For the past two months I’ve been volunteering with the Missionaries of Charity at their Gift of Love hospice home in Pacifica, CA. The Missionaries of Charity are Mother Theresa’s religious order professing lifelong vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, and to give wholehearted and free service to the poorest of the poor. Needless to say this experience has utterly and completely flipped my world upside down. There is one Sister in particular who has taken a vested interest in praying for my “conversion.” You see this didn’t make much sense to me when she first said she was going to start praying for this intention because, well, I ‘converted’ a little over two years ago. It was at this moment she pointed to a picture of Blessed Mother Theresa and under it read, “every act of love is an act of peace, joy and unity.” She said, “You see, Dylan, when you are in despair and you feel as though there is little you can do to help the residents of this house, you are not loving. When we perform acts out of love we feel at peace, we feel joy; we find unity with that person. We all must pray for conversion every day.” This resonated very deeply within me as I realized that conversion is a lifelong process of turning away from the World, and turning towards Christ. Each time we turn towards something, we renounce something else. Immediately I thought of the Latin word, 'converto, convertere' which means, “to turn round," or, "turn back.” A conversion of heart requires that we turn away from the disordered desires of our own hearts, and turn back to desires and will God has for our lives. What is the will of God for all our lives you ask? To love.
In The Gospel of Matthew a Pharisee who knew the Mosaic Law by heart tests Jesus and asks him this question, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:35-40). What Jesus is saying is that everything else that we are ‘supposed’ to do rests on our willingness to love. When we love God above all else and turn back to Him we feel at peace, we feel joy; we are united with Him just as when we love our neighbor as ourselves do we feel at peace, do we feel joy, and are we united with him. The simplest and most profound answer I have received when I ask, “How do I fall in love with God?” is this, “How do you fall in love with anyone else? By spending time with them.” To this extent we can practically fall in love with God in many ways: by spending time with Him in prayer, in His Word, by partaking in communion, or adoring Him in front of the Blessed Sacrament, and perhaps one way that has changed my heart the most this summer as written in The Gospel of Matthew, “Truly, I tell you, whatever you did for the one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40). Jesus thirsts for your love, and wants to give you so much peace and joy and for you to feel united with Him. Open your heart, turn back to Him each day – that’s all it takes - and quench His thirst.
Dylan
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