Friday of the Third Week of Easter

April 19, 2024

Today’s Readings :

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041924.cfm

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As Paul was nearing Damascus,
a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him.
He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him,
“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
He said, “Who are you, sir?”
The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do.”

The men who were traveling with him stood speechless,
for they heard the voice but could see no one.
Saul got up from the ground,
but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing;
so they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus.

There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias,
and the Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.”
He answered, “Here I am, Lord.”
The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight
and ask at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul.
He is there praying,
and in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias
come in and lay his hands on him,
that he may regain his sight.”

Acts 9:3-7

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Acts describes all kinds of “sight” in this familiar passage. We can see with our eyes, with our minds, with our hearts, and with our spirits. Or these magnificent gifts can be blinded in us by our ignorance and prejudice, as they were in Saul.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We think of times in our lives when truth or reality “dawned” on us. We may have been shocked that we had, until that time, missed the point! Surely you’ve asked yourself at sometime, “How did I ever miss that?!”

We pray for the grace to SEE God’s Presence in our circumstances by living a prayerful, spiritually receptive life. God may be calling us, comforting us, challenging us – but God is there, loving us.

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Poetry: St. Paul – Thomas Merton

When I was Saul, and sat among the cloaks,
My eyes were stones, I saw no sight of heaven,
Open to take the spirit of the twisting Stephen.
When I was Saul and sat among the rocks,
I locked my eyes, and made my brain my tomb,
Sealed with what boulders rolled across my reason!

When I was Saul and walked upon the blazing desert
My road was quiet as a trap.
I feared what word would split high noon with light
And lock my life, and try to drive me mad:
And thus I saw the Voice that struck me dead.

Tie up my breath, and wind me in white sheets of anguish,
And lay me in my three days’ sepulchre
Until I find my Easter in a vision.

Oh Christ! Give back my life, go, cross Damascus,
Find out my Ananias in that other room:
Command him, as you do, in this my dream;
He knows my locks, and owns my ransom,
Waits for Your word to take his keys and come.

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Music: On the Road to Damascus – Smokey Robinson