“Be converted to me with all your heart…Rend your hearts and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God.” (Joel 2:12-13)
Joel’s heart-stirring challenge strikes the Lenten keynote on Ash Wednesday-but it’s a keynote that’s never out of season for the true Christian. The accent is obviously on “Conversion”‘ but just what kind of conversion is expected of us?
Conversion always demands a wholehearted turning towards God and a resolute turning from sin. And note the emphasis on the heart! Be converted with ALL your heart…and “rend your heart.” The heart is considered as the source of all desires-and desires are the spiritual drives leading to or from God.
In short, this an urgent call to a total conversion-a complete change of heart. It is the call sounded by John the Baptist as he started His preaching career: “Repent-for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” (Matthew 3:2)
This is no mere invitation to sackcloth and ashes-it’s the glad tidings of a new way of life. We sinners can now turn in our misery and sinfulness for the joy and goodness of God. This is the “good news of salvation!”
The only way to follow Christ is through a conversion that arises from the very depths of a man’s heart. The Son of God sounds the call and brings the glad tidings. His very Presence is our guarantee that perfect conversion is possible for all. All are welcomed to the joys of His Father’s home.
Notice how our Lord insists on the necessity of conversion for those who consider themselves good people. It’s His way of saying that many of us who consider ourselves “spiritual” have never really had a complete change of heart. We’ve never really given God the opportunity to remold our hearts and desires in the likeness of Christ’s.
God is more concerned with the interior turning of your heart toward Him than with external acts of penance. This is a revolutionary business that causes a change at the very core of your being. All of us need such a conversion. Our Lord is most insistent in reminding us of the fact.
Only humble of heart-those who realize their emptiness without God-those who know their weakness witthout the Savior feel deeply this need for a profound change of heart. They are ready to receive the fullness of the Kingdom of God. And Christ is ready to grant it to them.
The proud, the spiritually-satisfied, the self-complacent are not disposed for this kind of total conversion. They seem to be unaware of how frequently they fail God or how unlike their hearts are to His. These are the unfortunate spiritual “untouchables.” They, especially, are invited to “repent.”
Our time is running out. Our Lord’s invitation to conversion is as insistent as ever. If we have failed to heed it thus far, let us scorn the goodness of God no longer!
