“Go easy on me.
God’s not done with me yet”
I’ve been known to throw that line in my
wife’s face at times, times when she might have criticized something I’ve done or said
or pointed out where I’ve fallen short of how I should be behaving. While the line is true, more often than not
it’s just a rationalization that covers over my own feelings of guilt.
Despite that, it is true that God is not
done with any of us. Which was certainly
the case for Saul in today’s reading from Acts of the Apostles. Now, if you had asked him, I’m willing to bet
that Saul would have said that God was done with him – after all, he was a
righteous, God-fearing Jew, doing all he could to uphold and defend his faith
as a pious Pharisee. Which included
persecuting the followers of Jesus.
Jesus Himself, as the Lord phrased it – “Saul, why are you persecuting
me?” Yes, God had different plans for
him. Knocked him off his high
horse. Blinded him only to open his eyes
to the truth after three days. And sent
him out on a lifelong journey of evangelization – taking the faith to the ends
of the earth.
We love this story, and we relish in
other stories of instant or nearly instantaneous life changes. St. Augustine’s conversion after year of
earnest prayer by his mother, St. Monica.
Thomas Merton’s journey from atheism to the Trappist Monastery. Dr. Bernard Nathanson’s life change – formerly
director of the largest abortion clinic in the nation and co-founder of NARAL,
he became an outspoken pro-life advocate and Catholic convert. More recently, Abby Johnson – a Planned
Parenthood clinic director in Texas who, shortly after becoming a mother
herself, and after watching an abortion on the ultrasound, walked out of her
clinic, never to return. Abby is now a
prolife speaker and was received into the Church two years ago.
But as much as we love these stories of
sudden and dramatic life change, with most of us, our life stories of change
are slow and steady. But make no
mistake, you and I are called to change as well. If we ever think “I’ve arrived” or “I’ve made
it” like Saul probably thought, God has news for us. For God isn’t done with any of us. You and I are called to always be on a
journey of change, a journey of ever-increasing holiness, of configuring our
lives ever more to the life of Christ!
For like the Lord said to Ananias about
Saul, Jesus is saying the same thing to you and to me: “You are a chosen instrument of mine.” Like Saul and like Philip and the Ethiopian
eunuch in yesterday’s reading, you and I are called to witness by our words and
by our lives to the Risen Christ, the only Son of God.
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