A Call to Transformation in Christ

God loves you as you are, but too much to leave you that way. Divine love does not leave the sinner undisturbed; it compels him to die, to rise, and to walk in “newness of life” (Rom. 6:4). And true healing, the kind of healing that lasts and sanctifies, must be deeply doctrinal, sacramental, and moral. In other words, it must convert the intellect; it must flow from the life of the Church; and it must change the very rhythm and cadence of how we live and love. Anything less is spiritual anesthesia or experiential ecstasy, not resurrection; temporary and not truly lasting.

To be a Christian is to walk perpetually in a life of grace, recognizing our deep need for grace. We are not self-sufficient, nor are we spiritually autonomous. We are poor, naked, and blind without the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ. The same fire that descended on Sinai, the same glory that filled the temple, the same wind that rushed into the Upper Room—that fire and zeal is offered to you and me today. The question is not whether the Spirit wants to fill and convert us wholly; the question is whether you and I are willing to be burned clean and set afire, and to consecrate our whole lives to Christ.

Let us not pray merely to feel better or to experience exhilaration., These things are fleeting and leave us feeling empty. Let us pray to be made new and set aflame for Christ, falling on our knees as sons and daughters pleading for the Spirit to take possession of our intellects, our wills, our bodies, our whole being; so that we may become, as Christ promised, sons of light (John 12:36), flames in the night, witnesses to the world that God not only saves but sanctifies. The world needs saints: men and women who have “walked about in the midst of the flames” (Dan. 3:24) of divine mercy and emerged transformed and renewed. That journey begins on our knees, and the Spirit awaits our prayers.

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