We live in a world where there is sin and division.\u00a0 We see it in the moral (or lack thereof) behavior of people.\u00a0 We see it in violent acts and terrorism.\u00a0 We see in the political divisions within government that no longer seem to be “just different viewpoints” but taking sides for political reasons.\u00a0 We also see sin and corruption in our Church with the clergy abuse scandal.<\/p>\n
Is there hope?\u00a0 Yes!\u00a0 Conversion is possible!<\/p>\n
We see it in today’s first reading (Tuesday, 27th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II)<\/a>\u00a0in Paul speaking of his conversion.\u00a0 He was a very zealous Jew.\u00a0 His ancestral Jewish heritage was very important to him.\u00a0 So, since he believed Jesus to be a false messiah, he persecuted the Christians not to be mean but to correct them in their error.\u00a0 That is, until the Risen Jesus appeared to Paul one day on the road to Damascus.\u00a0 Paul underwent a total conversion to Christ and became a zealous Christian, an Apostle to the Gentiles.<\/p>\n Conversion is possible!<\/p>\n What got Paul to change?\u00a0 Of course, it was direct divine intervention by Jesus himself.\u00a0 Until then, I imagine there were a lot of Christians who saw the persecution by Paul praying for his conversion, for that divine intervention.\u00a0 The Church was persecuted by the government for the first three centuries after Christ.\u00a0 I am sure there were a lot of prayers for the end to the persecution.\u00a0 At times since then, the Church has endured sin and corruption.\u00a0 God has always rescued the Church, in part by the intercession of saints before their death like St. Catherine of Siena.<\/p>\n