Last Friday at the daily mass, in our readying from the 17th chapter of Genesis, Abram becomes Abraham after he is transformed by the covenant God makes with him and the promise to make Abraham and his descendants God’s chosen people. His wife Sarai took the name of Sarah. Today, we hear about the ebb and flow of Abraham and his descendants: of the death of his wife Sarah and of his son Isaac starting his own family. In thinking about how Abram took a new name after his conversion and transformation, I thought about how nuns and monks traditionally took new names after taking their religious vows, showing their transition to this new life as a member of a religious congregation.
Sometimes, in a conversion of faith, the believer leaves behind everything in his old life to start a new life in following Christ. We see that type of conversion in our Gospel today. Matthew is a tax collector, a hated profession in Ancient Israel, since tax collectors were seen as collaborating with the occupying foreign government in their country. But, Jesus saw something in Matthew, he saw potential, so he called him to a life of discipleship. In conversion, we are called out of our old life into a new life in Christ: from darkness into light, from fear into belief, from blindness into sight, from complacency into action, from stagnation into new growth, from our own desires to God’s will for us.
As we think about the conversion experience in our readings today, may all of us be open to transformation, conversion, and renewal in our own lives. We may think that the process of transformation and conversion reaches completion in our lives, but we always have room for transformation and conversion no matter where we are on our journey. God will always be at work in us if we allow him room in our lives.
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