Today, in our reading from the third chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, we hear about a man who is lame who is cured by Peter and John. We will hear over the next several days in our readings from Acts in our daily Masses, how Peter and John use this miracle of healing to address the crowds and the Jewish authorities, calling them to repentance and conversion.
We heard a lot about repentance and conversion during Lent; they are still an integral part of the message that we will hear in the coming weeks during the season of Easter, since that is important message that is a part of the resurrection of our Lord, as we try to make sense of that reality.
I was reading a blog post by a Catholic writer who said that too many Catholics, including priests, are reluctant to use the words “repentance” and “conversion”? I wonder if that is true. I remember that as a newly ordained priest, I was explaining my conversion to the Catholic faith, and the RCIA leader corrected me, telling me that I should properly say that I entered into union with the Catholic faith, not that I was converted. In repentance, we change our mind and our way of thinking and we come to a new way of living. In conversion, we turn from our old or sinful way and turn to the truth and away from erroneous teachings. I would say that conversion really did describe my entry into the Catholic faith. I felt that I was a new creation, a new being. I came into the Catholic Church in the Easter Vigil Mass in 1992. As soon as I could, several months later, I was headed up to Canada as a lay missionary. And I have never looked back. If I had not become Catholic, I don’t think I would have quit my job and headed off to a new land as a missionary.
We should not feel the need to apologize for our faith. We should want to be on fire with the faith and share the faith with others. We should feel the call to be evangelizers of the faith through our words and our actions. We should not accept anything less than that.
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