-THE CONVERSION AND ITS WORKS

Today's three readings clearly express the conversion program that God
wants of us in Lent: convert and believe the Gospel; turn to me from all
my heart; mercy, Lord, because we have sinned; let you reconcile with
God; God is compassionate and merciful ...
Each of us, and the community, and the entire society, needs to hear this
urgent call to Easter change, because we are all weak and sinful, and
because without realizing it we are being overcome by laziness and the
criteria of this world, which are not precisely those of Christ.
It is good that in the homily the triple direction of this conversion that
the gospel points:
a) openness to others: with the classic Lenten work of almsgiving, which
is before all charity, understanding, kindness, forgiveness, but also alms
to the most needy near or far,
b) openness to God, who is listening to the Word, personal and family
prayer, more active and frequent participation in the Eucharist and the
sacrament of Reconciliation,
c) and fasting, which is self-control, the search for a balance on our scale
of values, renounces superfluous things, especially if their fruit redounds
to help most needy.
The three directions, which are like the summary of the life and teaching
of Christ, They help us to reorient our lives in an Easter key.
1. Joel 2,12-18
The prophet Joel calls the people of Israel to a day of penance. Urges
you to be Convert from your evil and put yourself decisively in the line
of following God.
This was about four centuries before Christ.
The atmosphere seems to be quite listless and decadent. In addition, they
were suffering at that time the effects of a natural catastrophe, a long
drought and a plague of locusts or grasshoppers that had wiped out the
entire crop.
The prophet takes advantage of the circumstance to convene in a general
assembly small and elders, priests and laity, so that all together ask
God's forgiveness. For her root cause of the situation is that they have
forgotten God and neglect their alliance. Of course: they do not have to
be content with an official fast, nor with a few tears or with a change of
outer dresses as a sign of mourning. The conversion has to be interior:
turning from the heart to God, sincerely seeking his will and doing it.
The argument that encourages them to take this step is the goodness of
God. Reminds them a definition of God that is repeated many times in
the Bible: he is “compassionate and merciful, slow to anger, rich in
mercy.
Psalm 50, the "Miserere," gives this opening day of Lent a tone
penitential for excellence. It is the psalm - attributed to David - in which
a sinner shows his repentance and humbly implores God to forgive him
and to help to renew your life: «erase my guilt ... create in me a pure
heart ... give me back the joy of your salvation.
2. 2 Corinthians 5,20-6,2
Paul told the Corinthians two thousand years ago, but we hear it today:
“Now It is the time of grace, now is the day of salvation.

He is proud to be an "ambassador of Christ", and the embassy he brings

from. This is his: "Let yourselves be reconciled to God." This
reconciliation is offered by God to all through the saving death of his
Son Jesus. You have to take advantage of this occasion and not "to waste
the grace of God." It is the right time for be reconciled: that is, to rebuild
the relationship between us and God, in case would have broken or
weakened.
3. Matthew 6,1-6; 16-18
Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, teaches his disciples how their
Lifestyle. It is a beautiful page, with very expressive parallels and
antitheses. Describes three aspects of a believer's life that can be said to
encompass the three directions of each person: towards God (prayer),
towards others (almsgiving) and to himself (fasting). At three o'clock,
the disciple of Jesus has to go deeper, not stay outside, but stand before
God the Father, who is the who knows us to the depths of our being,
without looking for awards or applause here down:
- almsgiving: "don't go blowing the trumpet" so that everyone knows;
backwards: «what your left hand does not know what your right is doing
»; the Father will reward you;
- prayer: do not pray "so people can see you"; the other way around: "go
into your room and pray”; the Father will pay you;
- fasting: "do not walk with your head down so that people will know
that you are fasting"; upside down: "Perfume your head"; the Father will
reward you.
4. Today's readings invite us to convert, to set out on the path towards
new existence that Christ wants to communicate to us at his Easter.
a) As in Joel's time, the trumpet sounds calling for fasting and
conversion.
Many Christians are frightened of the present situation: the great drought
of faith and vocations, and plagues worse than locusts that destroy
human values and Christians. Does all this have a future? Lent comes to
answer us yes. In view of all because God is still rich in goodness and
mercy, and is always willing to forgive and start over. And also because
people, for drowsy as they are, they may feel moved by the Spirit and
change.
That is why we are invited to undertake a paschal journey, a journey that
includes cross and resignation, and therefore it will be uncomfortable.
We are invited to recognize that something
it is not going well in ourselves, in addition to in society or in the
Church, and to change, to take a turn, to convert. Conversion is said in
Greek "metanoia", which means change of mentality.
The penitential gesture of the ash that we make today, after the homily,
remember, on the one hand, that we are dust and to dust we will return,
which makes us well remember. And on the other, he invites us to accept
the Gospel as the norm of life, as the mentality of the followers of Jesus.