Converted

One of the spiritual emails I receive is called “Brother Give Us a Word.” Each day the Society of St. John the Evangelist (SSJE), a monastic order of Episcopal men in Cambridge, Massachusetts, sends out a short quotation from one of the brothers. The concept goes back to early Christianity when seekers would go to the Desert Fathers and Mothers and ask them to “Give me a word.” The seeker was asking for a word of wisdom or pithy spiritual advice that would help them in their spiritual journey. today they are usually a quote lifted from sermons or writings of the brothers.

This week Br. David Vryhoff wrote, “The call to follow Christ is a call to a lifelong process of conversion. It requires us to let go of our former identities – built on our gifts, our achievements, and our social standing – in order to embrace a new identity in Christ. It invites us to become changed people: people whose lives are characterized by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and humility. It summons us to treat every person we meet with dignity and respect, seeing that they too are made in the image of God.”

Br. David lets us in on a little secret. Conversion is not an overnight occurrence. As the old joke goes, “When the tourist asked directions a man (who unbeknownst to the tourist was a concert pianist) ‘How do I get to Carnegie Hall?’ The pianist answered, ‘Practice. Practice. Practice.'” One might be able to designate a starting point or particular event that spurred conversion, but conversion is a process not an event.

To be converted to Christ is not just to accept that Christ is one’s savior. That merely marks the beginning of the process of converting the person we have been for all of our life to the one that God calls us to be. Regardless of how or where we are raised we have identities, loves, cares, achievements, fears, foibles, and many more attachments which make up the person we are. We have to shed those in such a way that the light of Christ that is within us can shine through.

Each day, month and year our conversion, if we are mindful, continues. We may appear to be the same person but we change to become more Christ-like. The former attachments fall away and are replaced by “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and humility.” These are the characteristics exhibited by Jesus as he reflected God to us in human form.

It is not easy, this conversion business. It requires patience with one’s self as we let go of some things and get a firmer grasp on others. It may seem scary at times. We may wonder where the old, familiar me has gone. Others may ask the same question. But as we live into what Richard Rohr calls the “authentic self” we will feel more at home in our skin because we are becoming the person we were meant to be from before the beginning of time.

To subscribe to “Brother Give US a Word” and other publications of the Society fo St. John the Evangelist go to https://www.ssje.org/subscribe/