From Unbelief To Belief

Sat­ur­day. [Acts 9:20–31; John 15:17–16:2] When Saint Paul began to preach in Da­mas­cus, all were a­mazed, say­ing: Is not this he that de­stroy­ed them which call­ed on this name? (Acts 9:21). Isn’t it al­ways this way? Those close to some­one who con­verts from un­be­lief to be­lief, or from sin to vir­tue, mar­vel over what hap­pen­ed has with this per­son. He did ev­ery­thing our way and now sud­den­ly ev­ery­thing has changed: his words and his gaze, his step and his thoughts are not the same, and his un­der­tak­ings are dif­fer­ent, and the plac­es where he goes are dif­fer­ent. It is as if one were walk­ing to­ward the west, and then sud­den­ly turn­ed a­round to the east. These two lives are con­tra­dic­to­ry and mu­tu­al­ly ex­clude one an­oth­er. He who wants to com­bine them, or to make a whole life with part from the one, and part from the oth­er, will waste both time and ef­fort with no suc­cess. What can these lives have in com­mon?! On­ly those who do not un­der­stand things can say, “Why does it have to be so dras­tic!”