Fr. Jorge Miró shares with Exaudi readers his commentary on the Gospel of this Sunday, December 8, 2024, entitled “Everyone will see God’s salvation”
Last Sunday we said that the Lord is knocking at the door of your life today to give you a new life, to live in you.
But it turns out that this door has a lock on the inside. That is, only you can open it or… leave it closed.
And this is the conversion to which the Word invites us today. The Lord is knocking at the door of your heart today: open it! Do not be afraid! Jesus Christ does not take away anything that makes you happier, but he comes to give you everything.
The conversion to which the Lord calls you is not a mere compliance with rules. Conversion is an act of faith that leads you to return to Jesus Christ, to let the Lord enter your life, but to enter, not just for a visit, but to let Him be the Lord of your life, of your whole life!
Conversion is a gift, it is letting the Holy Spirit reproduced the image of Jesus Christ in you. Conversion is not so much something that you have to do, but something that happens in you, that the Holy Spirit does in you, if you let Him, of course.
Having a spirit of conversion means believing that Jesus Christ is the only Master and the only Lord. It means living each day with the desire and the hope of being better, of growing, of maturing, of changing those attitudes in your life that are not in accordance with the will of God.
It means not simply following the desires of your heart, wounded by original sin, nor following the fashions, nor the lifestyle of the world, but rather focusing on Jesus Christ, the Lord of lords. Likewise, it means asking the Lord every day to give you a new heart, increasingly similar to His.
To convert is to accept God’s will, to trust in Him, not to seek human and earthly security.
Conversion leads to the total following of the Lord. Following Jesus Christ means realizing that having faith is not just having four ideas in your head.
Having faith is being in love with Jesus Christ, it is living a life of friendship and union with Him, in His Body, which is the Church. It is following in His footsteps, walking the path He has marked out for us. It is not conforming to a passive fulfillment of the commandments, but trying to live each day more united to Him, more filled with Him.
Conversion means that you have to take Christian life seriously. Do not trust that you are baptized or that you go to Mass every Sunday. It is necessary, but it is not enough! You have to live according to the Word of God, try to be faithful to Jesus Christ and the Church, and perform works of mercy and charity.
It is discovering that the goal is eternal life, relativizing the things of this world, and trying to put your heart in God, and always living from God. It is discovering that the most important “business” you have is salvation, that it is of no use to one to gain the whole world, if one loses one’s soul.
Therefore, today it is necessary that you make a deep review of your life, that you look carefully at your heart in the light of the Word of God and the doctrine of the Church and ask the Lord for a new heart that can live in His will.
That you put your life in the hands of the Lord, that you return to Him, that you be patient with yourself. God never stops loving you, and He who began the good work in you, He Himself will bring it to its end. If you open your heart to the Lord, He will do great works in you.
Come, Holy Spirit!
