Conversion

1.     I remember a video clip I saw about a group of anti-RH bill people stepping out of the Church and saying to the pro-RH people waiting outside, “Your mother should have had you aborted”. Bad things should happen to people (who I think are bad).

2.       Jesus rejects this mentality. He rejects the mentality that says that some are “exemplary” and that bad things happen to those who do not resemble them. Jesus says that bad things happen to everyone independent of their being “morally good” or “morally bad”. In Luke we read that Jesus mirrors back to the “exemplary people” their mentality (see Lk13/2-5).

3.     Jesus invites his “audience” to take a look at themselves and their actions. They are invited to see the sense of their own lives under the eyes of a loving God. It is a call to conversion: “You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present time? Settlement with an Opponent. “Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?” (Lk12/56-57).

4.     Conversion is a call to change the mind—change the mentality. Luke has his style of illustrating this when, a little after the start of his gospel account we writes about Jesus saying that he came to call for conversion. A group of people recognizes the justice of God and they have themselves baptized by John (see Lk3/12). The “exemplary” minded others refuse the baptism (see Lk7/30). Still, in the style of organizing his text, Luke tells us of Jesus proclaiming through the use of parables—also a call for conversion. Certain persons suddenly accuse Jesus of conniving with Beelzebub (see 11/15). This opposition intensifies until the Jerusalem confrontation.

5.     In front of the way we may be judging one another is the call for conversion. If the “reign of God” is refused, well there is the “road to death”. It is, however, quite disappointing that this notion of “conversion” has been interpreted in ways at times distorted… turning off many people who see in it something so ecclesio-centric. Others like to see it as precisely “ecclesio-centric”. But to discuss this will require more space and time…not now.