TIME OF CONVERSION

By Gladstone Pereira

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Today, we have entered into the final talk on the five themes of Jubilee Ad 2000. The themes are, as you know, Time of Grace, Time of Conversion, Time of Sharing, Time of Reconciliation and Time of Thanksgiving. As you would recall to mind, we did not have these talks in that order, instead, we had an inaugural talk on the blessings of the jubilee. The focus was Jesus, being given to us by God the Father as the greatest of all blessings.

The first talk was on time of thanksgiving, then on time of grace, sharing followed by a talk on reconciliation. It was not a choice made by us, but truly I tell you, It was indeed the work of the Holy Spirit that today’s theme, time of conversion, was kept as the last topic. Because, the last is the one which is the most important, and the Holy Spirit has been preparing us to give a beginning to a new life, through a real conversion. And so let us begin now and say with me "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen."

The biblical meaning of conversion is "turning to God from sin." It is true. But at this time of ours, I wish to say that conversion is the necessity of the time today that the whole humanity must turn to Jesus and be converted to the true faith that Jesus has saved the whole world through his passion and death on the cross and by his glorious resurrection. The acceptance of this faith in the salvific or redemptive work of Jesus and its proclamation is the conversion, which we have to think of today. I shall make this point very clear later.

Conversion is possible only through a true repentance and reconciliation with God. No repentance is complete without a meaningful penance.

Jesus began his ministry with a call to repentance because the kingdom of God is at hand. John the Baptist saw Pharisees and Sadducees coming for Baptism and he calls them "You brood of Vipers! who warned you to flee from the wrath to come. Bear fruit worthy of repentance."

Repentance leads a person to reconcile with God. Reconciliation means to establish a personal and inseparable relationship with God. This relationship is personal because it is built on the full realization that God loved this world so much that He gave His only son, Jesus as ransom for our sins that we may not perish, but will have eternal life (Jn 3:16). God wants that no one should be lost. God said even if your mother forgets you, I will not. In Isaiah 54:10 we read "For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you" Therefore, it is a personnal relationship with God. This relationship is inseparable because the price that was paid was the precious blood of Jesus. In Eph 2:13 we read "But now in Christ Jesus you once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ". The seal of this reconciliation is the Holy Spirit who sanctifies each and everyone. Therefore conversion is a reconciliation with the Holy Trinity; it is a Trinitarian experience, and a Trinitarian love we share. One should, through a real conversion, come into this very personal experience with God and that is the fullness of holiness in a person.

Let us now briefly learn various aspects of conversion from a few examples found in the Holy Scriptures.

When we look at the conversion of the Samaritan woman in Jn ch.4: we see that Jesus reveals to her, her past life and she recognizes Jesus to be a prophet. Further, when Jesus says that salvation is from the Jews and the hour has come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, the woman says, "I know that Messiah is coming and when he comes, he will proclaim all things to us". Jesus then reveals himself to her. Jesus gives her his grace to repent as well as to accept Jesus into her heart. At once, at that very moment, she left her water jar and went back to the city and said to the people, "come and see a man who told me everything I have done. He cannot be the Messiah, can he?" She seems to confirm that Jesus is the Messiah. She changes her life and proclaims the good news that the Messiah has come. Conversion is a change, a transformation within oneself.

The conversion of Zaccheus in Lk ch.19: Zaccheus wanted to see Jesus and so did Jesus. Jesus enters Zaccheus house and Zaccheus surrenders everything at the feet of the Lord, gives himself up to Jesus and becomes a follower of the Lord. The Lord grants him and to his household eternal salvation. Here conversion gives a predominant idea of one’s total surrender.

The most powerful example of a conversion in the Holy Scripture is that of St. Paul in Act ch. 9: It leads Paul to change his belief and accept altogether a new faith, a new religion. He is totally transformed and enlightened through a powerful divine intervention. St. Paul’s life stands up as an outstanding testimony to the faith he received. Jesus himself tells Ananias in Damascus, saying "I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name." St Paul begins to preach not on his testimony, nor on the changes in his life, but on the salvation brought to the mankind by the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection. Paul’s testimony is his strong adherence and teaching on this faith and his life is a strong witness in suffering and in torture until his death.

That is why I said in the beginning that today the meaning of one’s conversion must find an interpretation to that of St. Paul's apart from being understood as one’s inner transformation. Therefore in every conversion, there is an encounter with God, it remains a testimony in his life and he becomes a witness to Jesus during his life. To witness means to preach and live by the Gospel of the Lord. That is why St Paul says "Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel". If you are a witness to the Lord, you have to necessarily preach the Gospel of Jesus, his kingdom.

My dear brothers and sisters, our experience is not the same as I said. There is stern warning given to us in the book of Revelation 3:15-19 "I know your works, you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. For you say "I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing. You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich: and white robes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. I reprove and discipline those whom I love. Be earnest, therefore, and repent."

St Paul says; "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God"(Heb 10:31).

And again he says, "Our God is a consuming fire " Heb 12:24. He who lives in Jesus is a new creation, everything has become new. In Heb 10:16-17 we read, "The Lord says, "This is the covenant I will make with them: I will put my laws in their hearts and I will write them on their minds. I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. In Ezek 36:26-28 also we have the similar words "I will put a new heart, a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh"

In today’s time, we can proclaim the Gospel by our own exemplary life, through our charity by helping the poor and the needy, the sick and the lonely ones, the children of God. We have to reach out to them beyond all barriers, and it demands a lot of self-denial from us. Let us examine ourselves and turn to our own inner self to find out which are the areas I need a transformation. Am I still walking in darkness? Do I turn away from sin and sinful circumstances? Ps 34:5 says, "Look to him, and be radiant! Let us ask Jesus to give us the grace to know more and more about ourselves in order that we may totally surrender to him and be worthy of his salvation and to be with him eternally.

May Mother Mary guard us and guide us to the path of a real conversion, towards a true encounter with Jesus.