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The Bishop of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris was known to be a great evangelist and preacher who would reach out to unbelievers, scoffers, and cynics. He liked to tell the story of a young man who, many years earlier, stood outside the cathedral and almost on a daily basis would shout derogatory slogans at people entering the church to worship. He would call them fools and all kinds of names. The people tried to ignore him but it was quite difficult.

One day, the cathedral's rector went outside to confront the young man. The young man ranted and raved against everything the priest told him. After some time the rector addressed the young man, saying, "Look, let's get this over once and for all. I am going to dare you to do something and I will bet you cannot do it." Of course, the young man responded, "I can do anything you propose, just try me!" "Fine," said the priest, "I want you to follow me into the church sanctuary." The man followed the priest, who stopped at the foot of a large figure of Christ on the cross. He said to the young man, "I want you to look at the cross and scream at the very top of your lungs, as loudly as you can, 'Christ died on the cross for me and I don't care one bit.' " So the young man went into the sanctuary, looked at the cross, and screamed as loudly as he could, "Christ died on the cross for me and I don't care one bit." The priest said, "Very good. Now do it again." Again, the young man screamed, but with some hesitancy, "Christ died on the cross for me and I don't care one bit." The priest again complemented the man saying, "You are almost done now. But for good measure, say it one more time." The young man raised his fist, looked at the statue, but the words would not come. He just could not look at the face of Christ and say those words any longer. Then, to the surprise of all who were listening to the bishop's story, he said, "I was that young man. I was that young, defiant man who thought he did not need Christ, but found that I could not live without him."

The angry young man was transformed, it seems, by the power of Christ. He simply could not continue to voice his anger for he could not sufficiently articulate in his mind why he was angry. Similarly, as we hear in our scripture reading today, the prophet Jonah preached to the people of Nineveh who were transformed by his message. They changed and began to follow the dictates of the Lord. We, too, like the angry young man who became a bishop, like the Ninevites, need to be transformed in our lives. We must move from the darkness of ignorance and sin and seek the light of sincerity and truth, for others and ourselves. We must listen to God and be transformed.

We all know the story of Jonah so very well. It is one of the Bible stories that we learn as children. Jonah is told by God to go to the great city of Nineveh and inform the people of their need to repent and transform their lives or God's wrath will come upon them. Jonah, however, refuses and runs away, but God is persistent in his call. The Lord sends a great fish to swallow Jonah. Three days later, the fish spews forth the prophet onto the land. Jonah is now transformed in his thinking.

In our first lesson today, we hear the second half of the Jonah story. Transformed in his thought, the prophet now cooperates with God. He goes to Nineveh and preaches the need for transformation, saying that God will destroy the city unless the people change. Jonah's message is persuasive; the people heed God's warning, proclaim a fast, and put on sack clothing. God, observing the transformation of the people, changes his mind about the planned destruction of the city. Nineveh was saved through Jonah and the response of the Ninevites to the prophet's message.

The message of transformation so clear in the story of the angry young man who became bishop and the preaching of Jonah to the Ninevites is one we must hear as well. By definition, transformation requires us to change. Many people do not like or want change. If we feel comfortable in our lifestyle, place of work, neighborhood, and ways of operating, why would we want to change? In such cases there seems to be no motivation for change. Only when things get out of sync in our life, when we feel things are not going the way we want, do we consider the possibility of change. Change and the ability to be transformed must be an ongoing process in our lives. In order to find transformation we must first have a sense of openness to the will of God in our lives, as we heard in last week's message. We must realize our need for transformation. No one is perfect; no one "has it all together." We need to be transformed in mind, spirit, attitude, and action in order to draw closer to God.

Transformation is multidimensional but it must begin by how we think about ourselves. The so-called "Golden Rule," that Jesus articulated in response to the question, "Which is the greatest commandment?" calls us to love God above all things and to love our neighbor as ourself. We cannot do justice to our love for God or neighbor if we do not love ourselves. Too often in our action-oriented and accomplishment-driven society we do not have a sufficiently positive attitude about ourselves. What we need to achieve is beautifully illustrated in the popular stage play Man of La Mancha, a musical rendition of Miguel Cervantes' famous novel, Don Quixote. Don Quixote lives with the illusion of being a knight-errant, battling windmills that he imagines are dragons. Near the end of the play, the protagonist is dying and at his side is Aldonza, a worthless prostitute he has idealized by calling her Dulcinea -- Sweet One -- much to the delight of the howling laughter of the townsfolk. But Don Quixote has loved this woman in a way unlike anything she had ever experienced. Thus, when Quixote breathes his last, Aldonza begins to sing, "The Impossible Dream." As the last echo of the song dies away, someone shouts to her, "Aldonza!" She proudly responds, "My name is Dulcinea." The crazy knight's love has transformed her. Like Aldonza, we need to be transformed to a better appreciation of ourselves. We can achieve this by appreciating our self-worth, made as we are in the image and likeness of God. Certainly transformation also requires us to change and to be the people God calls us or wants us to be. This may mean changing a few bad habits, transforming the way we do things, and not running away from our responsibilities. We must work to enhance our relationship with God. If we are "right" with ourselves then we are moving in the proper direction for a complete transformation.

Once we have achieved greater self-esteem and have transformed our own personal actions, then we must begin to transform our attitudes and actions toward others. Again, as the golden rule says, we must love our neighbor. Loving our neighbor does not mean we will be good friends with all people, but it does mean that we will demonstrate respect and basic kindness to all. Loving our neighbor, therefore, necessitates for almost all a sense of transformation. Too often today, we focus on our needs and desires; we are insufficiently concerned about others. At times, we perceive that our actions are appropriate, but even then, transformation is at times necessary. A little story illustrates this point quite well.

One day, on his lunch hour, a businessman was strolling through a local park. As he walked, he enjoyed the beauty of the day as he ate a hot dog he had purchased at a local vendor. As he approached a street corner, he encountered a homeless person who asked him for money for food. He ignored the request and continued to walk. As he was heading back to the office he decided he wanted a little dessert. He stopped at a pastry shop and bought himself a chocolate éclair. As he was leaving the store, a young boy came racing down the sidewalk on a skateboard. The man jumped out of the way and, in the process, the éclair fell to the ground. He picked it up but it was filled with dirt and other things; it was simply a dirty éclair. Before he discarded it, he caught sight of the homeless person he encountered earlier, walked up to him and said, "Here, my man, is some food for your hunger." The man continued to walk back to the office thinking he had done his good deed for the day. That night, while he was sleeping, he had a dream. In his dream he was in a restaurant that was very active with many patrons. It took some time, but he finally got the attention of one of the waitresses who took his order. After some time, the woman returned with a piece of dirty pastry on a white plate. The businessman was incensed and said, "I'm a respectable businessman and expect better treatment than this. I want what I ordered." The waitress responded, "Sir, you don't seem to realize where you are. You have arrived in heaven and the only thing you can receive here are things that were sent in advance before your arrival. I went back and checked the records and the only thing we can find is this dirty chocolate éclair."

Yes, there is a need to treat others as we would have them treat us, but for many this will require a transformation, not only in what we do but how we think. When God calls us to transform our lives, we must act; we cannot avoid the Lord. This may cause us some pain; we may have to shift our priorities. We may even have to change direction in our lives. That is precisely what God asked of the Ninevites and because of their willingness to change God relented his planned punishment. Let us learn a lesson from the story of the transformation of the young man who became the bishop and from Jonah's transformation of the Ninevites to the reality of our need for conversion in our own lives. If we can, our reward in heaven will be great. Amen.