Brief synopsis of the readings: In our first reading from Acts we see the stoning of St. Stephen. Filled with the Holy Spirit he claimed he could look up to the heavens and see Jesus standing at God’s right hand. This enraged the crowd who drove him out of the city and began to stone him. The crowd laid their cloaks at the feet of a young man called Saul. As he was being stoned Stephen asked Jesus to accept his soul and then asked that his executioners not be bound by their sin. “[A]nd with these words he fell asleep.” In John’s Gospel Jesus continues his prayer to God for those who follow him. He asks that all may be made one “so that the world may believe it was you who sent me.” He acknowledges that the world has not known God but “I have have made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and so that I may be in them.”

I think many of us recognize Stephen as our first martyr, the first of Jesus’ followers to die for his faith. We have historically revered martyrs, from Stephen to Archbishop Oscar Romero (who was assassinated in 1980) and that’s a good thing. When someone gives his life instead of turning away from his faith it strengthens our faith. Even if we never face the danger of losing our life it increases our courage to live our faith with integrity.

But on the other hand… I worry sometimes that we have so sanitized our descriptions of these events that we don’t fully recognize the horror of being put to death. Stephen was stoned to death and let’s face it: this is a hard and painful way to die, yet this reading describes it as falling asleep.

Heretics during medieval inquisitions were often burned at the stake. In the Auschwitz Concentration Camp in 1941 Fr. Maximillian Kolbe was poisoned when the guards grew weary of waiting for him to starve to death. There’s more but you get the point.

And I’ve spoken about this before, but there when the first apostles saw the resurrected Jesus they had no roadmap for the future. In fairness it didn’t take long for the apostles to recognize that not everyone would automatically flock to Jesus but how would the conflict between believers and nonbelievers play out? Did anyone fully understand what would be asked of them?

Well, anyone who knew Saul could figure it out. We know Saul was a Pharisee, someone who commanded great respect among other Jews, and he clearly supported those who stoned Stephen. But if this is all we knew about Saul, we wouldn’t know the rest of the story. A few chapters later we see Saul (later Paul) on the road to Damascus to further persecute Jesus’ followers but instead had a conversion experience. Jesus came to him and demanded that he stop persecuting his followers. And he did. And we now know him as one of our greatest evangelists.

And it’s important to note that this conversion didn’t come from another person, it came from God. For all that Peter and the earliest disciples persuaded people to follow Jesus, they didn’t persuade Saul.

Most Christians, when asked about the book of Revelation, confess fear. They read images of dragons and fire and incorrectly see a violent end to the world. But Revelation was written to give hope, to recognize that no matter what happens, good will triumph over evil in the end, and it’s not dependent on us.

In the same way, our introduction to Saul tells us that it was not dependent on us to convert Saul and turn him from a sworn enemy to an enthusiastic follower and evangelist.

Today it’s easier than ever to look around our world and despair of our ability to heal, to reconcile, and to move forward. Because of the worldwide 24 hour news cycle we become instantly aware of nearly everything that happens, even those events tens of thousands of miles away. As I write this on Tuesday evening we see that the Russian invasion of Ukraine may be doomed but it does not appear to be ending soon. In Texas at least 19 children and 2 adults were killed in the latest example of domestic terrorism. Disagreements over masks and vaccines continue to divide not only nations and communities but also neighborhoods and families.

Alas, while we say we pray for unity and healing we don’t always act that way. Too often I believe we think we are completely responsible for our path forward and we are tasked to show God how successful we are. When I hear that I’m reminded of the person who asked Mother Teresa how she could be successful on the streets of Calcutta. She replied that she wasn’t called to be successful but was instead called to be faithful.

Finally, in John’s Gospel we overhear Jesus prayer that we may all be one in God’s love. But this path to oneness is not to be trod alone, but instead an invitation to be accepted.

There is not doubt that we are a world, a nation in need of healing and I don’t wish to go too far the other way. When we see violence and hunger we should do what we can even if it’s only writing a check to a charitable organization. We should have difficult conversations with loved ones who disagree with us on matters of great importance.

But…take a step back. We need to recognize that no human could have converted Saul. But he was converted nonetheless.