My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
How quickly the days pass! We are half way to Pentecost, and everything is growing with the vigor of new life. Easter for us should carry the same meaning in our spiritual life. Are we, like the grass that springs joyfully up in the morning, renewed in our faith and love in our Lord Jesus Christ with the season of Easter? I pray that each of us may find such renewal in these days.
Mary, our Lord’s holy mother, is also a symbol for our faith at this time of year. May has always been my favorite month, not just because it is the month of my birth; but because it is the month of Mary. Mary’s faith in God’s age-old promises was always fresh and new. Her unwavering trust in her Lord and Teacher grew throughout her life, from her simple but pious youth, to the Annunciation, the visit to her cousin Elizabeth, her "Magnificat" (which the Church still prays every evening), the brief years of Jesus’s earthly ministry, and even through His Passion, death, and glorious Resurrection that first Easter. Mary was one of the first to go to the tomb that Sunday morning. She did not know what to think or to expect, perhaps, yet she had for so many years "stored all these things up in her heart," pondering the divine meaning God was revealing; and so she was, I imagine, the least surprised of all when the Resurrection was made known.
Yet in imitating our Blessed Mother, we should be the more surprised. She trusted, and her faith carried her from the heights of the older, preparatory revelations of ancient Israel to the new heights of her Son’s unprecedented glory. We, however, struggle to believe and trust even a fraction as deeply as her. Though we have the full meaning of all these events recorded for us in the Gospels and in the Church’s unchanging, apostolic Tradition, we too often take this familiarity for granted. We miss each Easter’s shocking conversion, secure in our minuscule belief. If we could only admit the weakness of our daily faith, the power of our Lord’s glorious Resurrection, in which we participate daily through the "indelible mark" upon our minds, hearts, and souls from the waters of Holy Baptism and, from the sacrament of Confirmation would truly surprise us, convict us, and convert us.
Mary is our Mother in this struggle for faith as well. So many times throughout the Church’s history, Mary has given us signs and apparitions to strengthen us for the world’s trials. Indeed, Mary our Lady of Guadalupe is the Diocese of Sioux City’s principle patroness. Her appearance to a simple and unlettered Native American, now called St. Juan Diego, in the likeness of a young, pregnant, Native American girl surely means that Mary is a devoted mother to us in the Americas. Similarly, Mary, our Lady of Perpetual Help, promises to help us as a devoted mother, not to gain power over the world and its affairs, but over the merciful Heart of her Son, our Lord. Mary’s unceasing intercession for us with her Son softens, not His merciful and sacred Heart, but ours, so that we can bend from our pride and weak faith enough to ask for His mercy. He is ever willing to forgive, but we must want His mercy for it to change us. Mary’s prayers help us to want that.
If your parish or school celebrates Mary our mother this May with one of the many traditional devotions to her, such as a May crowning of her statue or one of the many Marian novenas, then I encourage you to take part. Such reminders of what good Mary, Queen of heaven and Mother of the whole Church, does for us each day are always timely. Let us now, each in some personal way, lean close to her in prayer, to thank her for all her past kindnesses to us, and to beg her to continue all her tender care for us, her beloved children in the Church.
May the fruits our mother’s loving intercessions be clearly tangible to each of us in this Easter season and this month of May! Let us turn to her and through her to her Son, and ask for the grace to imitate both more zealously amidst these worldly trials. Let us be strengthened in faith through the practice of joy and prayer.
CONFIRMATIONS
As you can see from my schedule, I have been busy these last few weeks with many Confirmations. It is always a joy for me to bring this sacrament to our young people. I want to thank the teachers, pastors; sponsors (and, of course, parents) who help prepare them for this holy sacrament. I pray that our Blessed Mother watch over each of these young persons and protect them with her motherly care. I have great hope for the Church when I see the beautiful faith of our young Catholics. Please pray for them and encourage them in the faith by your own good example.
As Mother’s Day approaches, let us all ask Mary to be with our mothers, living or dead, and fill them with peace and joy.
Please continue to prayer also for me, that I may always love and serve only Him, and thus all of you, according to His holy will.
Your brother in Christ,
Most Reverend R. Walker Nickless
Bishop of Sioux City