Homily on Nativity of St John the Baptist

Homily 3rd Sunday of OT Year B 2015 Jonah 3:1-5, 10; 1 Cor 7:29-31; Mk 1:14-20

Today I present to you a pair of catch phrases, meant to be kept foremost in your consciousness: the call to conversion and the commitment to change. // Faithful Christian disciples take on a commitment to change, because they hear, listen, and respond to, the call to conversion, Christ continually echoes in their ears.

Jesus is always inviting us to something more. // I know ‘repent’ probably makes you think only of turning away from sin, like the Ninevites did, but it has a broader meaning. The Greek word used in the gospel for ‘repent’ is metanoia, which can be translated as ‘change of heart or mind’.

That kind of change is certainly required for turning away from sin, but it’s also involved in other kinds of conversion, like the call to discipleship and deeper relationship with God, offered to Simon, Andrew, James and John.

The commitment to change can’t only involve an interior one. It starts with your mind and heart, sure; but if change on the inside is not manifested outwardly by changes in the way you live your life, then it’s not authentic change at all, but superficial lip service at best, and full blown hypocrisy at worst.

I just said Jesus is always inviting us to something more, and that’s true. But he’s not inviting each of us to the same thing. He does not desire cookie cutter Christian disciples. He desires a unique relationship with each of us, and he has a unique plan for each of us.

Therefore, the process of conversion is not going to be exactly the same for any of us, as we open ourselves to the change required for growth in our faith, and love for Christ. There will be shared experiences and challenges among us, but it will prove counterproductive if we seek to compare ourselves, for the purpose of figuring out if we’re doing it ‘right’.

You see, when God loved you into being, he had a clear vision and purpose for your life. That is your only standard ... who God wants you to be. The difference between that person, and who you actually are today, is the only thing you should focus on. That’s the gap that needs to be closed by your embrace of ongoing conversion.

Rev. Michael G. Cambi 1 1/25/2015 Just to back that up with a little authority, I’ll turn first to our country’s bishops and then St. Frances de Sales. The bishops wrote a document called “Go and Make Disciples” way back in 1992, and it talks at length about conversion, in the context of evangelization.

It defines conversion quite simply, saying it “is the change of our lives that comes about through the power of the Holy Spirit.” That’s important. If the Spirit empowers the change, the Spirit will make known the change that is required. So ask the Spirit everyday, for both enlightenment and empowerment!

The bishops go on to say, “We know that people experience conversion in many ways. Some experience a sudden, shattering insight that brings rapid transfor- mation. Some ... a gradual growth over many years. Others undergo conversion [through] RCIA.

Many experience conversion through the ordinary relationships of family and friends; others ... through the formation ... from Catholic schools and religious education programs; still others ... through renewals, retreats, parish missions, ecumenical encounters, or ... the great spiritual movements that have blessed church life.”

St. Frances de Sales, wrote a book called Introduction to the Devout Life. He uses the term ‘devotion’ to refer to living a devout Christian life, and what he writes about that, affirms that the path of conversion to deeper intimacy with Christ, varies from person to person.

“Devotion must be practiced in different ways by the nobleman and by the working man, by the servant and by the prince, by the widow, by the unmarried girl and by the married woman. The practice of devotion must be adapted to the strength, to the occupation, and to the duties of each one in particular.

Tell me whether it is proper for a bishop to want to lead a solitary life like a [religious], or for married people to be no more concerned than a [religious] about increasing their income; or for a working man to spend his whole day in church; or ... for a religious to be ... exposed like a bishop to all ... that bears on the needs of our neighbor. Is not this sort of devotion ridiculous, unorganized and intolerable?”

Rev. Michael G. Cambi 2 1/25/2015 He concludes the section on practicing devotion in different ways with this injunction, “Therefore, in whatever situations we happen to be, we can and we must aspire, to the life of perfection.”

So nobody is exempt from the call to conversion and the commitment to change. Just like the citizens of Nineveh ... all of them, great and small, believed God, proclaimed a fast, put on sackcloth, and turned from their evil way.

The Ninevites point us to something that is both emblematic an inescapable re- garding change. Change hurts. It requires sacrifice and suffering. Going hungry and sitting in sackcloth is not easy: it’s uncomfortable and painful.

But that voluntary penance is merely symbolic, of the more profound suffering involved with turning from their evil way, with changing their lives, with conversion to the people God wants them to be.

Now consider the first four disciples in the gospel. It sounded so easy, didn’t it? Jesus comes strolling along and says, “Hey guys, come follow me.” And they do, abandoning all that they knew, both family and livelihood, simply on the word of some stranger, who promised to make them fishers of men. They were probably thinking, “Just what exactly is a fisher of men anyway?”

Mark’s gospel is the shortest gospel; it’s intentionally light on the details. I will not deny the power in an encounter with Jesus to effect immediate and radical change in a person. But although Mark doesn’t mention it, the apostles had to have experienced some significant inner turmoil by choosing to leave everything familiar behind, for the sake of an unknown future with Jesus.

I can say that with confidence because I did something very similar. I abandoned a secure professsional career, in which I’d invested five years of college at great expense, and eleven years of my life developing a resume and an engineering expertise, all to follow a call that would lead me far from my family, for the rest of my life.

When it comes to financial investments, they say, “No risk, no reward.” Well, for me, the reward was huge, and the risk was mitigated, because at the same time I risked venturing out into the unknown, I entrusted myself to the Lord, with faith that if I let him, he would make me an effective, enthused, and exhilarated, fisher of men.

Rev. Michael G. Cambi 3 1/25/2015 I don’t know the specifics around what the Lord wants to make of you, but I know he wants to make you his saints. That might be a matter of changing how you’re living within your current career, your community, and your relationships, or it might be a matter of radically changing your life.

How will you know, which way to go...? Entrust yourself to the Lord Jesus, and call on his Holy Spirit. // How will you know conversion is really happening? Remember the four signs of a Dynamic Catholic: Prayer, Study, Generosity, Evangelization.

And as you come to the start of each new year, reflect on the one gone by, and ask yourself these questions. Did I learn more, serve more, love more, give more, pray more? Did I share my faith more often?

Was I more present to my parish and to those in need? Did I lose more of myself for the sake of God and the Church? Did it cost me more as I witnessed to Christ more consistently and courageously before others?

Sisters and brothers, it might not seem so, but the world is passing away. It’s certainly taking a lot longer than St. Paul had envisioned, but with each day, we draw nearer to the new heavens and the new earth, that will be ushered in when Christ comes again.

So we must live within that context, against the horizon of eternity. We must live, in other words, not as if life in this world is an end in itself. Life in this world is, instead, a means to our ultimate end – the experience of perfect peace, joy and love, that comes from forever basking, in the glory of God.

God’s glory awaits all those, who take to heart these words, written by our bishops over twenty years ago. “Unless we undergo conversion, we have not truly accepted the Gospel. This is crucial: we must be converted, and we must continue to be converted!

We must let the Holy Spirit change our lives! We must respond to Jesus Christ. And we must be open to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, who will continue to convert us, as we follow Christ.”

Rev. Michael G. Cambi 4 1/25/2015