If we are not a converts we cannot enter the Kingdom of God. So it is very important to decide if we are converts, and if we are not, we must become so. . . Conversion, before the word became impoverished in its use, did not mean changing from one Christian allegiance to another. Entering the Catholic Church from the outside is not necessarily evidence of conversion, nor is one’s baptism as an infant proof that one is not a convert. For anyone converted from sin to God is a convert.
This conversion, which is a life-long process, is a gift from God. It is what St. John the Baptist calls “repentance.” This word “repentance,” in the sense in which it is used in Holy Scripture, does not just imply doing penance or self-denial or going to confession. It means a radical change of mind and heart. It means really turning over a new leaf. It means a change of direction, more and more away from self and more and more to God. Repentance and conversion involve a basic reorientation of one’s whole existence and is very, very much more than switching one’s allegiance from elsewhere to the Catholic Church or just being sorry for one’s sins. It is a life-long process.
If you are a convert in this true sense, then you are being converted here and now. You are turning more decisively to God and away from all that keeps you from Him. “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” Be a convert now. The Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven is a term in the Bible for the rule or supreme influence of God in men’s lives. You belong to the Kingdom of God to the extent that God’s influence and action is expressed in your life and activities. Anything outside God’s influence in human life is outside His Kingdom.
In this life, conversion never ends. If it does, we slip back into our old ways, further from God and His Holy will. The Kingdom of God has not yet grown sufficiently within us to bring everything about us under His influence. We still follow our own will too much. Every moment we should repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand. Each day we should be newly converted to God, turning back to Him more fully. More and more we must turn from a worldly outlook and worldly likes and dislikes to the love of what God wants and likes and away from whatever He dislikes.
So even for those of us who have had the indescribable thrill of entering the Catholic Church from elsewhere in adult life, there is the daily thrill of facing a new day with a new spirit and a new grace from God. Conversion is not just one event in our life, but goes on all our life. It would be most harmful for any convert to think that he had reached his goal and that no further change was necessary in his conduct, in his prayer, in the depth and insight of his beliefs as a Catholic. . .
Our union with God is not something that comes only when we have reached perfection; it is something that comes through conversion as a life-long process, and if we are trying to improve day by day, then we are on the right path and are in God’s presence and, therefore, the Holy Spirit rests on us as He rested on Christ Our Savior. . .
If we live in the presence of God, if we practice the presence of God during the day, it is these gifts of the Holy Spirit that influence our lives and make us citizens of the Kingdom of God and put us under His influence more and more. Then we have really repented, really been converted, and the Kingdom of God is at hand. Its inhabitants, although not yet perfect, have the joy of His presence in their hearts.
Let us remember as we go through the day that we are by no means ordinary people. . . We are genuine converts. . . The only cradle Catholics in the Kingdom of God are those who die in infancy.
