SPEAKER_00: A few days ago we heard a name almost in passing.
SPEAKER_00: At the stoning of Stephen, the witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.
SPEAKER_00: Just a detail, almost easy to miss.
SPEAKER_00: But today he's no longer in the background.
SPEAKER_00: He is front and center.
SPEAKER_00: And what do we find?
SPEAKER_00: Not a seeker, not a believer, but a man breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He's convinced he's right.
SPEAKER_00: Convinced he's defending God.
SPEAKER_00: Convinced he's on the side of truth.
SPEAKER_00: That's what makes this so dangerous.
SPEAKER_00: Because you can be completely sincere and be completely wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And then everything changes.
SPEAKER_00: A light, a fall, a voice, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
SPEAKER_00: Notice what Jesus did not does not say.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say, Why are you persecuting my followers?
SPEAKER_00: He says, Why are you persecuting me?
SPEAKER_00: Because to touch the church is to touch Christ.
SPEAKER_00: There's no separation.
SPEAKER_00: And Saul is struck blind.
SPEAKER_00: But the reality is he was already blind.
SPEAKER_00: Blind in his certainty, blind in his pride and his ego, blind in his belief that he saw clearly.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes the only way God can make us see is to first take away what we think is sight.
SPEAKER_00: Three days, no vision, no food, no control, just silence, waiting, just being undone.
SPEAKER_00: And then comes Ananias.
SPEAKER_00: And this part matters because Ananias doesn't want to go.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, do you know who this man is?
SPEAKER_00: In other words, this man is dangerous.
SPEAKER_00: This man has done real damage.
SPEAKER_00: This man is not the worth, not worth the risk.
SPEAKER_00: But God answers with something that should shake us.
SPEAKER_00: This man is a chosen instrument of mine.
SPEAKER_00: That man?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, that man.
SPEAKER_00: Because God does not choose people based on their past.
SPEAKER_00: He chooses them based on what he can do through them.
SPEAKER_00: So Ananias goes and listen to the first words he says: Saul, my brother, not enemy, not threat, but brother.
SPEAKER_00: And in that very moment, everything changes.
SPEAKER_00: The scales fall, Saul is able to see, he's baptized, and immediately begins to proclaim Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if we go to the gospel, Jesus says something just as radical.
SPEAKER_00: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.
SPEAKER_00: There's no softening to that.
SPEAKER_00: No metaphor to hide behind.
SPEAKER_00: This is as direct as it gets.
SPEAKER_00: This is demanding.
SPEAKER_00: And people struggle with it.
SPEAKER_00: They argue, they resist because this is not comfortable religion.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the connection: Saul had to be knocked down to be raised up.
SPEAKER_00: He had to be emptied in order to be filled.
SPEAKER_00: He had to lose control in order to receive truth.
SPEAKER_00: And the same is true for us.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Eucharist is not just something you receive, it is someone who transforms you.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.
SPEAKER_00: That's union.
SPEAKER_00: That's transformation.
SPEAKER_00: That's not surface-level faith.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the condition.
SPEAKER_00: We need to surrender.
SPEAKER_00: We need to let go.
SPEAKER_00: We need to allow ourselves to be changed.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where most people hesitate.
SPEAKER_00: Because we want Jesus, yes, but without losing control.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be able to have a grasp on all contacts.
SPEAKER_00: We want grace without conversion.
SPEAKER_00: We want the Eucharist without transformation.
SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't work that way.
SPEAKER_00: Saul didn't stay Saul, he became Paul.
SPEAKER_00: His identity, his mission, his life all changed.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the question: What in your life needs to be knocked down so that something greater can be raised up?
SPEAKER_00: Where are you still holding on to?
SPEAKER_00: Where are you still resisting?
SPEAKER_00: Where are you still blind?
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus is not just calling you to believe in him, he's calling you to be transformed by him.
SPEAKER_00: And that transformation begins here, at this very altar, where Christ becomes present in the Eucharist.
SPEAKER_00: So today receive Him, surrender to Him, and let Him do what only He can do.
SPEAKER_00: Let him open your eyes so that you may change your life forever.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.