Today's reading touches on one of the major turning points in the development of the early Christian community. Saul, a committed Pharisee, is dedicated to totally uprooting the new "followers of the Way", as traitors to the Jewish faith. On his way to Damascus to arrest Christians he is surrounded by light and hears Jesus speak to him and identify himself with the people Saul wants to destroy. "As often as you do it to the least of my brothers you do it to Me."

To attack the Body is to attack Christ Himself. Saul becomes blind but it is not just physical blindness; it is his inability to recognise who Jesus really is. He is brought to Ananias who will receive him into the Christian community. And he will undergo a radical transformation where the former narrow-minded Pharisee will become God's special instrument to propagate the message of Jesus to the non-Jewish world. Through his writings, his influence will be enormous in the centuries following, right down to our own. And, in the process, he will pay a high price in personal sacrifice and suffering. With this event a completely new chapter in the development of the early Church was about to begin. There is obviously here a great deal for us to reflect on in our own lives, about our way of treating others, about our blindness and our constant need for conversion, and about our responsibility to share our faith with others.