The Conversion of St Paul by Caravaggio
Every grace we get enlightens the understanding and strengthens the will. When the understanding is enlightened, we have the awful alternative of cooperating with or rejecting the inspirations of grace. This we are either doing or not doing all the day long. God will not compel us, He will not interfere with our freedom, it must be our own choice. St. Paul was struck down when he received the inspiration. But he did not lie there as so many of us do. He got up and asked God what He wanted him to do. His will was strengthened because he accepted the grace that was offered. Let us do the same. From neglect of Thy holy inspirations, O Lord, deliver us.
COMMENT: “We have the awful alternative of cooperating with or rejecting the inspirations of grace.” Think about these words of Fr Doyle… This is the price of freedom. God wants us to love Him. But love cannot be forced. God does not impose himself on us. We are free to choose Him, or reject Him. But it is not a once-off choice – we choose to follow Him or not each moment of each day. So long as we do not freely choose to reject Him in a big matter then our souls remain in a state of grace, and our task is to train ourselves, with the help of grace, to continually adhere to God’s holy will in all aspects of our lives.
Today is the feast of the Conversion of St Paul. Saul, as he was originally called, was one of the greatest persecutors of the early Church. God revealed himself to Saul in a dramatic moment on the road to Damascus. But He didn’t force Himself. Saul still had a choice. St Paul became the great Apostle of the Gentiles – neither loneliness nor shipwreck nor prison could prevent him from journeying to spread the Gospel. Imagine how impoverished the early Church would have been if Paul had ignored God’s grace. Imagine how many soldiers might have gone without the consolation of the sacraments if Fr Doyle had decided not to follow the inspiration of grace to become a military chaplain.
Look at the difference one person made in each of those situations. We may not be as heroic as St Paul or as Fr Doyle, but as St. John Henry Newman put it, God has called us to “some definite service”. We must respond to this grace with generosity and trust. If we do not, others may suffer. We will never know the good we have done, or the good that we could have done, until the end of our days.
In conclusion, let us also pray for all of those who now persecute the Church, whether they do so through physical persecution (especially in the Middle East) or through scorn and verbal attacks which are so typical in the media in the West. May they respond to the grace offered to them, and follow the road of conversion travelled by St. Paul.