Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul
June 29, 2014
Conversion
Peter
and Paul – the two rocks on which the Church was built, the two men that Jesus
entrusted with the most dangerous, difficult mission of spreading the Gospel,
leading the Church, and saving souls – these two men both had something in
common: they started out as great sinners.
St.
Paul, of course, was a persecutor of Christians. He was responsible for the
murder of hundreds. Although we don’t know Peter’s sins, the very first time he
met Christ, he fell at his feet, saying to the Lord, “Depart from me, O Lord,
for I am a sinful man.”
But what
happened to both of them? They had conversions. The word conversion comes from
the Latin “conversio” which literally means “turning around.” To have a conversion
is to have an encounter with the Lord who literally turns our life around, so
that we’re facing in a new direction and walking in a new path.
For St.
Peter, it happened right there in that boat on the sea of Galilee. The Lord did
not depart from Peter as he asked, but instead told him, “Come, follow me.” And
Peter left everything immediately, and went to follow Him. His life turned
around completely after encountering the Lord.
For
Paul, the conversion was even more drastic. He was heading to Damascus to
capture and murder even more Christians when he was blinded by a light and met
Christ face-to-face. His life then took a completely different trajectory –
from a persecutor of Christ to a preacher of the Gospel.
For most
of us, our stories aren’t quite as drastic. But I do hope that all of us here
have had that life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ. My own personal
conversion happened when I was a teenager. I wasn’t a bad kid, but I certainly
didn’t take my own faith very seriously. However, there were several things
that happened simultaneously that caused me to develop a real relationship with
Jesus. First, I had the privilege of going to Rome on a pilgrimage when I was
14. Walking in the footsteps of the saints, standing in the Coliseum where tens
of thousands of Christians shed their blood for Christ, and seeing the great
history and works of art that all proclaimed God’s glory, made me realize for
the first time that my faith is bigger than my small, boring parish church back
home – maybe there really WAS something truly epic about this Jesus thing! A
short while later, my parish started perpetual Adoration – where there would be
someone adoring the Eucharistic Lord at every hour, night or day, seven days a
week. My family signed up for an hour, and though I went reluctantly at first,
I soon began to love spending an hour in silence with God.
Around
that time, when I was a senior in high school I began taking a philosophy class
at a local community college. The professor was an agnostic, and many of my
classmates argued passionately against the existence of God. I was forced, for
the first time, to examine my beliefs – did I really believe in God, in Jesus,
in the Church? The best argument, for me, was looking around at the life that
my classmates were leading – a life of parties, drunkenness, fornication, gossip,
and the endless pursuit of money, and I saw how deeply unhappy they were
beneath all that. For me, that was argument enough to search for something more
– how should I live my life? Only for God alone if I really wanted to find
peace and joy.
At the
same time, I would go on retreats with my church youth group, and I met a group
of very authentic Catholics who challenged me to go deeper in my Faith. And
deeper I went – for Lent that year, I decided to take on the worst penance I
could think of – I promised the Lord that I would pray the Rosary daily. At the
time, I couldn’t stand the Rosary. To me it was tremendously boring. But
throughout that Lent, I began to discover the treasures of it – how it calmed
my mind and caused me to meditate on Christ’s life. When Lent was over, I was
addicted to the Rosary, and I’ve prayed it every day since I was sixteen.
What God
did in my life was awesome! He saved me from a life of sin, from a life of
pursuing selfish and self-centered goals, to a life of grace and pursuing Him.
Have you had a conversion – a profound,
life-changing encounter with Jesus? It doesn’t need to be dramatic, like St.
Paul. St. Peter’s conversion was more gradual – as he got to know the Lord
more, he began to become more like Him, until Peter even followed Christ to the
point of dying on a Cross, like Jesus did. If you have had a conversion, a
turning-around, then you realize deep within your heart that you are created to
be a saint, and you hunger for a deeper relationship with Jesus. If you have
not yet had a conversion, today is the day of decision. Is this something you
want? Is this something you desire – to be better than mediocre in your faith,
to make your entire life about loving Him who first loved you? His grace, even
now, is knocking at the door of your heart. He is inviting you to live a more
meaningful life, to become the best-version-of-yourself. Today is the day of
conversion – if you are willing to turn from your sin, from your former way of
life, and begin the long, arduous, beautiful journey toward Him.
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