Metanoia: a change of heart

The Bible in entirety explains us that we are weak and vulnerable and need the guiding hand of God. The gulf between man and God is ever increasing and man has no resources left behind to mend his ways. That does not mean God has no resources to draw man closer than ever to his own Heart, making him a son, a friend and a sacrament of his love on earth. Man knows that he is weak and vulnerable through the grace of God. Man wants to mend his ways and take a U turn only through the grace of God. That ability to take a U turn is otherwise called ‘conversion’.
The salvation history portray that God is in search of the lost coin, lost sheep, lost son and lost people. The lost coin is found and the woman shares the happiness with her friends. The lost sheep is found and the shepherd shares the happiness with others. The lost son is found and the prodigal father shares the happiness with a big number of people. We are told in Luke 15 ‘Just so, I tell you, there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents’. God rejoices over sinner turning to him. God shares the happiness and joy with his people. There is nothing as dear and loved by him as when people turn to him with true repentance. This brings us closer to the reality that we have the responsibility to make God happy and make God share that happiness with the people by constantly making efforts to change our minds and hearts and be busy with the father’s business: to love like God and serve Him alone.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that Jesus' call to conversion and penance does not aim first at outward works, "sackcloth and ashes," fasting and mortification, but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion. Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil. At the same time it entails the desire and resolution to change one's life, with hope in God's mercy and trust in the help of his grace.
Jesus’ first message on earth was, repent and believe in the gospel. The human heart is heavy and hardened. God must give man a new heart. Conversion is first of all a work of the grace of God who makes our hearts return to him: God gives us the strength to begin anew to restore in men the royal likeness which had been lost by the evil-smelling filthiness of passions.
Today’s Gospel talks to us about the son who changed his mind and went. His change of heart results in his willingness to work for the Kingdom of God. This is not only the personal conversion of a particular Christian rather a communal conversion of the whole church. Our beloved Pope JP II requested forgiveness from the whole world, saying “The Church is invited to become more fully conscious of the sinfulness of her children and encourages them to purify themselves, through repentance, of past errors and instances of infidelity, inconsistency and slowness to act. The responsibility of Christians for the evils of our time is likewise noted, although the accent falls particularly on the solidarity of the Church of today with past faults. Some of these are explicitly mentioned, like the separation of Christians, or the methods of violence and intolerance used in the past to evangelize.
This calls for a constant and strong towards God’s love and service. We must continue to grow to say ‘yes, I will go’ and live what we professed. Mary said yes and lived that yes all her life. Church imitates her in her humility by learning from her about how to say yes and also how to live that yes till the end. Let us pray that our commitment is blessed by God and guided by the Holy Spirit. Amen.