Breathing murder
James Cathcart
March 04, 2025
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Acts 9: 1 (NRSVA)
1 Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest
Today our reading makes us think of the laboured breaths of hatred, vengeance and cruelty as we read that Saul was breathing threats and murder! We naturally recoil, because it viscerally conveys the ragged breath running on adrenaline and spoiling for a conflict. This is an unvarnished portrait of a flawed man. Saul before he became Paul. Paul’s breath would go on to communicate so much beauty — words we still read daily today. The man who used his breath to dictate 1 Corinthians 13 “Love is patient, love is kind…” is the same man, who years before used the same breath to breathe threats and murder.
Our breath carries with it great potential — the potential for insult and injury, oppression and cruelty, but also encouragement and wisdom, poetry and liberation.
What is our prayer today into situations of bullying, oppression, persecution and abuse? How will we draw our own breath to respond to bring about justice and bring them to an end?
Prayer:
Lord of All Breath,
breathe new life-changing breath to halt cycles of violence and oppression.
Breathe liberation
breathe freedom
expand our imaginations
Amen.
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