood of Jews and
Gentiles was inconceivable.
He has almost reached Damascus when a light flashes; he is thrown onto the
ground and hears a voice from Heaven calling his name twice, in a tone of sad
complaint.
Saul surrenders unconditionally and places himself at the Lord’s service. He
does not bemoan his past life; he is ready to start anew. No longer is the Cross
a “scandal”: it has become for him a sign of salvation, the “power of God”, a
throne of victory, whose praises he will sing in his epistles. Soon St. Paul will
learn more about this Way and about all that Jesus did and taught, but from this
moment onwards, the moment of his calling, he realizes that Jesus is the risen
Messiah, in whom the prophecies find fulfillment; he believes in the divinity of
Christ: he sees how different his idea of the Messiah was from the glorified, pre-
existing and eternal Son of God; he understands Christ’s mystical presence in
His followers: “Why do you persecute me?” In other words, he realizes that he
has been chosen by God, called by God, and immediately places himself at his
service.
4. This identification of Christ and Christians is something which the Apostle will
later elaborate on when he speaks of the Mystical Body of Christ (cf. Colossians
1:18; Ephesians 1:22f).
St. Bede comments as follows: “Jesus does not say, ‘Why do you persecute My
members?’, but, ‘Why do you persecute Me?’, because He Himself still suffers af-
fronts in His body, which is the Church. Similarly Christ will take account of the
good actions done to His members, for He said, ‘I was hungry and you gave Me
food...’ (Matthew 25:35), and explaining these words He added ‘As you did it to
one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me’ (Matthew 25:40)” (”Super
Act. Expositio, ad loc.”).
5-6. In the Vulgate and in many other translations these words are added be-
tween the end of verse 5 and the start of verse 6: “It is hard for thee to kick
against the goad. And he, trembling and astonished, said: “Lord, what will Thou
have me to do? And the Lord said to him”. These words do not seem to be part
of the original sacred text but rather a later explanatory gloss; for this reason the
New Vulgate omits them. (The first part of the addition comes from Paul’s ad-
dress in Acts 26:14).
6. The calling of Saul was exceptional as regards the manner in which God called
him; but the effect it had on him was the same as what happens when God gives
a specific calling to the apostolate to certain individual Christians, inviting them to
follow Him more closely. Paul’s immediate response is a model of how those who
receive these specific callings should act (all Christians, of course, have a com-
mon calling to holiness and apostolate that comes with Baptism).
Paul VI describes in this way the effects of this specific kind of vocation in a per-
son’s soul: “The apostolate is [...] an inner voice, which makes one both restless
and serene, a voice that is both gentle and imperious, troublesome and affectio-
nate, a voice which comes unexpectedly and with great events and then, at a par-
ticular point, exercises a strong attraction, as it were revealing to us our life and
our destiny. It speaks prophetically and almost in a tone of victory, which even-
tually dispels all uncertainty, all timidity and all fear, and which facilitates — ma-
king it easy, desirable and pleasant—the response of our whole personality, when
we pronounce that word which reveals the supreme secret of love: Yes; Yes,
Lord, tell what I must do and I will try to do it, I will do it. Like St. Paul, thrown
to the ground at the gates of Damascus: What would You have me do?
“The roots of the apostolate run deep: the apostolate is vocation, election, inte-
rior encounter with Christ, abandonment of one’s personal autonomy to His will,
to His invisible presence; it is a kind of substitution of our poor, restless heart,
inconstant and at times unfaithful yet hungry for love, for His heart, the heart of
Christ which is beginning to pulsate in the one who has been chosen. And then
comes the second act in the psychological drama of the apostolate: the need to
spread, to do, to give, to speak, to pass on to others one’s own treasure, one’s
own fire. [...]
“The apostolate becomes a continuous expansion of one’s soul, the exuberance
of a personality taken over by Christ and animated by His Spirit; it becomes a
need to hasten, to work, to do everything one can to spread the Kingdom of God,
to save other souls, to save all souls” (”Homily”, 14 October 1968).
8-11. Straight Street runs through Damascus from east to west and can still be
identified today.
13. Ananias refers to Christ’s followers as “saints”; this was the word normally
used to describe the disciples, first in Palestine and then in the world at large.
God is THE Holy One (cf. Isaiah 6:3); as the Old Testament repeatedly says,
those who approach God and keep His commandments share in this holiness:
“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Say to all the congregation of the people of Israel,
You shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy’” (Leviticus 19:1-2).
The use of this term is an example of the spiritual sensitivity of our first brothers
and sisters in the faith: “What a moving name—saints! —the early Christians
used to address each other!...
“Learn to be a brother to your brothers” (St. J. Escriva, “The Way”, 469).
15-16. Our Lord calls St. Paul His “vessel of election”, which is a Hebraicism
equivalent to “chosen instrument”, and He tells Ananias how much the Apostle
will have to suffer on His account. A Christian called to the apostolate is also,
by virtue of this divine vocation, an instrument in the hands of God; to be effec-
tive he must be docile: he must let God use him and must do what God tells
him.
The task God has given him is far beyond Paul’s ability—”to carry My name be-
fore the Gentiles and kings and sons of Israel”. In Acts we will see how Paul ful-
fills his mission, with the help of God’s grace and suffering a great deal on ac-
count of His name. Down through the centuries, in diverse circumstance, those
whom the Lord elects to carry out specific missions will also be able to perform
them if they are good instruments who allow grace to act in them and who are
ready to suffer for their ideals.
19. In spite of the exceptional manner in which God called St. Paul, He desired
him to mature in the normal way—to be instructed by others and learn God’s will
through them. In this case he chose Ananias to confer Baptism on Paul and
teach him the basics of the Christian faith.
In Ananias we can see a trace of the role of the spiritual director or guide in Chris-
tian asceticism. There is a principle which states that “no one can be a good
judge in his own case, because everyone judges according to his own inclinations”
(cf. Cassian, “Collationes”, XVI, 11). A person guiding a soul has a special “grace
of state” to make God’s will known to him; and even if the guide makes a mistake,
the person who is being guided will—if obedient—always do the right thing, always
do God’s will. In this connection St. Vincent Ferrer says: “Our Lord Jesus Christ,
without whom we can do nothing, will not give His grace to him who, though he
has access to an expert guide, rejects this precious means of sanctification, thin-
king that he can look after on his own everything that touches on his salvation. He
who has a director, whom he obeys in everything, will reach his goal more easily
and more quickly than if he had acted as his own guide, even if he be very intelli-
gent and have the very best of spiritual books” (”Treatise on the Spiritual Life”, 2,
1).
On the spiritual guidance of ordinary Christians, who seek holiness and carry
out apostolate in the context of everyday life, St Escriva, writes: “A Director. You
need one. So that you can give yourself to God, and give yourself fully...by obedi-
ence. A director who understands your apostolate, who knows what God wants:
that way he will second the work of the Holy Spirit in your soul, without taking
you from your place, filling you with peace, and teaching you how to make your
work fruitful” (”The Way”, 62).
20-23. In his letter to the Galatians (cf. Galatians 1:16f) St. Paul tells of how he
went into Arabia after his conversion and then returned to Damascus. He spent
almost three years away, and it was on his return that he preached the divinity
of Jesus, using all his energy and learning, now placed at the service of Christ.
This surprised and confounded the Jews, who immediately began to take ac-
tion against him.
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
St. Zita spent her life from age 12 until her death at age 60 as a servant in the household of the Sagrati family. Zita had been born into a devout family, and when she was a child, she would respond with instant obedience when her mother would say either, "This is pleasing to God" or "That would displease God." As a servant, Zita was an excellent worker. Both the household and the Sagrati children were committed to her care. Zita believed that "A servant is not pious if she is not industrious; work-shy piety in people of our position is sham piety." Zita was also a great friend to the poor, giving away her food and contenting herself with scraps. For years she had to suffer hostility from the other domestics, but on several occasions her goodness was miraculously recognized. One morning, when she had inadvertently over-stayed in church praying until sunrise, she hurried home to find the bread dough already prepared for the oven. Zita's last years were spent in the esteem of the household and engaged in contemplation and charity. She was especially devoted to prisoners awaiting execution, and she spent hours praying for them. St. Zita died very peacefully while at prayer.