Called to Conversion

We live in a culture that lives by the motto “Do what makes you happy.  You do you.”  As Catholics, we cannot have this mindset.  In today’s (Monday) gospel, Jesus says to the woman caught in adultery, “Neither do I condemn you.”  And oftentimes, that’s where many people in our world would like to end the passage.  But Jesus doesn’t take sin lightly.  He accepts us as we are, but He doesn’t let us remain as we are, so that we aren’t left  thinking that sin is no big deal.  In the gospel reading, he goes on to say, “Go, and from now on do not sin any more” (John 8:11).  He calls this woman to conversion.  And He calls us to the same.

We are all sinners in need of Christ’s mercy and forgiveness.  And He freely gives it to us.  Just as He doesn’t condemn the woman, He doesn’t condemn us either.  He opens His arms to us and invites us to draw closer.  In fact, He longs for us to come to Him.  Instead of running in the other direction, He deeply desires for us to repent and be reconciled to Him.  This is exactly what we have the opportunity to do in the sacrament of confession.

To go to confession is to encounter the heart of Jesus in a beautiful way.  Partaking in the sacrament is where we encounter love, mercy, and forgiveness.  And it is a place of conversion.  Whether we think our sins are small or serious, bringing them to Christ with a contrite heart will change us, even if just a little bit.  Every time we go to confession and experience grace washing over us, our hardened hearts will become just a little bit more like His.

We will fail and when we do, we must recognize the ways in which we have offended God with our sin.  But we must not stop there.  We must return to Him by asking for forgiveness.  The Church offers us the opportunity to be made new, to be changed, and to experience conversion every single time.  This is a continual, life-long process.  Slowly and in small ways, our hearts and minds will continue to be transformed.
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Sin is real and we must never let the world around us convince us that it isn’t.  Jesus calls us to follow Him more closely, to leave behind anything that hinders us from Him.  And when we fall, he waits for us to choose Him again.  He opens His arms to us, and calls us to go and sin no more.  May we all listen to His challenge and continually allow ourselves to experience conversion in confession.