Rise, Be Baptized, Wash. Today is Your Second Chance.

Homily for Thursday 25^th January 2019

_“The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Just One and to hear a voice from his mouth; for you will be a witness for him to all men of what you have seen and heard. And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on his name.” *(Acts 22:14-16)*_ 

Today we celebrate the fact that God looked around all the men living in the world and decided to give a second chance to the very man who was all out to destroy Christianity.

The same man who went about from house to house dragging Christians to jail became one of the greatest missionaries to promote the Christian Faith. That is God for you. Just as God gave St. Paul a second chance, God gives you another chance today. Every day you wake up to see the light is a testimony that God has not yet given up on you.

St. Paul never returned to his old ways again. His repentance was not cosmetic. What is the secret of true repentance? As some people would say, no matter how you wash a pig, it will look for mud again. My thinking is that the kind of washing a pig requires is not the washing of the outer skin but the washing of the heart, the washing of that which makes the pig love mud.

This is what true repentance means. It means changing your heart, changing the things that give you joy, changing the things you love and desire. Repentance is not a matter of treating symptoms, repentance is healing from the roots.

When Saul fell to the ground, he heard the voice of Christ saying: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Let us always remember that when we face persecution for the sake of our faith, Jesus Christ himself shares in our pain.

Conscious of his presence in us, we would not only stay away from sin but would begin to make use of His Power within us. As Jesus told us in today’s Gospel passage, “And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” (Mark 16:17-18).

Let us Pray: Lord Jesus, give me the grace of total repentance today. Amen

Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God bless you. (Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. Bible Study: Acts 22:3-16, Psalm 117, and Mark 13:15-18).