15th Sunday after Pentecost 2.9.18 Conversion of
sinners
There are parallels between the widow of Naim, and the
Church, both having lost children.
Not many families are free of the sadness of losing members
to the world. Look at a First Communion photo, and see how many of those faces
would not be receiving Holy Communion now.
Some will return, but it is not something that happens
automatically with the passing of time.
Conversion can take two senses - From error to the truth; from
false religion to Catholic, where one’s beliefs were wrong, and now they are
right.
Then there is conversion from bad to good - behaving badly
to behaving well.
Conversion therefore encompasses belief and practice. One will
help the other.
The clearer our thoughts are the more likely the behaviour will
correspond. The better the behaviour the more chance the light has to get through
to the intellect.
Existing Catholics need converting too. Many have false or
mistaken beliefs. And everyone still commits sin of one kind or another,
meaning that our behaviour needs to change.
It becomes clear that we all need mercy, and need it all the
time - to be cleansed from past sins, to strengthen present resolve, and to
make right choices for future action.
We never give up hope of conversion of any or every person;
never write someone off. God can work miracles to the last, miracles of grace
And we do not want the devil to win.
So we keep the drum beating, in terms of maintaining
awareness of this crucial matter of Conversion.
We hope that all will answer the promptings that God sends
them.
God's mercy never runs dry but the time for receiving it
might run out – we might die first.
Then there is the danger that one habitually living in sin
could become too hard of heart to be able to convert; too much in darkness to
climb out.
Conversion has to come from within, in the sense that each
of us has a conscience and only I can operate my own conscience. I cannot be
saved unless I want to be.
The young man had no say about being brought back to life.
But we all have a say about being forgiven.
Do you want to be forgiven? Everyone would want that if it
is free, and no strings attached.
But we need to have true contrition, and firm purpose of amendment.
These are not so easy to come by. They will come, by the grace of God, but only
by the sinner’s consent, which God will never force. He works only by the force
of persuasion.
The Church as Mother, in the aggregate faith and charity of
all her members will make a ceaseless prayer for conversion of sinners.
We surround the wavering sinners with our prayer, calling on
the subtlety of the Holy Spirit to exploit some weakness in their resistance,
leading them to conversion.
And for ourselves, we know we still have a lot to do, to
cement the permanence of our own conversion, and to chip away at remaining
areas of sin.
We never declare ourselves to be ‘good enough’, to be saved
already. We have a cunning and vicious enemy and we have to be vigilant, as we
are warned constantly in the New Testament (eg
the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
1 P 5,8)
At the same time we develop a concern for other sinners. It
affects us personally whether or not another person accepts the mercy of God.
We share the joy of Mother Church when a son is restored
We come to see others as Our Lord sees them, lost children
needing rescue; dead, needing to be brought back to life.
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