Draw near to your servants, O Lord,
and answer their prayers with unceasing kindness,

that, for those who glory in you as their Creator and guide,
you may restore what you have created
and keep safe what you have restored. (Roman Missal)

            Since I recently saw some company advertising a “Christmas in July” sale on TV, I guess it would OK to mention a short novel with which most people here are probably familiar: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  In that novel, a mean and miserly man by the name of Ebenezer Scrooge is visited on Christmas Eve by three ghosts who manage to convince him to change his life.  By Christmas morning, Scrooge is a new man, full of kindness and generosity to all.

            In reality, such rapid and complete transformations do not occur.  When we hear in our second reading the writer of the Letter to the Ephesians say, “put away the old self of your former way of life” and “put on the new self,” we should not get the impression that conversion—a change of mind and heart—can be a quick process.  No, conversion takes a long time, and since everyone—including every person in this community—needs conversion, it takes a long time for everyone.  In fact, I would say that conversion takes a lifetime, and even a lifetime is probably not long enough for most of us.  

            The process of conversion is not a straight line.  We stop and we start.  We stop again and we start again—over and over and over.  One day we might reach out to help someone we find in distress; the next day, we find that we cannot help but to criticize someone who does not meet our standards.  In the morning we might vow to put God first in our lives; by evening, we are already focusing on our own selfish desires.

            Is it possible to “put away the old self” and “put on the new self”? Yes, with the grace of God.  But progress may not be as quick as we’d like.  God understands. What is most important is that we keep trying.