At this time of year, there is no more beautiful place to be than New England. Everything here bursts into color as the seasons change; as if the whole world was being transformed one leaf at a time.
Our spiritual lives can be a lot like that. Conversion is ongoing, because it needs to be—and it needs to be because it can’t be otherwise. Every aspect of our lives doesn’t change all at once: not in a single day, or year, or maybe even decade. But every aspect of our lives must be transformed. The light of Christ must spread to every darkened corner. God wants to save all of all of us; not just some, or some of us.
Redemption and sanctification aren’t off-the-rack or one-size-fits-all. The saving love of Christ comes to each of us in a unique way. That is the mystery we celebrate at All Saints and All Souls. Every conversion is the journal of God’s grace operating in a particular life. And while the fire of divine initiative begins somewhere, its objective is to spread everywhere.
A cursory look at the lives of the saints reveals how God draws each soul to himself according to a person’s strengths and needs. Thomas Aquinas meets God with his mind, and Thérèse of Lisieux finds him with her heart. Dorothy Day is attracted by a hunger for justice and compassion, while an Augustine is moved by an awareness of his own sin. Edith Stein and Saul of Tarsus are awakened by a spiritual revelation.
A believer’s first life-altering encounter with God may occur in an intellectual, moral, spiritual, social, or emotional way. But it is God’s plan that every one of us should, layer by layer and part by part, become whole and holy. We do that only to the extent that we become wholly His.
The Christian life offers a path of conversion for every aspect of who we are, one which God uses to gently shape us into who He created us to be.
When I consider how I have answered God’s call in my own life, it’s clear that my own conversion is still a work in progress. Not all of me has turned to God, and not all that I have given Him has remained His and His alone. I may not yet be able to love Him with all my heart and mind and soul and strength, or my neighbor as myself, but His grace will not leave any of us as we are. One step, one day, one layer or aspect or leaf at a time, “the one who began a good work in [us] will continue to complete it” (Phil. 1:6).
Copyright 2015, Jaymie Stuart Wolfe
Jaymie Stuart Wolfe
Author of Adoption: Room for One More? (2015), Jaymie Stuart Wolfe is a Catholic convert, wife, and mother of eight mostly-grown children. She has written and edited numerous books for both adults and kids, and works for Our Sunday Visitor as an Acquisitions Editor. Under Loaves and Fishes Ministry, Jaymie reaches out through word and song as an author, columnist, speaker, and musician. She is a co-founder of Live + Jesus, a group embracing the spirituality of Saint Francis de Sales and promoting the Works of Mercy in daily life. A graduate of Harvard University, Jaymie also holds a Master of Arts in Ministry degree from St. John's Seminary in Boston. Jaymie lives in Massachusetts with her husband and family (and a continually evolving menagerie of exotic and ordinary animals). Follow Jaymie @YouFeedThem or connect on FB, Amazon, Goodreads.
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