January 26, 2026
Paulist Fr. Rich Andre preached this homily on January 25, 2026 at Old St. Mary’s Catholic Parish in Chicago, IL. In combining the celebration of the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle with the 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year C), which is also designated as “Word of God” Sunday, the parish chose the following readings: Acts 22:3-16; Psalm 117; 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17; and Matthew 4:12-13a, 17-23.
There can be as little as 22 days between the end of the Christmas season and the beginning of Lent, and the Church tries to cram a lot into the time in between. Today is the beginning of Catholic Schools Week, and it’s the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. These will pair especially well at the 11 am Mass this weekend, when we have potential new School families visiting us for the Open House, and current School families — including non-Catholic families and Catholic families who worship at other parishes on most Sundays — are with us in anticipation of the “Knights Around the World” celebration after Mass. On top of all that, Pope Francis designated this as Word of God Sunday.
But the big thing we’re celebrating here today is the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle. It’s the major Paulist feast day of the year! Our first reading is about Paul’s conversion — a story so important that it’s told 4 times in the New Testament. Our second reading is from Paul’s own writings, speaking to the folly, beginning all the way back in his time, of Christians wanting to focus on their divisions rather than on their unity. Our gospel prompts us to ask again the question that St. Paul dedicated his life to: what does it mean to “follow” Jesus?
Let us take a moment to celebrate that with God, there is mercy and compassion.
Things have been going very well here at Old St. Mary’s for the past 18 months. The sense of energy and renewal are palpable. We continue to be friendly and welcoming, especially to people who feel that they do not belong in other worshipping communities. More parishioners are signing up to serve in our ministries. Ms. April and I have each hired some great new staff. Thanks to your recent generosity and some prudent decisions by the Finance Council, the parish is on better financial ground. Last month, we had a whole string of back-to-back events that brought our whole community together — the Parish and our largest ministry, the School; young and old; new and long-time parishioners; people from all of our various ethnic and racial groups — gathered together to praise God and to support one another. Even as our School continues to proudly welcome families who are of other Christian denominations, of other or no religious traditions, or unsure of their Catholic faith, an increasing percentage of our students report that they believe God is present in their lives. In the spirit of Pope Francis and Pope Leo, we’re enlarging the circle of people involved in our decision making.
But this is not the time for us to rest on our laurels. There are still so many you who feel as if you are outsiders among the rest of us. So many of us — even some of the most involved long-time parishioners — report that we don’t feel as if we know enough about the faith, that we don’t have a personal relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There’s so much more we should be doing to help our neighbors in need and to advocate for changes in unjust social systems. We could better integrate newcomers into our community. It would be great to have deeper benches of volunteers for all of our ministries, so we see a wider variety of our community reflected back to us in the people proclaiming the scriptures, distributing communion, greeting us at the door, passing the baskets, and serving food after Mass — we need better systems to communicate our needs, to explain how to get involved, and to have people commit to serve 1-2 weeks in advance rather than waiting until 5 minutes before Mass starts to show up and ask if we need help. If these goals are to be reached, a lot of the next steps will need to be spearheaded by volunteers.
Which us bring us back to this remarkable gospel passage. Jesus walks up to Peter, Andrew, James, and John and invites them to come after him. And they do, just like that! How is that possible? The only events that have happened in Matthew’s gospel since Jesus was baptized by John are that Jesus went into the desert for 40 days, John the Baptist was arrested, and — in the previous sentence! — Jesus went to Galilee and started preaching the exact same words as John: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” That’s it. No miracles, no conversations. What made these men agree to leave everything behind and follow? Was Jesus simply that charismatic? Did they already have a relationship with Jesus? Had Jesus done a lot more preaching in Galilee than what Matthew reports?
The Parish Pastoral Council and I have spent the past 5 months discussing how to help more parishioners feel comfortable getting involved. We’ve interviewed members of the staff to discuss their insights. We’ve discussed a few church documents. What is the theological term to describe what we’re inviting people to? Is it stewardship of time and talent? When most people hear the word “stewardship,” however, they think that the Church is asking them for money. Should the word be evangelization? Too many people think “evangelization” is the same as evangelism, which we usually associate with knocking on doors like the Jehovah’s Witnesses used to do before the pandemic. We’re probably going to settle on the word discipleship, which literally means the lifelong pursuit of following Jesus.
On this day when we hear of Jesus calling the first disciples to begin following him, I’d like to challenge us not to simply think of discipleship as something we do as individuals. We’re called to do it together, as the community of Old St. Mary’s. No matter how we categorize ourselves — as newcomers or as old timers, as leaders or as people unsure about the faith — Paul exhorts us not to think of ourselves as belonging to subgroups. We all belong to Christ Jesus, and it’s a lot easier to follow Jesus if we feel that everyone around us is supporting us on the journey, even when we feel as if everyone else has their act together better than we do….
Which brings us at last back to our feast day. As a Pharisee, Saul loved God and had dedicated himself whole-heartedly to bringing people to a greater understanding of God. On that day on the road to Damascus, Saul learned that he had made one major mistake: that Jesus was, as he had claimed, the Son of God. It took Saul three anguishing days to consider this revelation, but when the scales fell from his eyes, he was ready to follow Jesus. In our lives, we each have blind spots that stop us from more closely following Jesus. But just like Saul, what may seem like an insurmountable obstacle may just suddenly… disappear. In fact, our first reading today, when Paul recounts his conversion, Paul is literally following in Jesus’ footsteps — he’s being arrested by the Roman authorities while standing at the very spot in the Antonia Palace where Jesus was condemned to death!
Please be sure to take a bulletin with you today. On page 2, I outline two opportunities coming up in the next few weeks that aren’t merely programs: I believe that that they both have the potential to be the catalysts to make Old St. Mary’s the community of disciples that the Holy Spirit invites us to be. The Leadership Formation Institute starts on Wednesday, February 4 and Fr. Frank DeSiano’s parish mission starts on Monday, February 23.
Please join us on the journey. As we continue to try to follow Jesus more closely, let us remember that all roads have the potential to lead to Damascus.
On the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, we traditionally preach the Annual Paulist Appeal — despite the snow, Fr. Dan’s doing it today in New York City. The APA is essential to funding many Paulist priorities. Since the people of Old St. Mary’s were so incredibly generous to the APA last year when we postponed it until April, we are doing that again this year. Thank you again for your generosity last year!
Our goal in 2026 is to increase the percentage of households participating: we reached 11% in 2025, which was still under the national average. I doubt we’ll get to the 26% of another Paulist foundation elsewhere in the country, but I hope we can get significantly closer. If you’d like to help us get a jump start, you can go online to paulist.org/apa.
[Author’s note: if you are not already affiliated with a specific Paulist foundation, please indicate that you are affiliated with Old St. Mary’s in Chicago.] Thanks again for your support!