CONSCIENCE OF SIN, AND CONVERSION.
March 20, 2022
Third Sunday of Lent - Year C.
“I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as
they did!” (Luke 13:3)
A Chinese proverb says: “Those who sacrifice their
conscience to ambition burn a priceless painting to obtain ashes.” And a
Spanish proverb adds: “Conscience is what tells you not to do what you have
just done.”
When God created man, he gave him something special that
could differentiate him from any other being and animal, his conscience. In
simple, conscience is an inner feeling or voice viewed as acting as a guide to
the rightness or wrongness of one's behavior. By definition, it is the moral
goodness or blameworthiness of one's own conduct, intentions, or character
together. When one loses his conscience, he no longer is responsible for his
actions, and not only so, he also loses the right discernment or judgment
between good and bad, right and wrong. It goes even till losing the notion of
sin. When one reaches that point, no conversion or change is possible. For,
before speaking of change, one must accept that what he did or is doing is
wrong. When one travels in a mistaken or wrong direction, unless he realizes
that he has mistaken the direction, he does not think of making a detour.
This Lenten Season is given to us as a time to take
conscience of sin and therefore think of conversion. God, in this time, invites
us to change our ways, to change our behavior, and to turn back to him. He is
always calling us, never lacking an opportunity to show us our evilness. Time
is short. Conversion, therefore, is for today, and now. No one is allowed to
delay this opportunity.
The readings, on this third Sunday of Lent, present the
urgency of conversion. In the first reading, the Lord Himself teaches us that
some things cannot be postponed longer than they already are. He saw the
suffering of his people. He heard their cries that come up from Egypt. So, he
decided, without delaying longer, to rescue them. To make it, he sends Moses.
The vocation and the mission of Moses are part of God's project to save his
people, to take them out from slavery. Moses, on his part, will leave aside any
personal plan and project of life and open himself to God's plan. The episode
of the encounter at the burning bush and the discussion that follows teach
about Moses’ readiness to be of God's use for the salvation of his people.
Himself has experienced more than once God's hands and salvation: Moses, saved
from the waters.
The journey to freedom and salvation, however, will not be
simple. It will pass through the experience of desert, temptations,
disobedience, evilness... Let's remember the Lord's temptations in the desert.
But in the end, it will open to glory, the message of the Transfiguration.
For us to see the glory the Lord prepares for us, we need a
conscience and awareness of our sinfulness. We need to accept that we all are
under the cloud of sin, pass therefore through the sea of purification, and
accept the Lord's call to change. It is an opportunity he gives us. Let's not
presume of our righteousness, unless we would like to fall lower.
In the Gospel, the Lord Jesus tells us clearly: "I tell
you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!" The example
of those who perished is a warning to us who are still alive. They were not
greater sinners than us, he says. Then the parenthesis of the fig tree and the
time asked by the keeper to dig around and fertilize it speaks of the time God
gives us for repentance. May we not miss this opportunity or misuse that time.
Today is the day of conversion.
It is the second and ever new chance God gives us. Let's
respond to it with gratitude and renewed dedication and conscientiousness to
change. Let's finish with this beautiful story speaking of a second chance. The
story goes that, “the Dallas Morning News carried a photo of some prisoners on
a work-release program. They were restoring a condemned house on the city’s
west side. Several days later one of the prisoners wrote the editor, saying:
“Thank you for the coverage… The last time my name and photograph were printed
in a newspaper took place the day I was sentenced… So it was a real joy to see
my picture in your paper doing something good… When I entered prison eighteen
months ago, I was a lot like the house we just remodeled… But God took charge
of my life and has made me a new creation in Christ.”
This day is a God-given opportunity to rewrite your story. Do not write it in words of sin, but in consciousness and conversion. First, as says the Catechism, be convinced of your sin. And then, open yourself to the opportunity of renewal through conversion now (CCC. 1848). Do not let later become never, repent today!
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