Lent 2009 
 

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Now the last days of our Lenten pilgrimage run toward the dawn of glory, Christ’s Resurrection; and I pray that each of you, through these weeks of preparation and penance, has grown in grace and love with our Lord. This week is sometimes called "Passiontide," and we noticed perhaps the Church’s custom of veiling our sacred images, especially the Crucifix, as we remember and participate with the Church in His Passion once again. Next week is Holy Week, culminating in the most sacred and awe-filled days of the Triduum, when we witness our Lord mount the Cross, lay down His life, and take it up again on Easter morning, all for our salvation.

With the psalmist we can pray, "What is man that you care for him, mortal man that you keep him in mind?" (Ps 8). Our mortality looms before us like a wall, beyond which we cannot see. How can we be close to God, who is so utterly unlike us? How can we love, when we fear death so? Our lives seem so bereft of meaning or worth. Yet with Christ, God who became man so that we could become God, there is no fear. "Christ our Light!" we cry at the Easter Vigil.  In the light of Christ, God made flesh, flesh become transparent and we see Truth. This is our glory, reflected from His glory.

As members of Christ’s body, the Church, we live in Christ, not in ourselves.  The ancient Christians of the age of martyrs knew intimately that this life is a "discipline," a regimen of training for the next life. This is still true today. By living this life of Christ in us, now, in this world, with conviction and determination, with contrition of heart and refusal to compromise with the Father of Lies (the Devil), we are preparing to "see God face to face," as St. Paul says. The more like Christ we can become now, using His grace and following His way in His Church, the closer to God we will be in the next life. The reverse is also true. If we refuse to try to live in Christ, letting His light be "a lamp for our feet," then we also refuse to be closer to Him in the next life. We choose our own path, not following the one God has already marked out for us. We reject the suffering of the Cross to which all Christ’s followers are in some way called, only to bear a much greater burden of pain and sorrow, both in this life and in the next.

THE SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE

Let me make this more practical and concrete, by continuing to talk about the grace of the holy sacrament of marriage.  Last week, I wrote about several of the ways in which the modern world seeks to deform marriage and the domestic Church of Christian homes: namely, infidelity, pornography, contraception, and sterilization. These are the paths of darkness, where Christ’s light does not guide our feet. These are the false promises of happiness which prove unable to satisfy the "hunger for righteousness" (see Mt 5) of those who love God even a little. But, when these false promises are rejected, when husbands and wives recommit themselves to live their marriage covenant faithfully, then the glory of Christ is evident!  Marriage is a beautiful sacrament and sometimes we forget how many graces flow from a committed and faithful husband and wife.  Children are a special blessings and our church and world benefit from the love that flows from parents and children.  As the Catechism teaches: "God, who created man out of love, also calls him to love the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being. For man is created in the image and likeness of God who is himself love. Since God created him man and woman, their mutual love becomes an image of the absolute and unfailing love with which God loves man. It is good, very good, in the Creator's eyes. and this love which God blesses is intended to be fruitful and to be realized in the common work of watching over creation: ‘and God blessed them, and God said to them: 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.’" (CCC, #1604).  When a husband and a wife love each other with Christ’s own love, because they live completely in Christ, then the world – even the world, so mired in sin and rejection of Christ’s glorious Passion and Resurrection! – recognizes in that love something unique, indescribable, touching on the divine. It is the reflection of Christ’s glory, shining from the mirror of a more pure heart.

Marriage is a sacrament because in it, by God’s grace, husbands and wives are transformed. What often begins in an imperfect love of physical desire ("eros") grows, matures, and is transformed into mature love ("agape"), in which physical desire does not disappear, but is surpassed by spiritual attraction. I learned this most deeply from my parents. You who are married will recognize this truth in your own heart. In this Christ-like love, also, the double fruitfulness of your children and of those attracted by the purity of your love has a profound and "very good" effect on society. Like I did as a boy, your children or grandchildren can learn to love God, who is love, and to accept their vocation as a gift. They have a chance to be virtuous, motivated by love for God rather than fear of society’s dangers and seductions. Your friends, too, will perhaps grasp something of this profound love from sharing a small part of your life together and the example you give. In this way, Christian marriage is a good in the world.  The erosion of marriage in our times leaves a hole which nothing else can fill, and our social fabric suffers because of it. But we recall that the meaning of Lent is conversion. Christ, our life and our light, calls us back into the light. To the extent that we are in the darkness of sin, His light seeks us out and shows us the way back to Him. If the institution of marriage in our day is wounded, Christ can heal it, as He has so often done in the past. He works, as He has always done, in the deep recesses of our hearts. Let us, then, turn away from the false promises of the world, and listen once more to the Good News!  Let us also continue to pray for all married couples.  May God bless them and their families and pour out His love and wisdom to help them appreciate both the joys and trials of family life.

BISHOP HEELAN HIGH SCHOOL

Thanks to an invitation of Justin Coury, sophomore religion teacher at Bishop Heelan High School, I spent a great day with his students.  Each class I spent time with had a wealth of questions.  I tried to answer most of them.  Questions touched on such topics as confession, conscience formation, importance of Sunday Mass and even who I support in basketball’s Final Four.  I visited during the annual magazine subscription drive and bought a subscription from Pete Fitzsimmons, who had the courage to ask the bishop to buy a subscription! Joe Rossiter gave me a tee shirt commemorating the State Champion Basketball team.  I wear it with pride.

These students are just a small portion of so many wonderful students in all our catholic schools.  Let us continue to pray for and support teachers like Justin who care so deeply about their faith and want to share it with our young people.

Christ our Light, as we near the end of the season of Lent and prepare to celebrate with joy your glorious Resurrection, may you illumine more fully our hearts, teach us again that "fear of the Lord" which is "the beginning of wisdom," and grant us the grace to change our suffering world.

Your brother in Christ,

Most Reverend R. Walker Nickless

Bishop of Sioux City