A Huge Conversion...

Happy Feast Day of the Conversion of St. Paul- one of the greatest "sinner to saint" stories in the history of the Church. Read about his own account in the Acts of the Apostles. I love that he is so honest about where he came from and where he was called to go- he doesn't try to minimize his past nor hold it over his own head, his life is a testimony to the mercy of God, a mercy that never fails, a yearning for authentic truth and love.

I love the work of the Italian artist Caravaggio- you can see posted here his account of the conversion of St. Paul- I love the dramatic use of light and darkness that Caravaggio expresses, a hallmark of his work. it's beautiful, so real and so....human.

After a talk I gave last year, an older man came up to me and said, "that was an interesting talk, it was very....human"

I don't know if he meant it as a compliment or a derogatory remark but before I began studying TOB, i would have taken it as an insult. I would have thought (please insert whiny, self-pity voice here), "WHAT? HUMAN? I am trying to be holy here, how unkind to say that my talk was merely "human"!!"

ahem.

But since studying TOB, whatever that man meant, my goal is to allow Jesus to heal me so I become more human-- as He is the fullness of humanity. He is the glory of God, who is Man fully alive.

What does this require? how do we become fully alive, fully human?

We must turn toward Jesus, as the Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes reminds us-- that Christ fully reveals man to himself and makes his supreme calling clear.

This requires that we take responsibility for our journey with Jesus, no one will do it for us. We can't wait for "other people" to have a conversion for the world and our lives to become better, conversion begins with us personally, and there is no substitute for it.

Our faith as Catholics is SO beautiful. It is SO powerful and So healing because it is about an encounter with the Beautiful One.

We do not have to water down our faith or add anything to it, all we have to do is LIVE it as it is.

We ask Jesus to come and touch our wounds, our hardness of heart, our errant opinions and beliefs.

Think I am preaching to you? I am not, for I am sharing with you my own prayer to Him that I utter every day.

We must first receive before we can give.

The Church is Marian (receptive) before it is Petrine (going out). If we do not receive, if we do not let Jesus come and wash our feet first and ever more deeply, how can we give? what will we have to give?

The world is crying out for Jesus. At the heart, it is not about economic or political salvation. What we truly yearn for is a living encounter with Love.

St. Paul had such an encounter. Jesus came to St. Paul and met him where he was and St. Paul received Jesus.

That reception changed not only St. Paul's life but it changed the world as we know it.

Personal conversion changes the world.

You ready?

I am.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Amen Sister.....go St. Paul!!!!!

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Fr. Santan Pinto, SOLT 1948-2011