26th Sunday Homily Conversion: God brings for the good within us

Einstein’s famous formula, E=mc2, describes how matter converts to energy and vice versa. The universe, over 13 billion years ago, was pure energy all within a single point. This energy expanded, cooled, and converted to matter, which eventually became us. 

Plants convert the photons of light into food.  We convert fossil fuels into our energy, of course, now with detrimental effects.  We convert mechanical energy into sound waves and make music.  Carbon, black and sheet like, can be converted to brilliant hard diamonds.

A few simple cells in a womb convert into a human child.

A way to think about conversion is not about changing something from one thing into another, but about bringing forth the inherent properties.

What if People don’t need to change?  What if we considered that people do not need to change?  Rather, consider if we believed that people need their inherent goodness to be brought forth.

I remember once, many years ago in a galaxy far far away, I was talking with a priest about a young man, a teen. This particular teen had been acting out, making bad decisions, and was in trouble with parents and authorities. This priest wrote him off, saying that if this is the way he was as a teenager, it was set. He was condemned to be a “bad” person for the rest of his life.  I was so sad at this. Where is the hope? Where is the Faith?

Our Christian history is replete with stories of people finding the goodness within, and growing as a person.  St. Paul tops that list!  St. Francis of Assisi, young dashing playboy of youth becomes one of the most beloved.  The lesson of our faith, the richness of being a Christian and especially a Catholic; we cannot give up on others; and we cannot give up on ourselves.

An inherent property of the Christian faith: every human person is good and has within the capacity to experience that goodness, to share that goodness.  The Son of God became human, entered into the waters of the Jordan, preached, died and rose again, to signify the inherent goodness of all, to signify the Father’s desire and love for all.  The Son sends to us the Spirit of Love to remind us of this potential within.  The Spirit comes to enlighten us to opportunities to make this goodness burst forth.  

Our mission, as believers, to make the real in this world. Our mission is to continue the work of Jesus Christ given by the Father to live as good persons and to help all find and express their goodness.  We can’t legislate this. It can only come through our deeds, examples, our commitment to our belief, through our giving of self to the other. It can only come through conversion of our hearts.

Jesus’ parable speaks of this capacity, and he is reminding the religious leaders of their duty to help people experience God’s love and experience the goodness within. A duty he accused them of neglecting.  The accusation is that by word they say they will do this, but their actions prove otherwise.

Hummm, what about us?  Have we given up on others? Have we given up on ourselves?

Let's be honest, we may try to help people and at times it won’t always work out. Once in another parish there was a young man and he did not have the greatest of childhoods and in his young adult life he struggled. Yet he reached out to the parish. We worked with this young man. So many people supported him. He did grow, a little. But, it is difficult to learn and trust when parents did nothing to build that. So he slid away.  We could have given up trying after that. But we didn’t. 

We believe in conversion. 

This is another reason why Catholics cannot and do not support the death penalty, because it kills, literally, any chance of a person knowing God’s love and letting it come forth.

Evangelization is not about changing a person, but giving them the tools to find the authentic self within. It is about Conversion. This is why we have ministry programs for our youth. This is why we support those who are in need in our community. This is why we ground ourselves in Jesus Christ.

Michelangelo was purported to have said that when he saw a block of marble, he saw the form of the statue already there, he just chipped away the excess to release it.

What we do as a parish, as Catholic is just that. We allow God to work on us, to bring out that goodness, and in the process we go out to others and help them to understand God working on them too.  But it must start with the faith, the hope that the goodness is there.

And Christ brings us to this.

And as for over 13 billion years this universe has evolved, so too will we; we are converted to our truest of realities, Children of God.