Lent is a special time to focus on our conversion

At the beginning of Jesus’ public life, he announced, “The kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” (Mk. 1:15)

Often when we hear the word “repent” or “be converted,” we think it applies to someone who no longer believes in God and has taken up a life of crime. People who attend church regularly, who pray frequently, who support of the work of the church, often dismiss this call as not applying to them.

However, conversion is a lifelong process for everyone. Lent is a special time in which we focus as God’s family on conversion, changing ourselves. We all need to change. Our change is not just from something but a change to something. We need to change our self-centered ways of doing things to caring about others. We need to change our tendency to worry about “what’s in it for me” to how can I help the needy. We need to change our need to have and buy things and take responsibility for others and the world in which we live. We need to change our attitudes of promoting war to promoting peace; from destruction of the Earth to reverencing God’s creation; from despair to hope; from fear to faith; from self-hate to self-love. This includes the sinful things we do and our sins of omission.

This type of conversion does not usually take place by simply giving up chocolate, or smoking, or alcohol, or even food. The Bishops of the United States remind us in Go and Make Disciples, “Conversion is the change of our lives that comes about through the power of the Holy Spirit . . . Unless we undergo conversion, we have not truly accepted the Gospel.”

Conversion is at the heart of Christianity. We are not the people God wants us to be! Also, conversion is not easy. Conversion involves making God the center of our lives, to recognize God’s grace in our lives, in others and in the world in which we live.

The question we have to ask is: what obstacles do we need to remove from our lives that are hindering our relationships with God, other people, ourselves, and our world around us? The second part is: with what do we replace them?

We all have a deep spiritual hunger inside of us. St. Augustine reminded us many years ago, “You (God) have formed us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in you.” When we try to fill our spiritual centers with substances, things, accomplishments, events, other people, or our own egos, we eventually begin to feel empty. Things and addictions can satisfy us for a while, but eventually we find that God alone can fill our deepest longings. At the heart of conversion is our willingness to allow God to be God in our lives.

The three traditional Lenten practices are prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Prayer: no matter how hectic our lives are, we need to take advantage of the many opportunities that exists during Lent to reflect on where God is calling us. Begin with fifteen minutes of prayer time a day and try to increase it.

Fasting: look at fasting in a different way this year. Fast from judging others and start seeing Christ in them. Fast from being discontent and start being thankful. Fast from bitterness and anger and learn to be forgiving. Fast from anything that is imprisoning us and keeping us from living freely.

Sharing: St. Francis’ prayer says, “It is in giving that we receive.” How true? Are we willing to share our time, giftedness and our financial resources with others?

“Repent and believe in the good news.”