If conversion was easy, we’d all be saints

St. Rita Cascia

James 4:1-10

But conversion is rarely easy, simple or quick.  It requires that I be honest about my unhealthy and (self-) destructive passions, especially when they’re self-gratifying or may make me look good to the world.  As Pope Francis has noted, the devil is real…and smart…and clever.  But the devil isn’t more powerful than God.

When I resist the devil and flee to God in humility and sorrow for my sins, that’s not the end of the story.  In way, it’s just the beginning.  Change—real, lasting change—takes time, work, patience, resilience and faith in God’s grace.  Conversion isn’t the end of passions but rather their transformation.—JC