When we hear the word ‘conversion’, it can summon up different meanings in our minds. On the one hand, it has become common to think of it as conversion from one religion to another; and on the other, it can be taken to mean conversion from a sinful way of life. There is of course significance to both these meanings, but how is the word understood in the Gospels?
The word used for conversion in the original Greek is ‘metanoia’ and this word means to go beyond the way we see and do things at the moment. The word comes from two Greek words, one meaning ‘mind’ and the other ‘beyond’. So, it involves a call to go beyond the way we presently see and do things. This is happening all through each of the gospels. When Jesus meets people, he invites them to go beyond the way they see things at the time. He calls his first disciples who are fishermen, he invites them to become ‘fishermen of people’ (see Luke 5:1-11). He invites the Rich Young Man to follow him but he will not (see Mark 10:17-22). He is constantly asking his disciples to see things differently and they have trouble doing so (see Luke 9:46-48; Matthew 16:13-23). Jesus’ constant conflict with the Scribes and Pharisees is always about seeing things differently (see Mark chapter 2).
Jesus is always asking those he meets to change in the light of the good news he brings from the Father. He is always asking them to see God differently. It would be a great Lenten exercise to go through any one of the gospels and look at the way in which Jesus meets people and constantly asks them to move ahead, to change the way they see things and do things. And he is constantly urging trust in God his Father and their Father.
He calls us to change the way we see things, to let the way he sees things form the way that we see things.
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Angela Dupuche says:
Thank you Fr Frank, your words each week give me nourishment and hope