Fr. Scott A. Haynes
Whenever God’s Word is preached with power, clarity and conviction, we may be convicted! God’s Word sometimes comforts us, but sometimes it makes us uncomfortable, because the Word of God convicts us and points out our sins to us. One Good Friday afternoon, after Bishop Fulton Sheen had preached on the Seven Last Words of Christ at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, a woman came into the sacristy and began to curse him violently! He finally said to her, "Why did you come to this cathedral today?" She replied, "To steal purses." Bishop Sheen said, "Did you get any?" The woman replied, "No. That second word of yours got me—the word of Christ to the good thief!"
She had been convicted. And that moment of conviction (as unpleasant as it was for her) proved to be the first step in her eventual conversion to the faith. No one of us enjoys being convicted. Our initial tendency is to get angry like that woman did! Think about it: getting convicted now is much better than being condemned on the Day of Judgment! Condemnation is final, because it always sends a person to hell. But when God’s Word convicts us, we can repent and return to the Lord.
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