👉🏽👉🏽👉🏽You Are #Witnesses" (Luke 24:48)
Part 2
Brethren beloved in Christ, May the peace that surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. We continue our meditation upon the divine words of our Lord, "You are witnesses of these things" (Luke 24:48). This command was not spoken only to those who saw the Risen One with their eyes of flesh, but to all who see Him by the eyes of faith and proclaim His works with tongues of fire. Let us now direct our minds and hearts to the witness par excellence after the Ascension of the Lord Saint Paul, the chosen vessel of Christ.
I. The Zeal of Saul Before the Knowledge of Christ
Saint Paul, formerly Saul of Tarsus, was born a Jew by descent and a Roman by citizenship, a rare and divinely appointed mixture of privilege that would be used mightily for the gospel. He grew under the rigorous discipline of the Law, sitting at the feet of Gamaliel, a master of the Torah. He himself testifies, saying, "I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, instructed according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, and was zealous toward God as you all are today" (Acts 22:3).
But oh, what zeal without knowledge! That same Saul stood as the cloak-bearer at the martyrdom of the Church's first deacon and witness, Saint Stephen. While Stephen’s head was bruised by stones, his spirit soared to the heavens, and his tongue uttered divine mercy: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60). That prayer, hurled heavenward with tears, struck the stony heart of Saul like lightning. Though his conversion would come later, the divine seed was planted in that moment by the blood of a martyr, watered by prayer.
II. From Persecutor to Apostle: The Damascus Encounter
Like a lion loosed upon the sheepfold, Saul received letters from the high priest to imprison and persecute the saints. Yet while he galloped toward Damascus breathing threats, the Lord met him in divine lightninga flash brighter than the sun, which shattered his proud will and cast him to the ground. The voice from heaven called, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?" It was not the Church he persecuted alone but Christ Himself. Thus began the miraculous turning of a murderer into a missionary, a persecutor into a proclaimer.
His former name, Saul marked by rage and wrath was cast off. He received a new name, Paul, meaning light, a title first associated with the Gentile proconsul Sergius Paulus, who came to believe through Paul’s ministry after the blinding of the sorcerer Elymas. The same eyes that once blinded men with rage now opened the hearts of Gentiles with grace. The same hands that once bound the innocent now wrote the letters that loosed the chains of countless souls.
III. The Precious Vessel of Christ
The Lord declared, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15). What dignity, what unspeakable grace to be called God’s vessel, sanctified, set apart, filled with truth and poured out for the salvation of nations!
Let us not read this lightly. The office of witness is not merely to speak, but to suffer, to bleed, to endure reproach, and to shine even in chains. Saint Paul did not inherit this title by the hand of man, but by the thunder of Christ's own voice. And oh, how he fulfilled that calling!
He wrote fourteen letters, scriptures inspired and eternal, read in every tongue and preached in every land.
He saw the Gentiles with eyes of mercy, not of condemnation.
He walked across cities, islands, and continents to bear good news.
He spoke truth where lies reigned supreme.
Continues 👇🏽