In a couple of weeks we celebrate the Solemnity of SS. Peter and Paul, with most of the emphasis on Peter. Today Paul writes in his own testimony on how radically he was changed by his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. As soon as he was baptized he began to publicly proclaim that Jesus is the son of God, to proclaim publicly his allegiance to the one who had been in his own mind, his chief enemy.

From that moment onward, his whole life was directed toward making known the message of Jesus that "we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us."

Have you ever fantasized about the romance of being a foreign ambassador? What a privilege to represent a country, to have legal and political power to speak in its name, to work defending and protecting your country's honor and freedom. (Today is Flag Day, and we cannot help but think of the honor that piece of cloth represents as it flies over every embassy.)

But did you ever stop to realize that Jesus says to you: You are an ambassador, my own representative not to a nation but to every person of whatever nation you encounter. You are representatives of me to every person with whom I minister through your words and actions. You are even an ambassador to people who you have never met but have only heard of me and you through something that you said or did for another.

You are the only Jesus that most people will ever see. I don't make it a habit to knock people off their horses or speak out of the sky like lightening. I speak through the hearts of people like you.

As an ambassador you might offer hospitality and refuge; but surely you can offer compassion, care, kindness, dignity, and that by which they know you are my ambassador: love.

When you use my name as a badge of honor instead of disrespect, you protect the sacred honor of your own personal dignity as well as that of another. As my ambassador you are privileged to spread the Good News, to draw others to me. You make every attempt to honor your flag, folding it properly and ensuring that it never touches the ground. Is my name any less worthy of such respect.