Patrick Comerford
The 40-day season of Christmas continues until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation next Monday (2 February 2026). As yesterday was the Third Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany III), the calendar of the Church of England provides for transferring the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul on 25 January to today. Otherwise, 26 January celebrates Saint Timothy and Saint Titus, Companions of Saint Paul, as a lesser festival.
Later this evening, I have a meeting of the trustees of a local charity I have been involved with for the past three years. But before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
Matthew 19: 27-30 (NRSVA):
27 Then Peter said in reply, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?’ 28 Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.’
Today’s Reflection:
If today is celebrated as the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, the Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Matthew 19: 27-30) talks about abandoning everything from the past for the sake of following Christ in apostolic ministry.
The account of the Apostle Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus is provided in one of the other readings for this day (Acts 9: 1-22).
Because I was born a day after this feast day, my mother wanted to call me Paul. The uncle and aunt who brought me to be baptised – my father’s half-brother Arthur and his wife Kathleen – had other ideas. Another of my father’s brothers was also called Patrick, named after his maternal grandfather, Patrick Lynders. But my mother often continued to call me Paul. I am more than comfortable with the name Patrick, yet there is a way in these two days – the Conversion of Saint Paul (25 January) and my birthday (26 January) – come together for me as one celebration.
The Apostle Paul’s entire life is explained in terms of one experience – his meeting with Christ on the road to Damascus. Although he had a zealot’s hatred for Christ, who was just a few years older than him, Saint Paul probably never saw Jesus before the Ascension. Yet he was determined in chasing down the followers of Christ: ‘entering house after house and dragging out men and women, he handed them over for imprisonment’ (Acts 8: 3b).
But, on the road to Damascus, Christ enters Saint Paul’s own inner home, seizes possession of him, takes command of all his energy, and harnesses it so that Saint Paul becomes a slave of Christ in the ministry of reconciliation as a consequence of one simple sentence: ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting’ (Acts 9: 5b).
Saint Paul, who was blind in his prejudice, is blinded so that he can have a new vision. He is imprisoned so that he can bring his great message to the world. And the magnitude of his sins, including his attempts to wipe out Christianity completely, show us clearly that no matter how terrible the sin may be any sinner may be forgiven.
In the same way, the Apostle Peter’s denial of Christ – three times during his Passion – did not put him beyond the forgiveness and love of Christ. Saint Peter too, in an effort to save his own skin, denied he knew the prisoner, but became a prisoner himself and a martyr for Christ.
No matter what our failings and our weaknesses, no matter where our blind spots may be, Christ calls us – not once but constantly – to turn around, to turn towards him, to turn our lives around, to turn them over to him.
Instead of his persecution, Saint Paul is remembered as the first and greatest missionary.
Instead of his three denials, Saint Peter is remembered for his confession of faith, his acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah or the Christ, recorded in the three synoptic Gospels (Matthew 16: 13-20; Mark 8: 13-20; Luke 9: 18-20). That Confession of Saint Peter is marked in many Church calendars on 18 January 2025, and is the beginning of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
The Conversion of Saint Paul is celebrated a week later (25 January) throughout the Church – in the Anglican, Roman Catholic, Lutheran and Orthodox traditions – and marks the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity – or rather, the Octave of Christian Unity – from 18 to 25 January, linking those two feasts, was first suggested in 1908 by an American Episcopalian or Anglican monk, Father Paul Wattson, who was the superior of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, and who reintroduced Franciscan life to the Anglican Communion.
Appropriately, the icon of Christian Unity in the Eastern Orthodox tradition shows Peter and Paul embracing – almost wrestling – arms around each other, beards so close they are almost inter-twining. Every time I see this icon, I think of Psalm 133:
How very good and pleasant it is
when [brothers] live together in unity!
It is like the precious oil on the head,
running down upon the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
running down over the collar of his robes.
It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion.
For there the Lord ordained his blessing,
life for evermore.
So, despite many readings of the New Testament, especially the Acts of the Apostles, that see Saint Peter and Saint Paul in conflict with each other rather than complementing each other, they can be models for Church Unity.
Without that unity in the Early Church, its mission would have been hamstrung and hampered. For without unity there can be no effective mission, as the great Edinburgh Missionary Conference realised in 1910. And so the modern ecumenical movement has real roots in the mission of the Church.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity came to an end yesterday. I pray that we may rejoice in the fact that our differences can complement each other, and that we will see the diversity and unity that Saint Peter and Saint Paul wrestled with but eventually rejoiced in as models for our own unity today and in times to come.
Today’s Prayers (26 January 2026, the Conversion of Saint Paul, transferred):
The theme this week (25-31 January 2026) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Connections That Last’ (pp 22-23). This theme was introduced yesterday with Reflections from Paula de Mello Alves, a Brazilian lawyer and theologian, Executive Secretary of the Southern Diocese, and former co-leader of the Anglican Communion Youth Network (ACYN).
The USPG Prayer Diary today (26 January 2026) invites us to pray:
Lord, we give thanks for Paula and the ways her leadership encourages connection between young people and the wider Anglican Communion. Guide her steps and fill her path with trust in you.
The Collect:
Almighty God,
who caused the light of the gospel
to shine throughout the world
through the preaching of your servant Saint Paul:
grant that we who celebrate his wonderful conversion
may follow him in bearing witness to your truth;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Almighty God,
who on the day of Pentecost
sent your Holy Spirit to the apostles
with the wind from heaven and in tongues of flame,
filling them with joy and boldness to preach the gospel:
by the power of the same Spirit
strengthen us to witness to your truth
and to draw everyone to the fire of your love;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
A modern icon of the Conversion of Saint PaulThe Collect (Saint Timothy and Saint Titus):
Heavenly Father,
who sent your apostle Paul to preach the gospel,
and gave him Timothy and Titus
to be his companions in faith:
grant that our fellowship in the Holy Spirit
may bear witness to the name of Jesus,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer (Saint Timothy and Saint Titus):
Holy Father,
who gathered us here around the table of your Son
to share this meal with the whole household of God:
in that new world where you reveal
the fullness of your peace,
gather people of every race and language
to share with Timothy and Titus and all your saints
in the eternal banquet of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflections
Continued Tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
No comments:
Post a Comment