A Catholic on Conversion

One of the most difficult challenges we Catholics are faced with is bringing about conversion in a world where many people don't believe that God exists at all. It is probably more difficult to evangelize in this day and age than when Jesus' original 12 disciples were sent out to spread the Good News of The Gospel.

The fact is thatin the beginning of the Christ phenomenon, the majority of people did believed in a god - in one form or another. And, it was their willingness to believe, and the gift of Faith, that motivated their quest for the Truth.

That being said, I believe one of the most demanding parts of our mission, when answering The Call to the New Evangelization, is to convert those people who already think that they are Catholic to (real or true) Catholicism. They are the people who vaguely remember their childhood catechism, who trip over the words of familiar prayers, and who bury a statue of Saint Joseph upside down in their backyard, or carry a Knight's of Columbus card in their wallets as though it were a "get out of jail free" card. They are the ones who say: I got my own thing going on with God.

How can we reach these folks? How do we encourage people - who think they are already Catholic - to redefine their experience so that Christianity (or being a true Christian?) informs their lives and guides their hearts? How do we convince the ones who do not see the need for, because they feel that they have already "jumped through the hoops" required of them by, the Catholic Church (being Baptized, attending Sunday Mass, and receiving an occasional sacrament ) that there is more to being a Catholic Christian than arbitrarily fulfilling the basic requirements of the Church? How do we help people find delight and amazement inside the framework of their Lives of Faith?

Christianity must return to that place in people's lives where it governs the way they see the world and it governs the way they live their lives and respond to one another. The problem is: No one enjoys being governed! So now what? In a culture where people have become their own god, how might we encourage them to eliminate that false idol so that one day they might turn and say: "My Lord and my God", and not be looking in the mirror? Christianity is: The love of God and the love of neighbor. What Christianity isn't...is the love of self.