GOD WANTS TO BRING US BACK TO HIM SAMUEL HARRIS
To be converted is to orient ourselves to Christ - who is true north. us back to you, Lord! Bring us back!” cries the “Bring author of the Book of Lamentations. We’ve probably
all experienced the feeling of a sudden rush of realisation, in a clear moment in the midst of the flux and drama of life, that - by a little or a lot - we’ve turned away from our God. In that realisation is the pang of loss: we know deeply that something our heart longs for has gone. The Christian life is one of ongoing conversion: we’ve heard and accepted Christ’s words - “The kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel” (RSVCE) - but, let’s face it, that life of repentance and faith is hard: often, it’s
really, really difficult. “This is the struggle of conversion,” it says in the sacraments section of Catechism of the Catholic Church. A struggle for what? For “holiness and eternal life.” Holiness both as a sign for others, to draw them to Christ, and as peace and wholeness for ourself, and eternal life as an extension of what we choose here on earth - the choice to orient our lives towards love, love of God and of neighbour: “a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil … with hope in God’s mercy and trust in the help of his grace.”
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