5th Sunday of Ordinary Time (C) 9 February 2025 Sermon

5th Sunday of Ordinary Time (C) 9 February 2025 Conversion.

In all three of today's readings there is an encounter between God and a person God has chosen. Each person feels inadequate to the task, but God provides the necessary support.

Isaiah is given a vision of the majesty of God and says, Woe, I am a man of unclean lips. God sends an angel to cleanse his lips with a hot coal.

Paul is given the task of proclaiming the Gospel; acutely humbled by his experience, he considers himself the last and the least of apostles.

Peter is overwhelmed by the miraculous catch of fish as he senses the presence of divinity. Leave me, Lord, I am a sinful man.

Although for a time they were made uncomfortable from their brush with divinity, all three were greatly blessed by the experience and never the same again. And they all went on to do great things.

They had been converted by their encounter; they had changed direction. Having laid their hands on the plough they never looked back (Lk 9,62).

So it should be for all who have this same conversion – to be pointed towards the Lord, never again to look away.

To have an experience of God brings us to our knees, and a real shame for our sins; but there is also a joyful sense of hope, and we are quickly stood up again with new confidence.

God does this to people because He can see what each one needs, and how each person can be brought to his happiest state.

There are many stories of people being changed overnight by maybe a dream, or some strong sense that they have to do something.

God will not give up as He pursues each person - not to harm them but to open up a new life.

He can call more than one person at a time, for example, with the apparitions of Our Lady; especially the final apparition at Fatima (1917).

There are prophecies of a universal warning which will reveal to every person in the world the state of his soul before God.

If that happens, it will be a conversion experience for many. When sufficiently moved we are ready to promise anything. It just then becomes a matter of keeping the good resolutions in mind.

We will not usually have a strong emotional factor helping us. God expects us to walk in faith most of the time.

We cannot manufacture conversion experiences. We can do certain things that will make conversions more likely to happen  - simply draw closer to God, through prayer, through quiet, through the sacraments.

We can make the first move, give ourselves up voluntarily. Don't make Him look for us; don't be hiding in the first place. Seek Him confidently, and He will guide us gently to do whatever has to be done.

Conversion is not always sudden and dramatic. It can be  as gentle as the breeze, and steady as the growth of a plant.

If we are responsive to God's calling, and willing to obey we will then yield the fruit that God wants from each one of us - the fruit that Isaiah, Paul and Peter were able to yield.

May God reach us by whatever means necessary and bring us all to eternal life.