Paul's reaction to his imprisonment: singing songs of praise! How strange! However, consider this: the more a person is acquainted with spiritual depths, the more the person experiences a calm personality. Even after the earthquake had jarred open the prison cells, Paul and his companions did not run wildly form their cells. Why not?
Paul and many others we have read about or encountered in our lifetimes have developed an awareness of their own consciousness. They are no stronger to the energy that is produced when one is able to focus on his/her inner being, the soul, rather than on worrying about their personalities. So often Paul's conversion is presented as a turn to a new religion, a new belief. In reality, the true conversion may not have been his religious practice change. His faith in Jesus can be seen as the result of Paul's discovering his soul! Writer Gary Zukav calls the soul the mothership or reference point for the personality of the individual.
Paul's life, prior to the Damascus encounter and subsequent meetings with the risen Jesus was filled with conflict. His struggles with his Jewish faith and actions against the Christians are clear signs that he was far removed from personal moments with his soul. Zukav further points out that the greater the separation from the soul, the more one's personality is conflicted. A well-balanced personality is a signal to others that a person is in touch with his/her soul. "Bad hair days" and "bad day at the office" may be nothing more than a sign of not being in touch with who I truly am, nothing more than a sign that me and my soul are not truly good friends! But the person we encounter who is in touch with his/her soul is, when you consider the signals his/her personality beams out to others, is the "whole human being."
It is the Advocate that is the power or divine source enabling us. Jesus tells his disciples he will be leaving them so that this power, the Holy Spirit, will come to empower us to overcome the conflicts, the sins in our lives. It is the conversion from sinfulness, from particular habitual sins, that is the experience of the sinner searching his/her soul and discovering the way to true peace, to the fullness of life the God promised his followers. It is the more frequent visitations with our soul that strengthens our commitment to a new life, just as Paul himself encountered his soul in his days of blindness.
Have we, as individuals and as as a Church, become so distracted by the allurements in society that our very soul, our mothership, has been abandoned? A tough question.
