Conversion of St. Paul

St. Paul. A man who always gets a reaction out of people, for the good or the bad. Very few people are entirely comfortablewith Paul. I think it is safe to assume from the Bible that Paul was a know-it-all who was also just a bit on the violent side. Where else could the necessity to turn over Christians to the Temple authorities come from if not violence?

Paul was well educated, an intellectual, while Peter and the rest of the apostles were not. Paul gave a voice to the new movement. Paul is the one who coined the great phrases we so readily associate with statements of personal faith. "I know who I believe in." Or, "In Christ there is no Jew nor Greek, no male nor female." Or, "You stupid, Galatians!"

Paul never spoke much--at least that we know of--about his own spiritual life. That was a subject he addressed as seldom as possible. We have one magnificent statement in which he refers to himself in the third person. "I know someone in Christ who, fourteen years ago (whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows), was caught up to the third heaven." I. Cor. 12.2. The remainder of the chapter is purely astonishing. He only spoke of inner life once, because once was all it took to show that not me, nor anyone I know, can even suppose they have been to the "third heaven."

The most important text for today is his conversion experience. Because I am artsy I've included some picture links that just hit the spot today.

The first one is to a Caravaggio, in Rome. Sister Wendy, the Art History Nun, said that she loved this one because it put Paul's experience in the here and now, in the world of horses.

It wouldn't be kosher to put any art here without this link to Michelangelo, at the Cappella Paolina, Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican.

And last we have a Rembrandt.

Happy Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul.