Sometimes freedom is an option - if only we pause to see a way out. But we can be stupid. We can try to kick and fight those who can save us. Our Redeemer lives. He/She comes with saw or crowbar - to set us free.
“Don’t stay away from church because there are so many
hypocrites.There’s always room for one
more.”
Arthur R. Adams
Or John 8: 7
Friday, January 25, 2019
CONVERSION:
CONVERSION
OF ST. PAUL
INTRODUCTION
Today the Church celebrates the feast of the conversion of St. Paul. This is quite
interesting. Most of the time, when we celebrate a Saint’s Day, we celebrate
his or her whole life, but today we just celebrate a moment: the conversion of St. Paul.
OUR CONVERSION
MOMENTS
For a thought for today, I ask you to look at your life.
When were the moments of change? When were the conversion moments? Hopefully,
all of us can pick out some significant moments when we changed.
ONE OF MY
CONVERSION MOMENTS
I remember talking with a friend of mine once -- talking one
to one. He was a bit overweight and he said to me, “Did you ever notice how
many people who are overweight are always giving tips to other people who are
overweight, on how to lose weight?”
I said, “No!”
He continued, “Did you ever notice how many people who are not overweight are always needling overweight people about being overweight?”
I said, “No!”
He wasn’t trying to correct me. I was thinner at the time.
He was just sounding off. Well, after that I became more conscious and more aware of what he was saying. We were all living in a
big community, and sure enough, he was right. I began to notice people who needled him, grabbed his love handles, and often gave him suggestions on how to
lose weight.
I reflected even more. I realized how much the weight
comments hurt him, that he was quite sensitive about his weight. Well, from
that day to that day I never again kidded this guy about his weight. I was
converted. I have also been working on not kidding other people.
That conversation by him was a conversion moment for me.
What are your conversion moments?
THE NAGGING
HUSBAND
I remember a father telling me once that it took a good 25
fights with his wife for him to finally see that he was constantly on the case
of his oldest son, but his youngest son was getting away with murder. He was
the oldest son in his family. While growing up he was constantly being nagged by his father and hated it. He didn’t see he was doing the same thing to his son. He didn’t realize history was
repeating itself. Finally, he saw the light. Finally, he saw what his wife was
trying to tell him all the time.
He was able to laugh at himself, when he finally saw the
light.
CONVERSION – MAJOR
ISSUE
Today, then, we are celebrating a moment or an event in the
life of Paul. It’s a major moment, a major event, a major experience, in the
life of a great person.
Conversion is a major issue in life. Conversion is the major
issue of the upcoming second session of Renew. Conversion time is significant
changes in our lives time.
Conversion means we make major shifts, major changes within us. So today’s
feast day is a significant feast day.
CONVERSION OF PAUL
T. F. Manson said that Paul was a missionary and preacher
and prophet like Ezechiel, Isaiah or Jeremiah. He was less like a philosopher,
like Aristotle or Plato.
Paul was a preacher. Today is a preacher’s feast.
Redemptorists preach conversion, so this is a significant feast for us to
study.
In many paintings of this moment, Paul is pictured as
falling off a horse. We don’t even know if he was on a horse. The scriptures
just tell us he fell to the ground.
In conversion conversations, as in AA, we get the phrase,
“to hit bottom”. Paul hit bottom – the bottom of himself. Paul hit the ground,
the ground from which the God of Genesis scraped us together. Paul hit the dirt
– towards which we’re all going to eventually crumble into.
MAJOR ELEMENT OF
CONVERSION
The key ingredient in any conversion is the death of self.
The major element is the emptying of self – the thing that God did when we
became human – described so dramatically in the great hymn of God’s self
emptying in Philippians 2:5b-11.
Conversion for starters means self-emptying – death to self.
Isn’t one of the best scenes where we see this meaning of
conversion in the great message of St.
John the Baptist? It describes Paul’s conversion
perfectly. “I must decrease. He must increase.”
Basically that’s what conversion is all about: the emptying
of oneself.
As John McCall put it, the air has to be let out of our
tire. We are filled with hot air. We are inflated with self. John McCall says,
“In psychological terms, it’s called ‘ego reduction’.”
Swami Sachannawanda said it almost the same way. He said
that the “I” must go. As he liked to say it, “E Go. Let it go. Go.”
In Philippians 3: 4-10, Paul gives his credentials. He says:
I am a Hebrew. I was circumcised. I grew up a Benjaminite. I was a Pharisee. I
was righteous. Notice it was all I’s. I, I, I,
In his conversion, the I went. His eyes went. He became blind. He
who thought what he saw was right, became blind.
He really hit bottom and down there in his deepest darkness,
he saw the light. He saw that Christ was the light of the world. He began to
know Christ.
As he continues in Philippians 3: 7, “But because of Christ,
I have come to consider all these advantages that I had as disadvantages. Not
only that, but I believe nothing can happen that will outweigh the supreme
advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For him I have accepted the loss of
everything, and I look on everything as so much rubbish if only I can have Christ
and be given a place in him. I am no longer trying for perfection by my own
efforts, the perfection that comes from the Law, but I want only the perfection
that comesthrough faith in Christ, and
is from God and is based on faith. All I want is to know Christ and the power
of his resurrection and to share his sufferings by reproducing the pattern of
his death. That is the way I can hope to take my place in the resurrection of
the dead.”
That’s a conversion. A person who was dead, has come back to
life.
That’s what happened to Paul. That’s what we celebrate
today.
CONCLUSION
That is enough, there will be plenty more on another day.
Today is the feast of St. Francis de Sales. He’s the Patron
Saint of Retail Stores, “de Sales”. Joke. Here are a few thoughts coming out of
the life of this saint.
Saint’s feast days are usually the day they died. However,
St. Francis de Sales didn’t die on January 24. He died on December 28, 1622,
but that is the feast of the Holy Innocents, so they moved his feast to today
-- the day his bones were moved to his present tomb or something like that.
If his feast is moved again, he wouldn’t mind. That’s the
kind of personality he had. In fact, that would be my thought for the day.
St. Francis de Sales was known for his calmness -- his
gentleness.
FREDDY
That’s the message I found out about St. Francis de Sales
some 58 years ago in the seminary.
In the major seminary we had this teacher, Freddy -- Fred
Prenatt. We had him for one class in preaching every week for six years. I
remember very little from what he said in class, but I remember him for
something he would always say in confession and in sermons, “Omnia suaviter.”
And when asked where that came from, he would say, “St.
Francis de Sales”.
And when asked what “Omnia
suaviter” meant, he would say, “All
things sweetly.”
For some reason I never forgot that. I ended up making it
sort of a prayer and sort of a motto all through the years, “Omnia suaviter.”
Translated into Italian, “Con calme” or “Reposo”.
Translated into English, “Take it easy”, “Calm down”, “Count
to 10”, “A drop of honey does more good than a barrel of vinegar.”
Translated into AA-ese, “Nice and easy.” I’m sure you have
all seen that on a bumper sticker. It’s a good thing to remember whenever we
are feeling road rage or church rage or classroom rage or shopping line rage or
in the house rage.
Nice and easy.
Easy does it.
Omnia Suaviter, Con calme. Relax.
CONCLUSION
Relax. That’s a good message to remember from the life and
spirit of St. Francis de Sales.
