Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator
One of the reasons that the Pharisees failed to understand Jesus and to accept him was the fact that they, like most everyone else, had preconceived notions about who God was and how God acted. Their expectations about the Messiah got in the way of their coming to believe. They failed to understand the mystery that is faith in God.
It has been said that our God is a God of surprises. Just when one thinks that he/she has God all figured out, God makes us take another look. The Pharisees believed that they were saved simply because they were "children of Abraham." Their relationship to God was really a relationship to their ethnic background. When Jesus came among them and challenged their understanding of God, they rejected him. God was further revealed in Jesus, but they couldn't get beyond what had already been revealed.
The same thing happens to us when we begin to take our relationship with God for granted. Although the mystery of faith in God continues to unfold throughout our lives, we fail to mature in our understanding of God and cling to our expectations. This is most easily seen when people resist any change in the Church's ritual although there are many other ways in which this lack of maturation can reveal itself.
Becoming more and more aware of who we are in relationship with God is another way of characterizing the notion of "conversion." As we all know, this is a life-long process.