Acts 9:20-25. Immediately after regaining his sight and being baptized, Saul begins preaching Jesus Christ as the Son of God in the synagogues of Damascus. All who hear him are surprised and amazed. They know he is the man who was wreaking havoc among the Christians in Jerusalem and had come to Damascus to arrest and bind any Christians he found there. The Jews talked amongst themselves while Saul increased in strength and intensity of his preaching. He "confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ." So, after many days of this, the Jews plotted to kill Saul and began watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, but in the night his disciples lowered him over the wall in a basket and Saul left Damascus for Jerusalem.

On Monday of this week, the Gospel was the story of Jesus healing the demoniac and sending the demons into the swine. The priest saying Mass got us talking about why the townspeople were so scared and wanted Jesus gone. For one thing, Jesus had just dealt a huge blow to this town's way of life - 2,000 swine were killed! That is going to cause a disruption in the lives of the people of the town no matter what. I'm getting the same thoughts here thinking about the Jews who had expected Saul to come and rid them of the pesky Christians and instead got this new version of Saul who brought all his powers of persuasion and argument to bear in support of Jesus Christ. Saul was getting through to people, He was probably converting the hearts and minds of hundreds, if not thousands, and that was going to drastically alter the "status quo" in Damascus.

Jesus Christ changes things in a very big way! Whether it is He Himself coming into a town and saving it at the expense of the town's economy or way of life, or Him sending His servants out into the world to convert it at the expense of the established religious and political order, things change radically when the Word comes to town! So there is fear, uncertainty, and resistance, especially from those benefiting from the status quo. This has always been true and always will be true.

We do this in ourselves, too. When we realize just how drastically our lives must change when we become true believers, we often get scared and try to hold something back. The priest on Monday used an example of someone who realizes they watch too much "inappropriate" tv, but isn't willing to stop (yet, at least). Or, sometimes Jesus takes things from us without asking us first, just as He "took" the swine from this town. In that case, we often get mad at God and ask Him to leave, instead of trusting and trying to see how that loss was in fact for our own benefit, or the benefit of someone else.

When we accept Jesus, fully, we have to be willing to let Him change everything, and we have to trust that He, and only He, knows how to change everything for the better.