First I want to wish all the mothers here today a Happy Mother’s Day. I hope your families all have plans to spoil you today.

We can all I am sure remember times when our mom was there for us, not just when we were young and depended on her for everything, but also when we got older and moved on with our life mom was there for advice. I also remember times where moms advice was not wanted or taken as I got older. This was mostly during the high school and college years where I thought I knew more about life than mom.

We hear this type of story in Acts today when Peter is telling those gathered that Israel had crucified Christ because of their unbelieving ways and that the only way to redeem themselves they needed to repent and be baptized. This is a great story of conversion. It also shows the unending, unconditional love that Christ has for us. If he can forgive the Israelites for crucifying him, he can certainly forgive us for our sins.

We are all called to this conversion through our sacraments. Of course we have an example we can see at home when our mom would welcome us back with open arms whenever we needed her, even if we had just recently ignored everything that she told us. There may have been an “I told you so” in there, but probably not since she knew we needed to learn through our mistakes.

There is a lot going on in the world today that may make us wonder where God is in the world. We have the abduction of the girls in Nigeria, the ongoing war and killing in Syria, and the ongoing confrontations in the Ukraine. These are all horrible tragedies that go on around the world yet we are still called to conversion in Christ. While there is violence and mayhem around the world we see God present in all of those welcome home videos for the troops or just in a child’s hug.

What this means is we need to surround ourselves with more people that would pass the mom friend test. These people need to be willing to help us build up the body of Christ and follow him like the sheep that we hear about in the Gospel today. The sheep will only follow their shepherd; they will not follow the stranger. If we follow the Christ we know, the one who committed no sin and was found to hold no deceit then we will be able to make our way through the gate.

This is a lot easier said than done, for not all sheep will listen to their shepherd and we do not always listen to God. Just as the Pharisees thought they knew more about God than Jesus we sometimes find ourselves following other people or things rather than God. They can be found in the distractions of the world such as, pornography, politics, the internet or TV. All these things can lead us away from God and allow us to think we can make decisions that are moral and right without Gods help. They also allow us to separate ourselves from certain segments of society.

I know I followed this path for a time in my life, this was a fairly destructive and unhappy time in my life. When I finally began to follow Christ again I began to be happier and more satisfied with my life. I had a lot of help along the way that pointed the me in the right direction, my mom and my wife assisted me in finding my way back to a life that was not destructive. This reminds me that life is a constant state of conversion if we are to be welcomed through the gate. Just as mom always said if you hang around with the right folks you will follow the right path. Jesus wants us to follow that path and make sure that we can get through the gate when we get there. We need to follow the shepherd we know not the one who claims we can all figure out what is right on our own.

How do we do this with all the distractions available that I mentioned earlier? We need to surround ourselves with people who believe in Christ, they may not all think alike or look alike, but they are all on a journey of conversion that is being led by God, not by man. We need to be like sheep when we follow Christ, but at the same time not be afraid to point out the error of some ways. When we do this it needs in a loving way so that we are not yelling at the people because that will make them tune us out. We need to do this as Jesus taught with love and compassion. If we do this we can help others along their own path of conversion with God.

There will always be evil and distractions in the world as there are now and were in Jesus’ time. The distractions surprisingly were never that much different than they are today, only today it seems to be easier to find them and to be led down that path. With the internet we have instantaneous access to news, sports, or anything else, good or bad we may want to look at. This distraction can make us forget what is really important.

Following Christ is important for our salvation and ongoing conversion when it comes to life. We cannot continue with this conversion without taking part in the sacraments. We need to avail ourselves of the sacrament of the Eucharist as often as we can. When we do this it reminds us that we have an ongoing relationship with Christ, which is what john is reminding us of in the Gospel today. This relationship continues to grow through our participation in the sacraments and leads to our conversion. This conversion goes from self-centered people to those who care for others, whether we necessarily agree with them or not.

This conversion became much more real for some of our young people this weekend as they received the sacrament of confirmation. We as a parish need to keep them in our prayers as they continue on in their conversion story for Christ. This conversion is a work in progress for me and will continue to be as I occasionally fall off the correct path and find my way back. This finding our way back is where we need to remember to put away the distractions and follow God. This is where our continual conversion into the people our mom always knew we could be and God wants us to be takes place.

If we put away the distractions and begin to follow God we will be able to convert not only ourselves but others as well. Are we ready to continue our own conversion story by putting away our distractions and following Christ?