God has even more for converts entering the Catholic Church

For months and even years now God has been searching, calling, leading and encouraging the nearly 350 people who are on track to enter the Catholic Church this Easter in the Archdiocese of Omaha.

No doubt they have felt the Lord’s presence, mercy and love on their journey into the Church so far.

But God has even more for them, Archbishop George J. Lucas assured them as they took another step toward full participation in the Church at a ceremony March 9 at St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha.

At the Rite of Election and the Call to Continuing Conversion of the Baptized, held on the first Sunday of Lent, those who were not yet baptized expressed their desire and commitment to enter the Church and asked the archbishop for permission to do so. Similarly, those who had been baptized requested permission to continue toward participation in the Church’s full sacramental life.

They all have spent months participating and learning in the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA, formerly RCIA).

God doesn’t just want them to become better people, Archbishop Lucas said in his homily at the service. The Lord wants them to become new creations.

“This really is the promise of life in our Savior Jesus Christ,” the archbishop said. “And this is what’s offered to us when we participate in the sacraments of the Church.”

Through the sacraments, he said, “we put on Christ,” as St. Paul writes: “yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.”

Life, “as good as it is,” will be “replaced and superseded by a new life, the life of Jesus Himself, the Risen Son of God, living in you.”

The OCIA participants, along with their sponsors and other supporters, filled the cathedral to capacity. They were individually presented to Archbishop Lucas as part of the ceremony.

Those who hadn’t yet been baptized had their names enrolled into a book of those chosen for initiation.