Conversion is for every believer. The readings for today are about conversion in three very fifferent places: A Temple, a highway, and seashore. Three different types of people. Each experienced a different aspect of God. Whatever their limitations, their power come from the fact that they was obedient. If we are faithful, God will use us to further His Kingdom.
One day a young women who had just given birth to a child with Down Syndrome, said to her mother, “Why Me?” Her mother replied,”Why? Because of my eight children, you are the one I would choose–and God has choosen you to be the mother of this child who needs so much love. Spiritual awakenings can be in different forms. Such as: an illness, a death of a loved one, the birth of a baby, in Church, and so on. We are all in God’s army and each one of us has his or her task to perform. We cannot live in a spiriyual coma. We can have conversion when we empty ourselves of our will to power and control. When we do this we can give attention to God and have a conversion in our life.
The age old question of “why me?” is one which I’m sure has puzzled humanity since we first evolved.
Personally, I do not accept the notion that God uses trials and tribulations to test our mettle. God does not use me or ,as in your story, a child with Downs Syndrome as pawns. I simply don’t believe that God is that cruel. The truth of the matter is that stuff happens in our lives…good and bad….that’s just the way things are.
But it has been my experience that even in my darkest hour, God never abandoned me. The Lord’s presence may have been hard to see but that was because I was blinded by anger and rage at God, myself, and my circumstances. But when I had time to cool off, I came to realize that I was never truly alone. The Lord was with me in Scripture and prayer and in the circle of loving friends who felt my pain and gave me their love and fellowship.
In my silence of the spirit, I began hearing for perhaps the first time in my life the voice of the One. Freed from the background noise of daily life, I heard the song of the angels.
That was my conversion experience.
Humanity did not evolve – we were created by God in His image.
In His wisdom He strengthens us, like gold that’s tested in fire. 1 Peter 1:6-9: “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.”
All life on Earth, including humanity, evolved. We can’t hide from scientific reality just because it may make us feel uncomfortable. It would be incompatible with our Catholic tradition of logic and reasoning to simply ignore the preponderance of evidence supporting the theory of Evolution.
That is not just my opinion but acceptable Catholic teaching for at least 60 years.
I think that John Paul II expressed this fact in a brief but brilliant address to the Pontifical Academy of Science in 1996. Here are some excerpts.
“……Before offering a few more specific reflections on the theme of the origin of life and evolution, I would remind you that the magisterium of the Church has already made some pronouncements on these matters, within her own proper sphere of competence. I will cite two such interventions here.
In his encyclical Humani Generis (1950), my predecessor Pius XII has already affirmed that there is no conflict between evolution and the doctrine of the faith regarding man and his vocation, provided that we do not lose sight of certain fixed points……
….It is important to set proper limits to the understanding of Scripture, excluding any unseasonable interpretations which would make it mean something which it is not intended to mean. In order to mark out the limits of their own proper fields, theologians and those working on the exegesis of the Scripture need to be well informed regarding the results of the latest scientific research….
….Today, more than a half-century after the appearance of that encyclical, some new findings lead us toward the recognition of evolution as more than a hypothesis. In fact it is remarkable that this theory has had progressively greater influence on the spirit of researchers, following a series of discoveries in different scholarly disciplines. The convergence in the results of these independent studies—which was neither planned nor sought—constitutes in itself a significant argument in favor of the theory.
….With man, we find ourselves facing a different ontological order—an ontological leap, we could say. But in posing such a great ontological discontinuity, are we not breaking up the physical continuity which seems to be the main line of research about evolution in the fields of physics and chemistry? An appreciation for the different methods used in different fields of scholarship allows us to bring together two points of view which at first might seem irreconcilable. The sciences of observation describe and measure, with ever greater precision, the many manifestations of life, and write them down along the time-line. The moment of passage into the spiritual realm is not something that can be observed in this way—although we can nevertheless discern, through experimental research, a series of very valuable signs of what is specifically human life. But the experience of metaphysical knowledge, of self-consciousness and self-awareness, of moral conscience, of liberty, or of aesthetic and religious experience—these must be analyzed through philosophical reflection, while theology seeks to clarify the ultimate meaning of the Creator’s designs.”
It’s sad that this medium is so limited. I tried to relate a very personal life experience but it was my experience and not yours. My experience resulted in my discovery of the reality of God Almighty in my own life. It is both intimate and profound.
“To reach something good it is very useful to have gone astray, and thus acquire experience” St. Teresa of Avila
You are free of course to follow your own path and acquire your own experience.