15 March 2011: Conversion Is, Above All, Acceptance

“Return to me ... I will return to you.” (Zech 1:3)

Here is another invocation from the Lenten liturgy, introducing us to the whole reality of conversion. We convert to God, who awaits us ... in order to turn to us, ‘to convert’ us. We journey toward God, He desires to come to meet us. Let us open up to God, who desires to open to us.

Conversion is not a one-way process, ... Being converted means believing in God who loved us first, who has loved us eternally in His Son; and through His Son gives us grace and truth in the Holy Spirit.

That Son was crucified, so as to speak to us with His arms spread as widely as God is open to us. How incessantly God ‘converts to us’, through the Cross of His Son!

Our conversion is in this way not a unilateral aspiration at all. It is not only an effort on the part of the human will, understanding and heart. It is not only a commitment to directing our humanity upwards, when it so heavily tends downwards.

‘Conversion is’ above all ‘acceptance’. It is the effort to accept God in all the wealth of his ‘conversion’ (‘convertar’: ‘I shall be converted’) to man. This conversion is a Grace.

An effort of understanding, of heart and of will, is also indispensable for accepting Grace. It is indispensable for not losing the Divine dimension of life in the human dimension; for persevering in it.

Ref: Cf Pope John Paul II, “Prayers and Devotions”, 1994, p132

Begin again after every failure

Our failures, often unforeseen, can usually lead to progress in our interior life. That is, if we react to them with humility and a firmer determination to follow Our Lord.

Perseverance does not consist in never falling down, but in always getting up again every time we do. Very often we will hear the Holy Spirit say: ‘Make a new start with deeper humility ...’

“When a soldier in battle is wounded or has to give ground a little, no one is so demanding or so ignorant of military matters as to think this is a crime. Only those who do not fight are never wounded; those who charge the enemy with the greatest spirit are the ones who receive the most blows.” (cf St John Chrysostom, “Second Exhortation to Theodore”, 5)

Let us ask Our Lady for the grace never to abandon our interior struggle, however depressing or even catastrophic our previous experience may have been; and for the grace and the humility always to begin again. Let us also ask her that we may always persevere in our apostolate, even if it seems to produce no fruit.

One day, perhaps when we shall have arrived in heaven, Our Lord will show us the fruits of that apostolate and how, although at times it seemed to be useless, was in fact always effective. The seed which is sown always brings forth grain: “some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty” (Mt 13:8) ... much grain from one seed.

Ref: Cf Francis Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 1:92-3

The malice of venial sin

The effort of personal conversion which the Lord asks of us is an action for each day of our lives. However, in certain situations, as during Lent, we receive special graces which we must avail of. Lent is an extraordinary opportunity for a maximum struggle against sin and to increase in ourselves the life of grace with good works.

To understand better the malice of sin we must recall what Jesus Christ suffered for our sins. “We can very well say that the Passion which the Jews made Christ suffer was almost nothing compared with what Christians make him undergo with their insults of mortal sins ... what horror there will be when [he] shows us the things for which we have abandoned him!” (St Jean Vianney [The ‘Curé d’Ars’], “Sermon on Sin”)

Our Lord has called us to holiness; to love with deeds. How we regard deliberate venial sin will determine our progress in interior life. Failure to struggle against venial sins or if contrition for them is not enough, grievously damaged the soul. Lukewarmness sets in.

These venial sins make the soul insensitive to the inspirations and motions of the Holy Spirit. Practise of the virtues becomes more difficult. Furthermore, venial sins weaken the life of grace, and incline one towards mortal sin.

“How sad you make me feel when you are not sorry for your venial sins! For until you are, you will not begin to live a real interior life.” (Dom Benedict Baur, “In Silence with God”)

Let us ask Our Lady to grant us a loathing not only for mortal sin, but also for deliberate venial sin.

Ref: Cf Francis Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 2:103-5

Our Lady

“To Jesus we always go, and to him we always return, through Mary.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Way”, 495)

“Have confidence: Return. Invoke our Lady and you’ll be faithful.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Way”, 514)

• In the year 911, the city of Chartres was miraculously delivered from the siege laid to it by Rollo or Raoul, Duke of the Normans; for as he was on the point of taking the city, Gaucelin, the forty-seventh Bishop of Chartres, mounted on the top of the ramparts, holding a relic of Our Lady as an ensign, “which struck such terror in the enemy’s camp, that all retreated in disorder”; in memory of this fact, the meadows of the Drouaise gate are called, to this day, the meadows of the Repulsed (des Recules) — Sebastien Rouillard, Parthenie, c. 7, n. 5. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; www.bethlehemobserver.com)
• Miraculous deliverance of Chartres by Our Lady (911 AD). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)
• Our Lady of the Underground. Chartres, France. 911. (www/divinewill.org/feastofourlady.htm); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)
• Our Lady of the Underground (“Notre-Dame de Sous Terre”; Our Lady of the Crypt). One of three venerated statues of Mary in Chartres cathedral, in a subterranean chapel. Picture of the "Black Madonna" statue, probably of Celtic Druid origin; original was burned during the French Revolution. ... History. Medieval pilgrimage site. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)