Conversion
"...be converted..." - Acts 3:19
There was a time in my younger days when I did not consider conversion. I was a follower of Christ, a child of God and a reasonably good Catholic girl from birth – a cradle Catholic. I knew all there was to know. It was written in books and preached in churches. I understood and believed that once converted, once a disciple of Jesus, it was OK to rest on your laurels.
Surprise, surprise. Fast forward decades and I now realize that conversion is ongoing. It never ends. It is a process of change that allows our minds and hearts to expand and takes place from our earliest understanding to our death.
In today’s first reading we hear Peter preaching to a crowd gathered in amazement that a crippled man was cured. Peter questions their amazement asking them where they were when Jesus was healing people who were sick. He chastises them for being part of those who turned against Jesus and gave him up to death. He calls on them to be converted and to repent.
Over the span of a lifetime of marriage, raising five children, and working within the institutional church my faith has changed, converted. My image of God has expanded so wide that I now see God in many things: the wind that sways the palm trees in my back garden, the clouds that gather overhead, the trans woman, the gay youth, the checker at the grocery store, and the man begging in the Target parking lot. God used to reside mainly in church. I now realize that God is in the most unexpected places.
Conversion is a delight. It has called us to humility and to expand our sense of inclusion. God is forever working with and within us to call us to embrace all of creation.
In this post Easter week how have you been called to conversion? What are the challenges you face to see conversion as the ultimate change to love your neighbor as God loves you?
Anne Hansen