Thomas Griffin 4/18/24
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Easter Sunday is only one day. However, the Easter season lasts for 50 days and ends with the celebration of Pentecost. Easter is about many things. One reality that we often overlook is the fact that Easter is about conversion.
Conversion can be viewed as a dirty word in our society. We do not like to send the message that someone needs to change something about them, let alone their entire life. The Biblical word for conversion is metanoia. This is a Greek word that means “the changing of one’s mind.” It does not mean that you change your mind like you might about purchasing an iced coffee versus a hot coffee. Metanoia is something that happens to you that literally changes the way you think about everything. Your actions and life changes forever.
Millions have been captivated by the words and writings of Jordan Peterson. He has nearly 8 million subscribers on Youtube and over 5 million followers on X (Twitter). In Catholic circles, the days revolving around Easter Sunday were filled with headlines about his wife, Tammy, who converted to Catholicism.
In 2019, Tammy was diagnosed with a rare cancer impacting her kidney. The mortality rate was very high. She was given a few months to live. In her suffering and during a hospital stay she learned about the Catholic devotion to praying the Rosary. She fell in love with the practice and expressed feelings of experiencing God’s love by praying for the help of Mary. She later received a novena prayer from a Catholic priest and she was healed of her cancer shortly after completing it.
This process of prayer and healing moved Tammy with a desire to become Catholic. She had experienced conversion. Everything about her life and actions, even the way her mind worked had changed. At the Easter Vigil she was received into the Catholic Church at Holy Rosary Church in Toronto. Shortly before, Jordan Peterson was featured in an interiview with EWTN; about the entire process.
Jordan is not a Catholic himself and claims that he does not plan on entering the Catholic faith. However, he did say that the Christian message is “the core story of humanity.” Peterson said that on a psychological level Christianity can be summarized in this way: “It’s a variant of the dragon and treasure story, which is the oldest story we have. It’s the core story of humanity in some fundamental sense — that in the darkest places, what’s of most value can be found.”
While Catholics would hold to the fact that Christianity is not a psychology nor is it merely a story, Peterson is right about the nature of Easter. Human beings know pain and suffering. We know what it is like to have to endure something that is daunting and seemingly insurmountable. The Christian faith claims that Christ defeated the most powerful realities through his sacrificial love. Evil, sin and death no longer have power over us.
Perhaps, this is what Tammy Peterson truly experienced and felt through her process of prayer and eventual recovery. It was all about the power of love. Tammy remarked that a key moment in the genesis of her conversion was coming home to tell her son that she was diagnosed with an incurable cancer.
She said, “When I saw the grief on his face, the grief in his eyes, I realized that, for him, to lose his mother was a profound loss, much more than I would have imagined. I didn’t hold my own life as precious as he held it. And in that moment of realization, of seeing that in him, I could physically feel all kind of cynicism and self-doubt lifted off my shoulders. I felt filled with God’s love for the first time in my life. And I felt completely at peace.”
It was the sight of a loved one viewing her value that catapulted her conversion to Catholicism. She saw herself, in a very faint way, in the manner that God looks at her. She saw that look through the love of her son. It was in this dark moment that the light was revealed to her.
The most moving part of the interview with Jordan Peterson is when he speaks about what this means for his relationship with his wife. He appeared to get emotional as he responded: “I loved my wife from the moment I laid eyes on her when I was a kid,” Peterson said. “If you love someone, it hurts you when you see them deviate from the thing that draws you to them. And since she’s pursued her efforts at enlightening herself more thoroughly — and this investigation of Catholicism has been key to that — she’s much more who she is.”
Deep down, we all desire this for our loved ones. We all want a country that is rooted in respect, love and sacrifice. That is the story of humanity. It is a story that unites us. In fact, conversion ought to unite us not divide us. Everyone knows, deep down, that we need to come to see the light like Tammy Peterson did.
Jordan Peterson has seen his wife become more who she is meant to be. Don’t we all need that? That is the power and purpose of conversion. It is not a word to be afraid of. It is not a word that imposes. Conversion is the Easter story because encountering the truth of love changes everything about you. As we continue through this Easter season let us remember that humanity needs to be reminded of such a power and such a love on a regular basis.
Thomas Griffin is the chairperson of the religion department at a Catholic high school on Long Island where he lives with his wife and two sons. He has a masters degree in theology and is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Empty Tomb Project: The Magazine.
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