Our need for continuing conversion

THE Feast of St. Mary Magdalene on July 22 reminds us that we all are in need of conversion. Yes, even if we have been trying, for the longest time already, to be good and saintly, we know that our wounded human condition would always find us in need of continuing conversion all throughout our life.

That is why, one of the constant topics Christ preached about throughout his earthly mission was that of conversion. “Convert and believe in the Gospel,” he said one time. (Mk 1,15) Other gospel passages that talk about conversion are the following:

• “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” (Mt 3,8)
• “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Lk 5,32)
• “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” (Lk 15,7)

The case of St. Mary Magdalene should encourage us to go through the process of conversion because in spite of her colorful past, she received the mercy of Christ. The same with the repentant thief who was crucified with Christ. God’s mercy is always available if only we do a conversion from whatever irregular and sinful state we may be in, no matter how grave our sins may be.

This preaching of Christ about conversion is, of course, quite demanding, for it requires a lot of courage to acknowledge our sins and to ask for forgiveness. But God’s grace that can help us to ask for forgiveness is never lacking. All we have to do is to ask for that grace. Let’s never forget that conversion is first of all a grace of God, a gift, to which we should try our best to correspond.

We cannot deny that all throughout our life we will always be hounded by our weaknesses and the many temptations around. We will always have a certain attraction to evil—what is otherwise known as concupiscence. But God knows this and is ever willing to welcome us back to him. Let’s try to be like St. Mary Magdalene and the prodigal son who, after wasting his father’s inheritance, decided to go back to his father.

God will always welcome us back, even if we appear to be already abusing the goodness and mercy of God. We should just put our mind and heart to this fact of life that we are all sinners and that we need to convert.

Let’s follow the logic of St. Paul who once said that “it is when I am weak that I am strong” (2 Cor 12,10) precisely because he used his weaknesses and sinfulness as a strong motive to go to Christ, instead of running away from him out of fear or shame. Obviously, this kind of attitude can only be an effect, first of all, of grace that is corresponded to with humility and great faith in God’s mercy.

We should just get up as quickly as possible after every fall we make. We should not get tired of having to begin and begin again. The patience of God is forever. We should never lose hope. We should just try our best to be truly sorry for our sins and to have a strong resolve to avoid sinning, though we know that one day we will fall again.

When we convert, we would be putting ourselves on the right path which we often lose amid the many confusing conditions of our life here on earth.