17 April 2013 Conversion, God’s Gift Conversion is fundamentally a turning away from sin and a return to the Living God, to the God of the Alliance: “Come let us return to the Lord, for it is he who has torn, but he will heal us; he has struck us, but he will bind our wounds” (Hos 6:1) is the invitation of the prophet Hosea. He insists on the interior character of true conversion. It should always be inspired and moved by love and knowledge of God. And Jeremiah, the great master of interior religion, prophesied an extraordinary spiritual transformation of the members of the People of God, through the action of God: “I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord. They shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.” (Jer 24:7) Conversion is a gift from God which man must ask for with fervent prayer and which was merited for us by Christ, ‘the new Adam’. Sin and death entered into the world through the disobedience of the first Adam and dominate man. But, “If death began its reign through one man because of his offense, much more shall those who receive the overflowing grace and gift of justice live and reign through the one man, Jesus Christ.” (Rom 5:17) The Christian, strong with the strength which comes to him from Christ, moves farther and farther from sin, that is, from the sad reality of the original disobedience. This occurs to the degree to which Grace abounds through the merits “of one man, Jesus Christ” (Cf Rom 5:15). Conversion is thus an almost gradual, effective and continuous transition from the ‘old’ Adam to the ‘new’ one, who is Christ. Ref: Cf Pope John Paul II, “Prayers and Devotions”, 1994, p130 Giving good example This apostolate of giving doctrine makes us return many times to the same ideas. We must endeavour to present Our Lord’s teaching in an attractive manner. The crowds today also wander “like sheep without a shepherd” (Mk 6:34), without a guide; don’t know in which direction to go, confused by so many short-lived ideologies. No Christian should remain passive nor feel inhibited in this great task of doing apostolate. We must not make excuses. (‘I’m no good.’ ‘I can’t.’ ‘No time.’) Apostolate is the Christian vocation, and God gives us the grace to correspond. Are we really a ray of light amidst so much darkness? Or are we bound by laziness or human respect? We will be more apostolic if we sincerely consider, in the presence of God, that the people whose paths we have crossed had a right to expect from us the help to get to know Jesus better. How have we fulfilled this Christian duty? Let us hope they will not reproach us, in this life or the next, for having deprived them of that help in words such as — “... I don’t have anyone to plunge me into the pool ...” (Jn 5:7); I had no one to give me a little light in so much darkness. “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword” (Heb 4:12); reaching the very depths of the soul, to the source of men’s life and behaviour. A great ignorance about Our Lord persists after 20 centuries, even among many Christians! The Second Vatican Council teaches that Revelation came about with deeds and words intrinsically blended. (“Dei Verbum”) The works of Jesus are those of God done in his name; simple people saying, “We have seen strange things” (Lk 5:26). “The man who has the mission of saying great things (all Christians have this sweet obligation) is equally obliged to practise them.” (Cf St Gregory the Great, “Pastoral Care”, 2, 3) Our relatives, colleagues, and friends, must find us loyal, sincere, cheerful, optimistic, good at our job, resilient, pleasant, courageous. Simply and naturally, we must make known our faith in Christ. Ref: Cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 2:199-200 • Our Lady of Arabida, in Portugal, where an image is seen which an English merchant used to carry about him. Finding himself one day in danger of shipwreck, he saw this image surrounded with a great light on top of the rock of Arabida, which induced him to build a little hermitage there, in which he spent the remainder of his days. — Triple Couronne, n. 16. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; www.bethlehemobserver.com) • Our Lady of Arabida, Portugal (16th Century). (www/divinewill.org/feastsofourlady.html); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html) • Our Lady of Arabida (Portugal). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html) • “Nossa Senhora” / Our Lady of Arabida. Portugal. 16th Century. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm) • Our Lady of the Tears. (www.starharbor.com/santiago/m feasts.html) • Our Lady of Manaoag. Manaoag, Pangasinan PHL. Moveable feast -- Third Wednesday after Easter 17 Apr 2013]. (www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/calendar/index.html)