Reflection on the Message of August 25, 2008

CALLED TO PERSONAL CONVERSION

"Dear children! Also today I call you to personal conversion. You be those who will convert and, with your life, will witness, love, forgive and bring the joy of the Risen One into this world, where my Son died and where people do not feel a need to seek Him and to discover Him in their lives. You adore Him, and may your hope be hope to those hearts who do not have Jesus. Thank you for having responded to my call." Message of August 25, 2008

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At the beginning of her message of 25 august 2008, Our Lady calls us to conversion by saying: “You be those who will convert and, with your life, will witness, love, forgive and bring the joy of the Risen One into this world.“ Everybody needs conversion. It is a life-long process. A true conversion is meeting God. Only those who have meet God in flesh may bear witness to the encounter. Encounters with people often remain superficial, while an encounter with God takes place in the depths of man’s heart and soul leaving a mark on the man as a whole. Every time when a man does not love, he needs conversion. Every time when a man is not faithful to the words of Jesus, he needs conversion.

Any conversion is a two-step process. The first step is that at least once in our life we must kneel before Jesus and tell him from the depth of our heart and soul: Jesus, I choose you, I want to leave my old life behind, I want to be free from all my sins and go with you purified. This is the fundamental decision for God. The second step is to question oneself over and over again every night: Have I obeyed God’s commandments to the fullest, what can I do better when meeting people, how can I love Church more. Only by taking these two steps may we walk up the path of our spiritual life in the right way. Our Lady has called us to conversion so many times. She calls us to be witnesses. It seems as if we are turning a blind eye and remain deaf when thinking that Our Lady calls only those who do not go to Church, those for whom we think that they are not good. Our Lady has them in mind too, but she primarily has in mind those who act like Pharisees, who judge others, pretend to be good and rarely forgive. Those are the people who need a radical conversion.

Our Lady provides us with means, too. She has called us to prayer so many times and, yet again, in her last message she calls us to worship Jesus. God wants those who will worship him in their spirit and in the truth, which means through their actions and life, not just by words because God does not need our words. What he needs is our heart. If we are fully devoted we can represent hope for those hearts that do not have Jesus.

There are thousands of definitions of what man is, and one of them is the following: “Man is a creature of hope!” To us, who are travellers here through this world, hope gives us strength to bravely walk the earthly paths towards our future and not to stand still. Our hope is found only in Jesus’ name. Hope is always turned towards the future. Love is the reality that should be unfolding now, and faith helps us to reach it.

Many might think that the world does not change at all, so we might be wondering what the use of conversion is. To others the world does change, but for the worse. Today we are more capable of completely destroying our world than people used to be so many years before us. We must ask ourselves what the role of conversion in our life is. Is our conversion any good? We may say to others: It does not mean that it is an encounter we may have with other people when, for example, we meet our mother, brothers, sisters or good friends in the street. Surely we would all like to have such close, personal, profound encounters with God, but, generally speaking, our encounters with God are of a different nature. We must also ask ourselves today whether we believe that the Kingdom of God is near. It was one of the ways the encounter with God in flesh may be depicted. Today only a few people feel that God is present. More and more people are becoming atheists or Gnostics. The life here and now is all they have. But we, Christians who follow Jesus’ teachings, believe in his words. He tells us that there is life after death. He tells us that there is God with whom we may talk through prayer. He tells us that the path leading to a new life after death is love of our neighbours that we show in this life. Our spirituality often raises the fundamental question: do I believe in Jesus Christ? If I do, then my view of this life is different and I try to make decisions that correspond to my beliefs. Jesus tells us that we meet God every time we serve others. Conversion is therefore necessary and important every time when I am not faithful to Jesus’ words and his calling to live with him. Conversion is necessary when we experience the loss of love.

Fra Danko Perutina
Medjugorje 26.8.2008