Reflection on this reading by Fr. Michael Casagram:  

Lent as a Time for Conversion. From a Sermon by St. Bernard.5

“Be converted to Me with all your heart,” says the Lord Almighty, “in fasting, and in weeping and in mourning. And rend your hearts and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God.” What does it mean, dearest brethren, that the Lord here commands us to turn to Him? For He is everywhere, He fills all things and at the same time contains all things. Where shall I turn that I may turn to You, O Lord my God? “If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I descend into hell, You are present”. What do you require me to do? This, my brethren, is a secret of divine wisdom, a secret which is communicated only to the friends of God. It is a “mystery of the kingdom of God” which is revealed privately to the disciples. “Unless you be converted,” said the Lord, “and become like little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven”. Now I see clearly where He wants us to turn. We must turn to that little Child in order to learn from Him, because He is “meek and humble of heart”.

But let us now see how we should turn to this little One, to this Master of meekness and humility. “Be converted to Me,” He says, “with all your heart.” My brethren, had His words been simply “Be converted to Me”, without any addition, we might have replied: That we have already done; give us now another precept. As a matter of fact, however, He admonishes us here of a purely spiritual conversion which cannot be accomplished in a single day; and would to God we were able to complete it in the whole course of the life we live in the body! An external turning to God, unaccompanied by a conversion of the heart and spirit is worth nothing. It is only a formal, not a true conversion, “having the appearance indeed of godliness but lacking the power of it”. Unhappy the monk who, devoting all his attention to outward observances, remains ignorant of his interior, for “thinking himself to be something, whereas he is nothing, he deceives himself”. For as he looks only to the outward appearance, when that is

5St. Bernard’s Sermons for the Seasons & Principal Festivals. Bernard of Clairvaux. vol. II. The Carroll Press. Westminster, MD. 1950. p. 76.

found to be in order he judges everything secure, unaware of that secret worm that is consuming his being. The tonsure still remains, the religious habit is not yet put off, the regular fasts are observed as before, the divine praises are chanted at the appointed hours. Nevertheless the Lord says of such a one, “His heart is far from Me”.

My brothers, consider carefully what is the object of your love and of your fear, what is the source of your joy and of your sadness, and you will find a worldly spirit under the habit of religion, and under the tattered covering of an exterior conversion a perverted heart. For the whole heart is made up of four affections, and it seems to me that it is with reference to them we must understand the precept to turn to the Lord with all our heart. Therefore, let your love be converted to God, so that henceforth you shall love nothing besides Him, or at least nothing except for His sake. Let your fear, too, be converted to the Lord, because every fear is perverse other than fear of Him or on account of Him. To Him let your joy also as well as your sadness be converted. This will happen when you no longer grieve or rejoice over anything except according to God.

The Lord then continued, speaking by the mouth of His prophet, “Rend your heart and not your garments.” Is there any individual among you, my brethren, whose will tends to be attached too tenaciously to some particular object? Let him rend his heart, let him cleave it with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Let him rend it, I repeat, and make haste to divide it into many fragments. For it is impossible for him to be converted to the Lord with all his heart until his heart has been rent.

Dearest brethren, let us therefore rend our hearts, in order that thus we may be able to keep our garments whole. Our garments are our virtues. One can understand this rending of heart in two senses: compunction rends the evil heart, while compassion rends the strong heart. Both rendings are undoubtedly profitable; for the poison of sin must not remain concealed in the heart and the depths of compassion should not be closed to a needy neighbor, so that we ourselves may obtain mercy from our Lord Jesus Christ.