From the Priests' Desk

May 5, 2024

Sixth Sunday of Easter

What’s your conversion story? Do you have a conversion story? Was there ever a time when God wasn’t the center of your life, but then, either suddenly or gradually, He has become the center of your life? If the answer to that last question is “yes”, then I would say that that is your conversion story! If you are still unsure whether God is at the center of your life, and it’s okay to be unsure, then perhaps your story is still unfolding. In many ways, all our conversion stories are still unfolding, because offering our hearts completely to Jesus (i.e. our sins, our love, our hopes, our fears, and our dreams) is what conversion is, and that should take place every day for all of us.

I bring up conversion stories, because we get a little snippet of a great conversion story in this Sunday’s first reading. In the tenth chapter of Acts, Cornelius, a Roman soldier, converts to Christianity with the help of St. Peter. Cornelius was already a “God-fearing” man, but he didn’t quite know who Jesus was. Thus, an angel appeared to Cornelius in order to set up a meeting with Peter who could then tell him about Jesus. Meanwhile, Peter, minding his own business, also had a divine vision and was convinced by God that even non-Jews (i.e. Gentiles, and thus, Cornelius) should hear the message of Jesus. This shows how the apostles, like us sometimes, don’t always fully grasp Jesus’s mission. They had trouble understanding how Jesus didn’t just come for the Jews, but for the whole world.

Nonetheless, through divine coaxing, Peter came to Cornelius’s house and preached the message of Jesus to Cornelius and all his friends. Peter witnessed the Holy Spirit descend upon these Gentiles and was astonished, and so he had them baptized. That day, Peter was part of, and witnessed, many conversions.

To this day, that same Spirit is descending upon people all over the world, and many of these folks are knocking on the doors of the Catholic Church, asking to become Catholic. Some of them were baptized by Cardinal McElroy about a month ago inside our very own church of Good Shepherd, with the help of Deacon Manuel and the OCIA team. Conversions like Cornelius’s are happening all over the world, and that is no small thing. The Holy Spirit is still moving and calling people to entrust themselves to Jesus Christ, to give Jesus their whole heart, and to make God the center of their life. Let us pray for more conversions, let us not be afraid to share our own conversion stories so that we can inspire others, and let us never underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit who works in us and through us so that the whole world might be baptized and believe in Jesus Christ.

Fr. Matt Vasquez