Today is the Feast of Paul’s Conversion on the Anglican calendar. While it is a lesser feast, it is probably one of the most important ones in my view.
Paul, you see, was basically responsible for the spread of Christianity throughout much of Rome in his day. At the time of his conversion, the salvation of Jesus was being preached only to other Jews, not non-Jews or Gentiles as they are called.
Now it was Peter who first initiated conversion of the Gentiles at the behest of God via a dream, but it was Paul who was chosen to spread the word. And so he did.
On top of that, many of his letters are considered to be almost as good as the Gospel itself. While not incredibly deep in most instances, Paul’s insights demonstrate how he was able to go toe to toe with Greek philosophers in his day.
And so we remember the conversion of Paul, a man who started out trying to murder Christians and who was chosen by God to spread His Word to the Gentiles. It is a great mystery to me why God would do such a thing, but for whatever reason, He made it possible for someone like me to know the Good News.