Can people truly change? Ian Peoples, SJ, reflects on Saul’s conversion to Paul is a model for our own conversions. Based on the readings from the Fifth Sunday of Easter.
Do we believe that people can change?
Hi, I’m Ian Peoples, and this is my One-Minute Reflection.
In today’s reading from Acts, Saul tries to join the Apostles, but they are afraid. Is this not the same man who was “breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord?” Can he really have changed?
This is a question all of us ask. Can that person really change? Can I change?
If we follow Christ, we know the answer to those questions is “yes.” Not only can we change, we can experience conversion, just like Saul does—he becomes “Paul.” Walking with Christ requires more than going to Church. It means reorienting our whole life around following Jesus.
During my prison ministry with incarcerated youth, most of the teenage boys I worked with didn’t believe they could change. I pointed them to Saul who was breathing murderous threats very similar to the ones these boys speak and hear all too often at the prison.
I told these young men that God wants to do wonderful things through them. It would not be easy, as it wasn’t easy for Saul in today’s Gospel. But their conversion, like Paul’s, can change the world.
Christ wants to give all of us this consolation from the Holy Spirit because the Lord continues to build the Church through us.
