At the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, we heard the voice of Jesus briefly (Acts 1,7.8). But from the ascension, Jesus ( understandably) pauses and speaks through his followers, who announce that he has been raised from the dead. His voice will be heard again when he converts, or more precisely, when Saul is called. Together with Saul and his companions, we too can listen to the address: „Saul, Saul…“ (v. 4). It is not immediately clear who spoke, but Saul can ask himself: „Who are you, Lord?“ and he gets the answer: „I am Jesus…“ (v. 5). So Jesus re-enters the scene with his word. This highlights the seriousness of the event. Paul refers to this encounter with Jesus in the introduction to his letters, when he presents himself as an apostle. God’s communication is beautiful because He knows us and calls for our names.
The native of light and the repeated call of the name can evoke a burning bush and address: „Moses, Moses“ (Ex 3,4). In the Book of Exodus, the Lord called Moses to lead the people to freedom and revealed to him his name I am who I am (Ex 3,14). Even in our reading from Acts, there is a revelation of the name associated with the vocation: I am Jesus. In both cases, it is a theophany – the revelation of God. The difference is that Saul is still called to conversion. To become a persecutor of Jesus, he must change his life. However, it is not only about external actions. Paul, who, as an orthodox Jew, awaits the coming of the Messiah, must accept within himself that the messiah is the crucified Jewish king. The road leads through the church. The fellowship of disciples in Damascus is where Saul takes his first steps in faith.
As an enthusiastic convert, Saul immediately announces in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God (v. 20). This motif is new in the Acts of the Apostles. The title Son of God expresses Jesus’s unique relationship to the God of Israel and the God of the Old Testament. We must consider that the writings of the New Testament are not textbooks of dogmatic theology, and the exact formulations of faith in the Holy Trinity will come a little later. However, we can notice that the disciples in the Gospel did not understand that in the person of Jesus, God is with them and that he is God. In Saul’s case, something big and mysterious is happening. On the path of faith in Jesus, he surpasses many with the depth of his knowledge. (Faust, 482-483). How much has Paul’s idea of God changed? Even today, Jesus calls our name and makes himself known as the Son of God. May he lead us deeper and deeper to the knowledge of what our God is like.
