Reconfigured: 38th Parochial Fiesta of San Pablo Parish

In his homily during the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, Fr. Allan Rodriguez, Parish Priest of Saint Paul Parish in Juna Subdivision, Matina, Davao City, laid down the person of Saint Paul who passed through years of reconfiguring.

Starting with the vehemence that St. Paul did to the early Church in Jerusalem by presiding over the martyrdom of St. Stephen, Fr. Allan said that St. Paul cannot accept at first that Jesus was the Messiah. For Fr. Allan the unbelief of St. Paul comes from the question: “How could he be the Messiah when in fact he was crucified and killed. How could he be, because for him, the Messiah that will come will deal with the enemies of Israel and will become the Lord of nations. And you are proclaiming the dead person to be the Messiah?”

Having not able to deal with the expectations of the Jews about the Messiah, St. Paul found it hard to believe in Jesus. This is the reason why he persecuting the young Church. However, his encounter with Jesus, the risen Lord, whom he persecuted, led to his conversion.

Fr. Allan went on in his reflection that “after three years [since his conversion], he went to Arabia and then to Damascus and then to Jerusalem to confide, to consult with the 12 Apostles. What is happening here? What does it mean by those 3 years?”

Quoting from a theologian, Fr. Allan said that the lull for years, St. Paul “was trying to reconfigure all of his knowledge about Israelite tradition, especially their expectations about the Messiah. And now, when he had this experience with the risen Lord. He was able to reconfigure and focus on the identity of Jesus and now he understood and he was able to connect that in Jesus, we have the fulfilment of the expectation.”

What Fr. Allan liked most in the life of St. Paul is that he did not transfer from one religion to another: “It is wrong to suppose that in St. Paul we have an experience of conversion from one religion to the other. But he remained as an Israelite, a zealous Israelite and he saw Jesus as the fulfilment.”

Therefore, in St. Paul there is continuity from Judaism to Christianity. “Judaism is fulfilled by the very presence, the very existence of the Savior,” Fr. Allan emphasized. (dcherald)