Acts 9:1-20 / John 6:52-59
It is no surprise to hear that God loves sinners.
But it will be a surprise to come face to face with these sinners. And it may even be an unpleasant surprise.
Just imagine, that person who is so nasty and always doing you harm and yet people say that God loves him. We will surely have something else to say.
In the 1st reading, the disciple Ananias was also very surprised that the Lord was sending him to Saul to lay hands on him and to give him back his sight.
Ananias tried to protest, not just because it was an unpleasant surprise, but also because his life will be at stake because he had heard about what Saul came to do.
The Lord's reply certainly needs reflection and understanding in order to know the ways of the Lord.
He said : This man is my chosen instrument to bring My name before pagans and pagan kings and before the people of Israel. I myself will show him how much he himself must suffer for my name.
Yes, God chooses the most unexpected, the most unfavourable and we can also add on by saying that God chooses the most sinful even.
But that only goes to show that whatever power or abilities that person has is from God.
Yet for Saul, what is in store for him in the future was nothing less than difficulties and sufferings.
Yet with his proclamation that Jesus is the Son of God, he was also convinced that this Jesus whom he was persecuting is now living in him.
And so is the teaching of Jesus in the gospel : He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him.
We acknowledge Jesus as Lord and the Son of God. May He live in us and may we also be prepared to offer our lives to Him just as Saul did.