Conversion: A Lenten Recollection for Catholic Students

The following is a personal reflection written by recollection participant Julian Alexander Barkin 

The Newman Center Chaplaincy at the University of Toronto, provides an extensive amount of programming, devotions, and ministries for students and other Catholic youth, in addition to Masses in the adjoining St. Thomas Aquinas parish. I was fortunate to have attended their last in-house retreat back in November ("Evangelization and the Heart") and could not pass up their winter semester in-house retreat held Saturday, March 12.

The title of the Retreat was “Conversion.” Throughout the retreat, Mass was held as well as several devotions: The Rosary, Stations of the Cross using the powerful reflections from Cardinal John Henry Newman, and Eucharistic adoration and benediction, with the opportunity for confessions. For the speaking portions, the main presenter was Cale Clarke of thefaithexplained.com. Cale is well known for his contributions to Catholic Insight, as well as being the creator of “The New Mass” app for the iPod. During the day, Cale gave a three-part talk on the role conversion played in his reversion to the Catholic Church, why genuine conversion to Christ is needed to evangelize to others, and a platform as to how to evangelize to others.

Cale began his talks with his own personal story of de-conversion and reconversion. Cale grew up as a “nominal” Catholic, having received all his sacraments of initiation. Upon reaching university, he had become an agnostic, a typical consequence of youth today who are poorly catechised and un- rooted in their Catholic faith. His conversion back to the Catholic faith began with an engagement with door-to-door Baptists and his eventually becoming a Protestant pastor. His journey took a decisive turn after an encounter with a Catholic convert from Protestantism at a Theology on Tap event. 

As well, he studied the early Church fathers, including St. Ignatius of Antioch. Cale’s most personal conversion event occurred when at a Catholic seminar,  Catholic apologist Patrick Madrid, with the help of Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium, answered a question about whether one can teach the Catholic faith yet avoid active participation: 

Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ, would refuse to enter or to remain in it, could not be saved … the bonds which bind men to the Church in a visible way are the profession of faith, the sacraments, and ecclesiastical government and communion … All the Church’s children should remember that their exalted status is to be attributed not to their own merits but to the special grace of Christ. If they fail, moreover, to respond to that grace in thought, word and deed, not only shall they not be saved but they will be the more severely judged.” (LG, 14)

This answer is what brought Cale full swing to convert himself truly to the Catholic faith. He realized that he had to truly convert himself to Christ and be an active participant in his faith.

Cale later began to speak as to the whys and hows of conversion in evangelizing to others, including other Catholics. The point that struck me the most was when Cale spoke about the tactics that are used by Christian sects in conversion such as “Masked Raider” events (similar to what he experienced initially), “Evangelization Strategies,” “Friendship Evangelization”, and “Needing the Right Tools.” These tactics merely reduce the person to an object or a means, leaving them more alienated and further discouraged from coming to Christ. 

True conversion is needed to successfully bring others to our Lord, first starting with a conversion of our interior self/life to Christ’s love. Following this is a need for us to perform works of Christ as an overflow of this interior Christian life. Lack of an interior conversion of our life to Christ or performing His works, allows one to fall into the fallacies of mere social activism or spiritual sloth respectively. Pope Benedict echoes this fact in his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, when explaining the love of God (interior life) and the love of neighbour (works) as in the first letter of John: 

If I have no contact whatsoever with God in my life, then I cannot see in the other anything more than the other, and I am incapable of seeing in him the image of God. But in my life if I fail completely to heed others, solely out of a desire to be “devout” and to perform my “religious duties”, then my relationship with God will also grow arid. It becomes merely “proper” but loveless … (DCE, 18).

Once this interior and active conversion takes place, we can then begin on the conversion of others to Christ. The early Catholic Church communities practiced a true love of friendship (philia) with one another, the form of love between Jesus and his disciples (cf. DCE, 3). These relationships were in stark contrast to their Roman contemporaries, whose relationships were often superficial for the sake of material gain or personal benefits. Furthermore (and even in modern times), the true love of friendship over time allows someone to see the authentic Christ-centered lifestyle you practice and the Catholic community, and during that time can allow for deep discussion about faith and one’s relationship to Christ. Together, this can expose one to Christ and hopefully, they will desire even more to seek the same conversion and union to Him. 

Before ending his talks, Cale added an important word of caution: Even if a person isn’t moved to convert to the Catholic Church, a true love of friendship with another does not end when the person says “no” to Christ. It continues onward for the duration of that friendship. This point stresses the need to continually love that person as Christ would, regardless of their lack of desire to come to Him.

Once again, The Newman Center Chaplaincy has strived and succeeded to provide a spiritually enriching and meaningful experience, which will allow its participants to come away with new insight into actively practicing their Catholic faith in their lives.                           

Julian is a freelance writer in Toronto who is active in his ministries as lector and senior youth ministry member at Our Lady of Sorrows of Parish, Etobicoke.