Time to change your mind...

We celebrated the conversion of St. Paul this week and it gives us a chance to engage the notion of sin. Jesus always asks us to repent...which means to change our mind. We have been given the Law by God and we all know right from wrong to some degree. Repentance is us telling God that You are right and I am wrong when it comes to what I believe and how I act. The Apostle Paul came to repentance and conversion in a matter of a few seconds when He saw the light of Christ on the road to Damascus. We know that God does not coerce us to serve nor love Him. How did Paul change his mind so quickly?

My thought is that like so many conversions that happen quickly, God has been working behind the scenes for many, many years in the hearts of a person. Paul participated in the martyrdom of Stephen and ravaged the Church. God probably had Paul reflecting quite hard on his behavior for years in the silence of his heart. Is this how a committed person of God acts towards their fellow human being? At the right moment in time, God asked Paul to change his mind and he did. God opened Paul's mind and Paul changed it. Paul changed Paul's mind...not God. God's grace allowed Paul to contemplate, probably for years, his vision of God and he came to the conclusion that I am wrong and need a change.

We go to Mass weekly because we know we need God's mercy and forgiveness. We go to Mass to worship the God of patience who watches us sin. We go to Mass because we are the creature, not the creator. We go to Mass because it is our obligation to worship. Obligation is not always bad. We as humans do not always feel warm and fuzzy spiritually and can easily say to God no thanks this weekend. We have an obligation to pay our bills even though we would like to skip that occasionally. A sense of obligation can bring you into the door of Church and often, God takes it from there. As a priest, if I get a call to the hospital at night when I am resting comfortably at home, sometimes I go with a heart that is not so charitable to God for this untimely call. Out of obligation I go and I have never been disappointed yet with the blessing I receive for doing God's work. When we get involved with the worship and with the others who came, God blesses us with the notion that this is the place to be and I'm glad I came.