“Yet even now,” says the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments” (Joel 2:12).
The Mission of the Prophets
Each year the faithful begin their Lenten journey with this Ash Wednesday reading from the prophet Joel. When Joel poetically exhorts his fellow Hebrews to rend their hearts and not their garments, he is sounding a theme that will appear repeatedly in the Lenten readings, and indeed, a theme central to virtually all of the prophets, namely, the priority and an insistence upon interior conversion. But why call those who have gathered for worship to conversion? Was not Joel, and are not we, in our Lenten gatherings, speaking to the already converted? The Catechism of the Catholic Church addresses just this question in a section dealing with this emphasis of the prophets upon interior conversion:
For the People of God, the Temple was to be the place of their education in prayer: pilgrimages, feasts and sacrifices, the evening offering, the incense, and the bread of the Presence (“shewbread”) — all these signs of the holiness and glory of God Most High and Most Near were appeals to and ways of prayer. But ritualism often encouraged an excessively external worship. The people needed education in faith and conversion of heart; this was the mission of the prophets, both before and after the Exile (CCC, 2581).
Ritual and Conversion
All religious traditions have, at least to some degree, certain rituals — often full of power and great beauty. But as powerful and full of beauty as these rites are, it is a fact, nonetheless, that beautiful ritual can degenerate into what John Paul II aptly calls “hollow ritualism.” Rituals — even God ordained ones — become hollow to the degree they are performed without affection and understanding. The prophets were not against religious ritual — indeed, many of them were temple priests — but they did seek to foster an interior conversion that opens the heart for a more efficacious reception of the grace communicated in sacred ritual. This call to interior conversion, so central to the prophets, was also the central message of Jesus Christ. The Catechism of the Catholic Church comments:
Jesus’ call to conversion and penance, like that of the prophets before him, does not aim first at outward works, “sackcloth and ashes,” fasting and mortification, but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion. Without this, such penances remain sterile and false; however, interior conversion urges expression in visible signs, gestures and works of penance (CCC, 1430).
Interior conversion then is of primary importance. By “primary” importance, we mean to emphasize the chronological priority of conversion in our religious experience and worship. In this regard the following statement from Sacrosanctum Concilium is illuminating:
The sacred liturgy does not exhaust the entire activity of the Church. Before men can come to the liturgy they must be called to faith and to conversion: “How then are they to call upon him in whom they have not yet believed? But how are they to believe him whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear if no one preaches? And how are men to preach unless they be sent?” (Rom. 10:14-15).
Results of Interior Conversion
Interior conversion results in the removal of a certain veil or blindfold from one’s eyes. The Mass, reception of the sacraments, and many other aspects of the faith begin to reveal their meaning. The word “conversion” actually means “to turn.” As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “in conversion, man, moved by grace, turns toward God and away from sin, and so accepts forgiveness and righteousness from on high.” It is a fundamental paradigm shift wherein one moves from a life characterized by self-determination to complete and joyful surrender to God’s will. And the results? Forgiveness of sin and impartation of the gift of righteousness. Again, the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
Interior repentance is 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 repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed…it entails the desire and resolution to change one’s life, with hope in God’s mercy and trust in the help of his grace…accompanied by a salutary pain and sadness of heart….Conversion is first of all a work of the grace of God who makes our hearts return to him: “Restore us to thyself, O Lord, that we may be restored!” …It is in discovering the greatness of God’s love that our heart is shaken by the horror and weight of sin and begins to fear offending God by sin and being separated from him. The human heart is converted by looking upon him whom our sins have pierced: Let us fix our eyes on Christ’s blood and understand how precious it is to his Father, for, poured out for our salvation it has brought to the whole world the grace of repentance (CCC, 1432).
An Examination of Conscience
I suspect that some of our readers are by now asking themselves a question that inevitablly arises in the course of such a discussion: Have I experienced conversion to Jesus Christ? Emphasis upon an experience at a certain point in time, makes this question difficult for many; for some may be unaware of ever significantly turning away from God, having loved him as far back as they can recall. Conversion need consist in being able to identify a specific experience in the past but rather in a present-moment conscious surrender to the will, mercy and love of God.
Other persons find the question of personal conversion difficult for the reason that they have never really surrendered to God in conversion. The solution to those troubled by this, however, is the same — to make a surrender of one’s life here and now to the will, mercy and love of God — it will be the beginning of a rich and fulfillng life in him.
View our Discussion/Reflection Guide on Interior Conversion.
Read an overview of the Ten Wellsprings of Grace for an Evangelical Catholic Spirituality.