Five Minutes to Change a Life
He entered a convent chapel in the Latin Quarter in Paris, near the Pantheon. It was ten past five in the afternoon. He was looking for his friend who had gone there to pray and have Confession. André himself didn’t go in as he was an atheist and he knew that his friend would be ‘wasting a lot of time’ in the chapel. Having gone in at 5.10 he came out five minutes later converted to Catholicism! It was an instantaneous conversion, completely unexpected. André hadn’t been looking for religion, either intellectually or emotionally. If anything he was completely indifferent to all religions. He describes his experience in that chapel as finding a friendship which was not of this earth. It gave him an inexhaustible joy which lasted throughout his life.
I am speaking of André Frossard (1915-1995), who grew up in a totally atheistic family in the east of France: the question of God’s existence was never raised. His father was one of the founders of the French Communist Party and was appointed its first secretary general at the age of 31. He went on to be a government minister at a later stage. The village in which André lived was the only French village where there was a synagogue but no church. Nothing could have prepared him – in a human way – for what he was to experience at the age of twenty in the chapel of the Reparation Sisters on the left bank. He and his friend, Willemin, had been wandering around the Latin Quarter and Willemin decided he would go to the chapel where Eucharistic Adoration was available every day. He asked André if he would like to join him and his invitation met with a definite ‘No!’ As the afternoon wore on André believed his friend was overdoing his religious bit. Entering the chapel, nothing could have prepared him for what would happen to him. It only took a minute or two. His life was transformed as he emerged with the conviction, ‘God exists; I have met him’. This gave rise to his famous book Dieu existe, je L’ai rencontré (Paris: Fayard, 1969). The twenty seventh edition was published in early 2024.
His book is largely an account of what it was like growing up in a loving but faithless family in the early part of the twentieth century. Particularly interesting is the reaction of his family when he returns to them after his conversion experience. He is treated as someone infected with Covid. He has to spend his time in his bedroom and meals are brought to him. His father refuses to speak to him. Father’s concern, of course, is the scandal that would accrue to him as a militant communist were his son’s strange religious experience to become known. Eventually, his father decided that his son should see a medical doctor, not in a surgery where he would most likely clam up. So a doctor friend was called to the house, he too being an atheist of course. He very subtly interviewed the young man but in such a general way as to avoid any suggestion that he was investigating his mental health. Eventually after a long session the doctor is able to assure the father that there is nothing to worry about. His diagnosis is that André is suffering from a disease called ‘grace’! It isn’t serious and won’t attack his reasoning powers. There is no cure but the illness will evolve naturally and eventually wear out. These mystical crises, as he called them, are common enough at André’s age and last roughly about two years, leaving no permanent effect! After the doctor’s visit the isolation continued for the young man and he was warned not to impose his new found religion on the family. Incidentally, André’s sister did become a Catholic and, after many years, his mother converted too.
André Frossard waited over thirty years before he wrote the book about his conversion. In the meantime he joined the French navy and was part of the French Resistance, being arrested by the Gestapo in 1943. He was one of seven prisoners to escape a massacre the following year in which seventy two died. Frossard’s main work throughout his life was as a journalist with some of the most prestigious papers, including Le Figaro. He published several books, mostly on faith issues. He was awarded several honours by Church and State, including one from Pope John Paul II, about whom he wrote at least two books. He was elected to the Académie Française in 1987.
So what can we take from the most unusual conversion story of André Frossard? Most people who become Christian do so because they are born into such a family; others find God after years of searching and eventually finding. But André doesn’t fit in to either category. What is highlighted in his conversion experience is the action of the Holy Spirit. There is no conversion without the imperceptible presence of the Spirit of the Lord. Growing up in a Catholic family and experiencing the best of Christian practice and catechesis does not guarantee that such a person will become a convinced believer. This only happens with the grace of God. Similarly, those who honestly search for meaning in life and come to the stage of becoming Christian do so with the guidance and action of God’s Spirit. André Frossard’s unique conversion experience highlights this essential aspect of becoming a Christian and continuing to grow in the ways of the Lord: we can only come to God with His loving presence. The fact that this happened for André at Eucharistic Adoration in the chapel at rue d’Ulm[1] underlines the fact that the Eucharist is at the heart of life and conversion.
[1] The Sisters later moved to 39, rue Gay Lussac in the 5th arrondissement, but that convent is now closed.