Read in:(IsiZulu)

Now Saul breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord, was making his way to Damascus to capture those who belonged to the Way and bring them in chains to Jerusalem.  Nearing Damascus a light from the sky flashed around him and he fell to the ground.  A voice said Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me?  Who are you sir?  The reply “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting”.

Paul was a good devoted Pharisee who one commentary says ‘knew his catechism but did not know God’.   After this encounter with Jesus he began his journey of Conversion.
meta = beyond    }  to go beyond one’s way of thinking and behaving,
noia = mind    }  being transformed.  

Conversion is about Transformation. To transcend one’s narrow mental constructs, which include our pre-conditioning, prejudices, strong held opinions and stubborn beliefs.  Moving beyond the mind opens us to the dimension of mystery which is beyond definition and mental categories.

Why celebrate the feast of the Conversion of St Paul?  In this feast the Church calls us, yes, to look back at Paul’s conversion and calls us to a similar Conversion of mind, heart and being.

The Church calls us to be aware of the signs of the times through the African Synods, IMBISA and SECAM meetings, calls us to work for economic justice, to work with all our energy to do away with this huge gap between rich and poor.  A businessman throws a party for hundreds of thousands of Rand and serves sushi on the bodies of half naked women while nearby is an informal settlement where people do not have the necessities of life and are angry because there is no service delivery.    Decadence and impoverishment do not lead to a stable just society.  We need to see Jesus in the suffering of the economically deprived majority of our people.

Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me?
I am Jesus in the unemployed, in the informal settlements, in those demanding service delivery, in the street people.
We hear the communists and the trade unions calling loudly and clearly and passionately for economic justice.  Where is our prophetic voice?
All the prophets, in their different ways, attest to one truth – the quality of our faith is measured by the Justice found in our society, and that justice is to be measured by how we treat those with the least status, the most vulnerable.

Jesus affirms this.  He tells us that our relationship with God is intimately connected to our relationships with the weakest members of our society.  Over and over the Gospels show him standing with those who are outcasts, poor and marginalised.  He teaches us that in the end when we stand before God we will be asked about the hungry, the impoverished, the sick, the imprisoned, the stranger, and what we did for them. 
“Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these you did it to me”.
Just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.