Keeping in theme with the Catholics Come Home campaign, and Fr. Mullady's Parish Mission theme, Conversion of Heart, I thought it would be appropriate to share a wonderful reflection on moral conversion by Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M., from his book, Deep Conversion / Deep Prayer. In his book, he beings by sharing a story about Saint Bernard of Clairvaux:"The young abbot was speaking to his community one day, and he made a remark that shocked me on my first reading of it. 'There are more people converted form mortal sin to grace, than there are religious converted from good to better.' Over the years the more I have experienced of life and thought about this statement the more I have been convinced of its truth. Yet one may ask, what is so shocking about it?
. . .
"Bernard was saying that there are more men who give up serious alienation from God, mortal sin, than there are people who give up small wrongs, willed venial sins. And there are even fewer who grow into heroic virtue and live as saints live. If we are not saddened by this realization, we ought to be.
. . .
"A large part of the sadness is the expectation that anyone who basically loves another (real sacrificing love, not mere attraction) in important matters (for example, a husband loving his wife), would naturally go on to love her in smaller ones. I would assume that he would stop being grouchy and abrupt and harsh, that he would be at pains to be kind and gentle, patient and forgiving. I would assume the same in her behavior toward him.
"A step further: We would suppose that a person who realistically and fundamentally loves God would be at pains to avoid all smaller offenses against him: gossiping, laziness, overeating, as well as the venial sins mentioned in our previous paragraph -- and myriads of other minor wrongs... Most of us would like to think that this person would go on to prove his love further even to the point of total self-giving, even under the duress, hardships and sacrifices entailed in persevering in heroic holiness. But everyone knows that such is unhappily a rare occurrence in the human family. Something is amiss -- and on a large scale. Yes, if everything were normal in society, deep conversion would be common, and life would be incomparably happier for everyone.
What is Moral Conversion?
"To a goodly number of people the idea of moral conversion is heavily negative, even threatening. It suggests giving up fun things, making sacrifices, cutting down and cutting out, getting rid of numerous selfishnesses. This reaction is understandable, but it is only the smaller aspect of a larger and liberating truth.
"An accurate synonym for conversion, as we are using the word here, would be transformation. Put simply, conversion is a basic and marked improvement on the willing level of the human person. Even more pointedly, it is a fundamental change in our willed activities from bad to good, from good to better, and from better to best. Anyone who is fully alive will find this a stimulating set of ideas. We can put the matter in still another way. Conversion is a change from vice to virtue . . . from deceit and lying to honesty and truth . . . gluttony to temperance . . . vanity to humility . . . lust to love . . . avarice to generosity . . . rage to patience . . . laziness to zeal . . . ugliness to beauty."
