We are now in the second half of the season of Lent. As noted in my column last week, a key issue in a fruitful celebration of Lent is to find ways to assure that the spiritual progress made during Lent stays with us during the entire Church year and becomes the foundation for ongoing growth.

One way that can help us with the issue of perseverance is to understand and reflect on the conversion process. A lack of understanding of the conversion process opens us to the unfortunate pattern of peak conversion experiences that are soon followed by recidivism (a return to a superficial relationship with God or to prior behaviour of not living the Catholic Christian life well at all).

Conversion as a concept

Conversion means a turning from sinful priorities to God in a way that touches both personal integrity and the good of the Christian community. Notice that the definition of conversion is not just about “the self”. Conversion is not always to be understood as the movement from sin to grace.

It includes the dimension of growth in a grace-filled life that is often called ongoing initiation in Christ. Conversion is not to be understood as a religious experience without reference to a doctrinal base and ethical imperatives. Nor is it to be confused with New Age self-improvement projects.

Christian conversion embraces three separate but related dynamics:

1) A turning from spiritual superficiality and/or sin;

2) A turning to God;

3) The choice of a lifestyle that facilitates perseverance in the process of turning to God, which pursues the truth and integrates the truth in our lives.

The challenge of conversion

Why do so many people not persevere in the conversion process after Lent? Why do some become discouraged personally and begin to think that spirituality is impossible? Why have some people actually concluded that, based on their experience, religion just doesn't work.

The answer to those questions brings us back to the concept of conversion. The reason why people who make a serious attempt at personal conversion frequently fail is that they do not incorporate all three steps in their attempted change of life.

They do in fact try to turn from superficial spirituality and sin but then they stop. They turn from sin but they do not turn to God. No wonder they fail! No one can live in emptiness. The Christian life is not just a call to rejecting spiritual superficiality and sin. It is a call to life with God. It is not a call to negativity. It is a call to become a new creation.

Turning to God

The process of turning to God, the second step in the concept of conversion, is a positive step that brings meaning to our lives through relationship with God. A commitment to the second step of turning to God does not eliminate human frailty or human weakness.

Therefore, we must accept our responsibility to feed our relationship with God in the Spirit so we are prepared for the spiritual battle that is part of conversion.

In my columns in the Catholic News over the last five years, I have stated repeatedly the importance of the principle of lifelong catechesis. I have specified what that means by using the Think Four Formula: knowledge of the faith, formation based on that knowledge, commitment to the Lord based on formation and finally mission.

I have explained that lifelong catechesis is not just about faith knowledge. It is about the entire Think Four package. I have stressed how each element of the formula must interact in our lives and interact all the days of our lives if we are to be engaged in the unending turning to God dynamic.

The Think Four Formula is an excellent and practical way for us to turn to God. The formation and commitment components challenge our prayer life and our surrender to God.

Choosing a Christian lifestyle

The third element of the conversion process is choosing a lifestyle that facilitates perseverance. What does that mean practically? Similar to the love relationship in marriage, it means that we work at our relationship with God every day.

Our lives must include prayer (personal and liturgical), openness and fidelity to the sacramental life of the Church, feeding our minds and hearts with reading, filling our lives with dialogue and sharing our lives in service.

Allow me to share an interesting fact about perseverance! Monasteries and Religious Communities have had the custom for centuries of praying explicitly each day for the gift of perseverance.

Frequently, it is related to the Marian prayer forms of the Church or prayer forms in their traditions. With all the challenges to the Christian life that we must face daily, it may be helpful if we all began to follow that laudable practice.

Let us go back to the definition and implications of conversion that were stated above and concentrate briefly on the issue of pursuing the truth. What truth? Two kinds of truth:
1) personal truth - the truth of our own story – analyzing it and dealing with it without denial; and
2) faith truth – the foundations of our faith that enable us to understand self in Christ and to deal with and to be in dialogue with others regarding the complicated issues of our very troubled world.

The elements of personal integrity and commitment to community contained in the definition of conversion apply here. Personal integrity is the explicitly chosen connection between faith and life. Too many people live with a significant disconnect between faith and life.

Commitment to community is based on the nature of the Christian life: the “I” must become a “we” in both Church and world. Christianity is and Christians should be very uncomfortable with a spirituality that distances itself from community.

Conclusion

I hope this brief reflection on conversion will be helpful to people considering the Christian life as a life option and for those who may be living it superficially or struggling with recidivism.