-  THE  THEOLOGY  OF  CONVERSION  - 

This raises the important question of how man may become more than he was - of what happens when a person is converted. The answer is this: A human is lifted to the super-natural order and is converted from a creature to a partaker of the Divine nature. This can come about only through the grace of God, with which the person freely cooperates.

There is throughout nature a law that says that no lower order is ever lifted into a higher order without two things: There must be a descent of the higher order to the lower order, and second, the lower order must surrender itself to the higher. Before the phosphates, the carbon, the sunlight, and the moisture can be absorbed into plant life, the plant must come down to the chemical order and take it up into itself; and the phosphates, the carbon, the sunlight, and the moisture must give up their lower existence when they are elevated. The plant cannot begin to live in the animal unless first the animal comes down to the plant life and lifts it up into itself; but the plant, too, immolates itself for the animal - it must be torn up from the roots and ground beneath the very jaws of death; then, and then only, does it begin to live in the animal kingdom and to share the joys of sentiency that it did not possess before. The animal begins to live in man only when man goes down to the animal and takes it unto himself; but the animal, in its turn, must itself to the knife and to the fire, for only by surrendering its lowly existence can it begin to live in the higher kingdom of man; then the animal participates in the life of a thinking, willing, and loving human being. If the plants and the animals could speak, they would say to the things that are below them, "Unless you die to yourself, you cannot live in my kingdom." man, who can speak, says to the chemicals, the plants and the animals, "Unless you die to your lower nature, you cannot begin to live in my kingdom." The reward for the immolation of all these lower orders is that they now live in man a far more magnificent kind of existence than they could attain in themselves. They fall under a new government, their existence is ennobled, their life is enriched, their nature is elevated; this is the reward of their surrender.

How does man begin to live the higher life in God? First of all, God must come down to him/her, the Eternal must invade human history: This is the meaning of the Incarnation. Second, man must himself surrender his lower nature. But here there appears a difference between man and all other creatures - man is a person, which sunshine, grass, and cows are not. Their lower natures are destroyed by surrendering themselves to man, but since man/woman is a person, his/her personality is indestructible. What man surrenders, then, is not his whole nature, but only that portion of it which is sinful, which is ungodlike. In conversion a man/woman suffers a mortification, a kind of spiritual death, but his/her personality survives.

The specific act by which a human dies to his/her lower nature is the Sacrament of Baptism. This commencement of his supernatural life does not mark a mere change of direction, but an elevation or, better still, a re-generation. We can therefore understand why the old man in the Gospel story who asked what he must do to be saved was told by Our Lord Blessed Lord that he must be born again. The aged Nicodemus thought that these words meant that he must enter again into his mother's womb; but Our Lord Jesus informed him that "...unless a person be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he/she cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit" - John 3:5-6 - The very heart of Christianity is the inspiration for man to strive to become something that he/she is not: "But as many as received him, he gave them power to be made the children of God, to them that believe in his name: Who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." - John 1:12-13 - 

As the soul gives life to the body, so does grace, or participation in the Divine Nature, give life to the soul. A body can be alive when its soul is dead. To the eyes of the spirit, every city and town is filled with such spiritual cadavers. The people seem to be alive; they eat, they go to movies, marry, talk politics, and they have one chance in 12,000 of being interviewed for a Kinsey Report - but their souls are dead. Yet this death need not be permanent, for while there is physical life, there is spiritual hope for everyone. So long as there is breath, there is still a possibility that the human nature will be divinized by grace.

Those who are spiritual alive do not see Jesus Christ as just a moral teacher or a great humanitarian; they know that He might be more appropriately called the Great Divinitarian, God in human flesh, true God and true man, whose purpose in coming to this earth was to give back to us that supernatural life which was lost through the original sin: "I come so that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly". - John 10:10 - In the universe, seen from the Divine point of view, there are no races or nations; there are, however, two humanities. There are those who are born of the flesh, and they belong to the humanity of Adam; but those who are born of the spirit belong to the new and redeemed humanity of the new Adam, Christ, Who was mothered through Mary. What physical birth is to the child of nature, Baptism is to the spiritual child of God. Children resemble their parents because they share the same nature; so, thanks to Baptism, spiritual children begin to resemble God, for now they are born of His Nature.

There are other parallels between the physical and the supernatural: For the human race to carry on its natural life, seven conditions are required - they must be born; they must be nourished; some of them must grow to maturity and assume its responsibilities; if their bodies are wounded, the wounds must be healed; if there is disease, the traces of that disease must be driven out; there must be propagation, to perpetuate the race; and humanity, to survive, must live under some rule of order and government. In order that we may lead the supernatural life, Our Blessed Lord has instituted seven Sacraments, analogous to these seven conditions of physical life. material signs are used in the Sacraments, as channels for the communication of His grace. If we were angels, we should need no such visible signs; but since we have bodies, as well as souls, and since nature, too, should be restored to God. Hence the use of oil, bread, water, hands and wine in the administration of the seven Sacraments. 

As a person must be born before he/she can begin to lead his/her physical life, so he/she must be born to lead a Divine Life. That birth occurs in the Sacrament of Baptism. To survive, the person must be nourished by Divine Life; that is done in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. He/She must grow spiritually and assume his/her spiritual responsibilities; that is accomplished in the Sacrament of Confirmation. He/She must heal the wounds of sin; for this there is the Sacrament of Penance. He/She must wipe out the traces of sin at the end, to prepare for his/her journey to eternal life; for this there is the Sacrament of Extreme Unction - also known as Anointing of the Sick. Man/Woman also prolong and edify the Kingdom of God, for which he/she is given the Sacrament of Matrimony. He/She must live under a spiritual government; this is provided through the Sacrament of Holy Orders in the Priesthood.

Nature makes human nature, but grace remakes human nature. Every person who has been born can also be regenerated, renewed and revived if he/she establishes contact with new and divine sources of energy. Christianity puts high value on human nature, but it does not trusts its unaided powers too far. It says that man/woman in his/her human nature is neither as saint nor a devil; he/she is neither intrinsically corrupt nor immaculately conceived. He/She needs divine assistance to perfect this nature. And it is available to him/her, no matter how wicked he/she has been in the past; even a man/woman who stoned a martyr like Apostle/Saint Stephen, as Apostle/Saint Paul did, can still be saved, not of himself but by the grace of God - as Apostle/Saint Paul was. And since the new energy and new power to rescue him come from God, it is beside the point for anyone to plead, "I am not good enough." Of course not - no person is good enough. But hidden reserves of power are available to anyone who so desires. That was why Our Savior said, "Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock and it shall be opened to you". - Matthew 7:7 -   

Those who lack grace - that gift of God which is given so freely - have physical life but do not have spiritual life. This raises the question, "Why does not everyone accept grace?" The answer is to be found in the fact that man, alone in all nature, is free. The grass does not need to consult the moisture before it absorbs it to itself; the cow need not plead with the grass to come with it into the animal kingdom; but man is free, and God will break down no doors to force a higher destiny upon our wills. The Divine may only entreat and plead; He will show how much He loves us by dying to redeem us. But He will not use force, even to save us from our own shortsighted preference for a meaner share of life.

Some people in backward countries refuse vaccination; they fear to be saved by a mystery they do not comprehend. Some sick people do not want to see a doctor; they are afraid the doctor may advise an operation as a condition of recovering their health. In the spiritual realm, too, we can refuse to be healed. We cannot initiate our own salvation - for the first movement of regeneration comes from God - but we can prevent it by our refusal to cooperate. Grace and human freedom are related like the two wings of a bird; both are needed for flight. Grace is a gift, and any gift can be rejected. Love is never imposed - to impose it would be to destroy love.

Because the acceptance of grace is a free act, implying a choice, it follows that some people will always be unwilling to accept it, especially since it invariably demands a sacrifice. The rich young man in the Gospel went away sad because he had great possessions; Saint Augustine of Hippo, at one time in his life, said, "Dear Lord, I want to be good, but later on, not now." The great problem, facing every human, concerns not sublimation, but elevation. Are we willing to surrender the lower to find the ecstasies of the higher? Do we want God enough to overcome the obstacles that keep Him away? Do we love the sunlight enough to open the blinds our own agnosticism has drawn down? 

The acceptance of grace is not a passive thing; it demands a surrender of something, even if it is only our pride. This fact alone should give pause to those naturalists who tells us that the supernatural is only a myth, for since when do myths and fantasies call for such sacrifices or make demands that are so hard to meet? Myths ask only for credulity - never for the plucking out an eye or the cutting off of an arm, as does the Gospel. Yet these sacrifices must be made, this price paid, if we are to live full lives. No sculptor can chisel, no artist can paint, unless he/she detaches himself/herself from noisy chatter in order to commune with the beautiful; so we can gain intimacy with the Divine only if we respond to God's invitation of grace with a willingness to give up some tawdry treasure, to surrender the field in order to buy the pearl of great price.

Then the life can really begin, for, without the supernatural gift, every human is undeveloped still. Feed a person until he/she is "fed-up"; surround him/her with the materials to satisfy his/her every passion; give him/her license to do whatever he/she pleases; castle him/her; cage him/her; cuddle him/her; amuse him/her! And invariably, time and time again, he/she will still be seeking for that which he/she has not, grasping for something already beyond his/her reach, hungering for the unworldly in the heart of the world. Without this great reality of God, man/woman knows himself/herself to be only half real and adequately describes himself/herself as "I am not." Thus does he/she dimly perceive the great need of Him Who defines Himself as "Amen, amen I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am" - John 8:58 -

The refusal of God's supernatural gift is the most tragic mistake a human being can make. Its acceptance is called conversion. Contrary to the common belief, a conversion is not caused by the emotions; emotions reflect only a mental state, and this change concerns the soul. Conversion, again, has nothing to do with sublimation; that process, too, is restricted to the order of nature. Conversion look upward, not inward; it is an experience in no way related to the upsurge of unconsciousness into the consciousness. Conversion, first and foremost, and above all else, is due to Divine Grace, a gift of God that illumines our intellect to perceive truths that we never perceived before and strengthens our will to follow those truths, even though they demand sacrifices in the natural order. Conversion is due to the invasion of a new power, to the inner penetration of spirit and spirit, to the influence of the changeless upon the fluid character of man/woman.

In his/her new awareness of the presence of a Divine Power, the individual turns over his/her whole personality, not to his/her "higher self," but to the higher new self, which is God. Those who have responded to that gift of grace begin to feel the presence of God in a new way. Their religion ceases to be "moralistic" in the sense that a person merely submits himself/herself to a code of law, and feels the necessity of obeying them as a duty. Religion also rises above the pietistic level on which there is a loving remembrance of Our Lord Jesus Christ, a kind of sentimental fellow-traveling, through hymns and sermons, with One who lived many years ago. For although some people have found a considerable emotional fulfillment on this pietistic plane, it is not Christianity and does not become so until one enters the third stage, the Mystical. Here at last - where Christ actually dwells in our hearts, and where there is an awareness rooted in love, and where the soul feels the tremendous impact of God working on itself - here is found the joy that surpasses all understanding.  -  PAGE  TWO  -  

BY  VENERABLE  FULTON  J.  SHEEN

-    WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY    - 

Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!

Why do you call Me, "Lord, Lord" and not do what I say?' "Everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words and acts on them - I will show you what he/she is like. He/She is like a man/woman who when he/she built his/her house dug, deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built. But the one who listens and does nothing is like the man/woman who built his/her house on soil, with no foundations: as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!" - Luke 6:46-49 - 

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 - 

I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now. But when the spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself, but will say only what he has learnt; and he will tell you of the things to come. He/She will glorify me, since all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine." - John 16:12-15 -