Faith in Jesus is intimately linked to the heart, so that in order to accurately discern what it means to believe in Jesus, we need to understand exactly what the word heart is in the Sacred Text. ‘focus, point to our existential center, is the core of our being, is this place where all our motivations, anxieties, joys, fears, sadnesses, euphoria and intentions reside.
The heart unduly covets what does not belong to it, because it is also the residence of the most sublime and shameful feelings we have towards others. This is where we testify intimately, without mask or filter, how bad we are and how much we have. are restored, or not, by the Holy Spirit. The heart is the center of everything, it is home to the truth of the life of each of us.
- Jesus presents the heart as the source of all the most perverse of human life (Mt 15:19).
- Sin and evil are intrinsic to us.
- Our wickedness is voluntary.
- We are each of us disobedient by nature.
- Miserable creatures who desperately need the gracious intervention of the Trinity to get out of the jam of rebellion against God the Father in which we find ourselves.
Therefore, conversion cannot be confused with something superficial, mundane, too easy. We are talking about a process of structural proportions in a person’s life. Biblical conversion cannot be confused with an emotion, a hand lift, or a prayer performed before a congregation.
Conversion cannot be reduced to the festive presentation of numbers by church leaders at the end of their events, where it is not uncommon for the gospel of Jesus to have even been preached now, how can we say that in the absence of gospel preaching, there are new real converts?
Conversion is much more than becoming a member of the fashionable church that has the movement of the moment. It is more than looking for the name with the best praise, the best light, the best sound or with the most “cool” crowd. these things are false in themselves, yet biblical conversion is light years away.
Conversion involves a radical transformation of the heart, a life of idolatry and sins left behind, and the adoption of a new way of existence, based solely on the teachings of Jesus, is a painful process of changing mindsets, assumptions and worldview, none of which will always be simple.
Unfortunately, we may spend years attending services, retreats, evangelism, shows and all kinds of religious environments, but at the same time we are completely estranged from God and a true relationship with Jesus, they have transformed an important part of life. Church in a supermarket of faith and Jesus in a multi-product that satisfies all our vain narcissistic and evil aspirations All this is the result of our fallen nature and our sinful heart that has broken with the values of the Kingdom of God and with God. Worse, Christians fall in love with this lie, feed it, spread it ourselves.
Our attention and vigilance should be to assess whether we are not involved, Sunday after Sunday, retirement after retirement, praise after praise, in a lie disguised as a Christian religion. If we do not seek spiritual ecstasy and chills instead of the gospel of the contrite heart, or if we do not seek satisfaction and contentment, elsewhere, when in reality, he who is in all, is the only one who can truly satisfy the most intimate desires and needs of our lives.
I pray that your conclusion in examining you is not that your conversion is, in fact, a great mess, but if so, rejoice, there is still time for real change, repent, cry out to the Holy Spirit to change your way of life and see the world of God, do it every day. This is the Master’s order!
May God cover us with his mercy and reach us with his infinite love, and let our awareness of the depth and seriousness of what it means to convert to the Lord be more refined and judicious, so that our life is more and more abandoned in the foot of the cross, to the honor and praise of Christ our Lord.