To Become Reconciled

Let us recollect ourselves for a moment, so as to open ourselves to the action of the Holy Spirit. Let us ask Our Lady to make us faithful to the directives issued by the Holy Father who, on many occasions, has encouraged us to undertake a spiritual renewal. This is an appeal for a deep conversion, a reform that is interior, but also, in certain respects, exterior. This transformation will come about through a reconciliation, through a re-establishment of an authentic relationship with God, in humility and love.

Lord Jesus, change us and we shall be changed; convert us and we shall be converted.

To be converted, to become reconciled means, first of all, turning to God. It means accepting Him in our life with all that this acceptance implies; it means recognizing that God is our Creator and Master. When a soul of good will has understood that and it strives to live according to the commandments and the requirements of the Gospel, it experiences the truth of Jesus’ words: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his justice, and all the rest will be given you besides.” Like Mary, this soul lives of FAITH.

To live of faith is to enter with Mary into the mystery of men’s waiting… the mystery of our life in the faith… the mystery of a waiting that goes on in apparent futility, and yet impossible to discover. Let us repeat to ourselves that the Lord will come again; let us revive our hope of seeing His glorious countenance one day.

Lord Jesus, change us and we shall be changed; convert us and we shall be converted.

To be converted, to become reconciled means turning, with Mary, to our brethren.

It means staying in communion, like her, with all those who are humiliated, forgotten, suffering in our world of sin, and this requires a more heroic effort than that of distributing all our possessions in alms. We become weary so easily over not knowing what to do or over doing so little or doing it so poorly, and sometimes we feel so very much alone because we have taken what the Gospel says seriously.

Lord, too often, I have thought of myself as the center of the world, of my family, of my milieu. Now, I want to forget myself, to vanish, to leave all the room to my neighbor. I want to change the way I look at things, meet you in my brethren, love you and serve you in them.

Lord Jesus, change us and we shall be changed; convert us and we shall be converted.

To be converted, to become reconciled, means entering with Mary into the mystery of her intimacy with God.

It means deepening the mystery of her YES to the events in her life. The events of every day are words addressed to us by God, for the events are always the bearers of a message, a revelation of the power and tenderness of God. Why be afraid if the earth changes, if men become agitated, when the only thing that matters is the Lord’s face?

We must refuse to let ourselves be impressed inordinately by the upheavals in today’s world, by the problems that arise, and concentrate our inner or spiritual regard on that point on the horizon from which we will see rising the Lord’s face. No, nothing can ever prevent us from seeing His face, nothing can separate us from the love of God manifested in Jesus Christ.

Lord Jesus, we await the revelation of your glorious countenance, and we ask this of you, through Mary. Change us and we shall be changed; convert us and we shall be converted.

To be converted, to become reconciled means living with Mary.

It means keeping watch with her; it also means going into the depths of our own heart and meeting God in prayer. In fact, through prayer, we discover that we are inhabited by God. He is a living Presence in us from whom we are incessantly receiving everything. Prayer does not create that Presence, but renders us attentive to it. It opens us to the mystery of God’s personal love for each one of us. It creates in us an attitude of openness, of availability, of presence, for to pray is not to remain isolated – it is living – living our everyday life with Someone – with the only One whom we can meet in the very depths of ourselves and with whom we can be entirely and freely open.

Lord Jesus! We await the revelation of your glorious countenance and we ask this of you through Mary. Change us and we shall be changed; convert us and we shall be converted. Teach us to remain in your company in the very depths of our heart.

To be converted, to become reconciled means to stand firm in the faith, in hope and charity.

Not only does it mean having faith, but also living of this faith. It means showing those who look at us that we have taken the Gospel seriously. It means believing that the poor and those who are persecuted for justice’s sake in our world, which is increasingly dominated by money and all kinds of inequalities, are blessed, and it also means committing ourselves to be poor, meek, but at the same time to fighting against injustice and destitution, and doing all we can to bring relief to those around us.

It means believing that the pure of heart in this world dominated by eroticism are blessed, and it also means committing ourselves to be pure, to respect the innocence of children, to protect it, to fight against obscene movies and publications, to fight against those who make it their duty to sublimate evil.

It means believing that the peacemakers in our world dominated by war are blessed, and it is also committing ourselves to being peacemakers in our own family, our workplace or places of leisure, and of fighting with all our strength to avoid misunderstandings, discords and divisions or to set things right or make amends for them.

It means hoping that God will grant us the grace of taking another step forward each day in the fulfillment of what we believe in and what we wish to practise.

Finally, it means believing that, if there are many ways of loving our neighbor, there is only one way of loving God and that is by loving our neighbor.

Lord Jesus, please change us and we shall be changed, convert us and we shall be converted! Amen.