My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

DAY OF PRAYER FOR DEACONS AND PRIESTS

One of the special days I look forward to each Lent is the annual Day of Recollection for Priests and Deacons. It gives me as Bishop a chance to pray and reflect together on a Lenten theme and to celebrate the sacraments of Confession and Anointing of the Sick.  As we have done in the past, we gathered at St. Mary’s Parish in Sac City.  Father Larry Mc Carty and his parish staff and workers provided us with hospitality, gracious welcome and a wonderful meal last Thursday.

This year our priest continuing education committee invited Abbot Marcel Rooney, OSB to be our presenter.  He is presently the President of the Diocesan Liturgical Institute in the Diocese of Tulsa, Oklahoma.  He spoke to us about the prayer the Bishop prays when he ordains a man to the priesthood.  It is a beautiful reflection on what priests are to be.  Let me quote it for you:

 “Now, dear sons, you are to be raised to the Order of the Priesthood.  For your part, you will exercise the sacred duty of teaching in the name of Christ the Teacher.  Impart to everyone the word of God, which you have received with joy.  Meditating on the law of the Lord, see that you believe what you read, that you teach what you believe, and that you practice what you teach.  In this way, let what you teach be nourishment for the people of God.  Let the holiness of your lives be a delightful fragrance to Christ's faithful, so that by word and example you may build up the house which is God's Church.”

Abbot Marcel took time to prayerfully lead us in reflection on this passage.  He helped all of us who share the Sacrament of Holy Orders to appreciate God’s great gift to us. 

Abbot Marcel also spent some time answering questions about the implementation of the new translation of the Roman Missal.  When this translation is finally approved by Rome (probably near the end of 2010), all dioceses in the United States will begin to implement it with a series of instructions and workshops for priests, deacons and the faithful.  We have already begun planning for this and it will be an exciting time for the Church in our country.  All of were grateful for the Abbot’s insights and responses.

SACRAMENT OF ANOINTING OF THE SICK

Many of our elderly priests and deacons received the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.  What a special grace it was for me to pray for, lay hands on, and anoint my brothers in ministry.  I am so grateful for all the ways our priests and deacons serve the Church of Sioux City, even when many of them are retired, sick or suffering.  We prayed for each other and thanked God for the ministry He has given us to serve you.

FORGIVENESS DURING LENT

Another highlight of the day was the opportunity we had to celebrate the sacrament of Confession.  As bishop, priests, and deacons, if we preach on the need for frequent confession, we should practice what we preach.  The Sacrament of Reconciliation is a wonderful gift to us from the Lord.  I hope all of you have a chance to celebrate this sacrament in the special time of renewal and growth that we call Lent. 

I hope and pray that your practice of Christian discipline brings you, not suffering, but reflection, fruitful silence, and the foretaste of our Paschal joy, in which we conquer sin in the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The self-denials of Lent are not a punishment, but a regimen of training.  As St. Paul says, echoed so often by the doctors and masters of our faith, “Run the race so as to win!” (1 Cor 9:24).  Desire the reward of salvation!  Desire what Christ wishes most of all to give you, and therefore be willing to sacrifice, even a little, for that end.

As St. Paul observed, all of us are willing to go to great lengths, and to make enormous sacrifices, to achieve our desires goals in the world.  We want to play a sport in high school or college; we’re willing to spend hours working out and running to do it well.  We want to marry a certain person; we’re willing to make utter fools of ourselves to gain their attention.  We want to have a larger house or a nicer car; we’re willing to work long hours or two jobs, and to scrimp and save, to get these toys or this status symbol.  Why, however, are so few of us willing to sacrifice in the same way for Christ? 

Sacrifice is essential to faith, because “my kingdom is not of this world” (Jn 18:36).  Only one good is the Highest Good; only eternal life is Heaven is fully life with God.  All the many finite goods we enjoy here in this life – good food, warm homes in winter, wealth, health, faithful families and loyal friends, freedom, peace, security, love, happiness, leisure, and so many more – are indeed good, virtuous, and noble things.  But none of them are God, or by themselves the way to God.  We must, therefore, be willing to give up these goods, even just a little, for the sake of that Highest Good.

Three weeks ago, in my letter at the beginning of Lent, I called all of us to return to the “fundamentals of faith.”  I mentioned a few specifically: daily prayer, fasting and abstinence, almsgiving, better preparation to receive Jesus Christ in the Holy Sacrifice of the Eucharist, daily examination of conscience.  Sacrifice is another of these fundamentals, without which we could not be Catholic.  Fasting and abstinence are, in one sense, a kind of sacrifice, seeking to develop in us the habit of deeper appreciation for the goodness of God’s provident gifts of food and meat.  Spending time in prayer is another kind of sacrifice, since it requires that we give up that time spent on something else.

SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION

Another specific kind of sacrifice that is fundamental to our Catholic faith is the practice of the Sacrament of Confession, or Reconciliation.  Our Lord Jesus Christ performed many astonishing and miraculous healings during His three years of ministry before His Passion, but none more astonishing than when He declared, “Your sins are forgiven.”  Just three Sundays ago, for example, we heard Him declare this to the paralytic in Capernaum, “so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth” (Mk 2:10).  This is the same authority “to bind and to loose” which Jesus gave to St. Peter, for the Church to use.  This is so important that Jesus said this to Peter three times: once when Peter declared to Him, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” (Mt 16:16-19); and again after His Transfiguration (Mt 18:18); and yet again after His Resurrection (Jn 20:23).  How great is our Lord’s desire to forgive!

These are the verses in Scripture in which Jesus establishes the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Many of us, like St. Peter eventually did, know how sweet this Sacrament is, how deeply it heals, how much it changes us to become like Christ.  As a priest of our Lord Jesus Christ, I love this Sacrament deeply, and I both offer it and receive it frequently. 

This Sacrament is intimately connected with the Holy Eucharist, as two aspects of the one Paschal pouring out of Christ’s love for us.  In the Holy Eucharist, Christ gives us Himself, “body, blood, soul, and divinity,” making Himself present “really, truly, and substantially,” in the miracle of the Mass.  He feeds us on His own flesh, the “bread of life” (Jn 6:35) which we all need in order to grow strong in faith, in virtue, and in the undimmed image of God renewed first in us in the waters of Baptism.  In Reconciliation, Christ gives Himself to us, not as the bread of life, but as the transfiguring love and unity with the Father that truly forgives sins.  The prophet Isaiah says, “You have kept my soul from perishing, when you cast behind your back all my sins” (Is 38:17).  God’s forgiveness of sins, unlike our own, does not simply patch over the harm we have done to ourselves and others by sinning, but truly heals.  We feel this grace, this health, to the extent that we are truly sorry for our sins, and truly intent on not repeating those sins.  We also become the vehicle for bringing this same grace of healing to those whom we have injured by our sins, through carrying out the penance assigned, and through our renewed willingness to forgive both them and (especially) ourselves.  When we fully accept this healing love, the damage caused by sin is fully healed, leaving only the memory, now powerless to damage further.

For us, too, then, these two Sacraments of Christ’s infinite love should be closely connected.  We need them both, in order to live Christ’s life to the full.  Christ is a demanding master!  He expects nothing other than perfect love from us, to whom He freely gives His perfect love.  Yet “my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Mt 11:30), because the perfecting of our love is the work of Christ, the Paschal mystery, not our own effort.  We need only desire to love more perfectly; the rest follows, by the grace of these two Sacraments especially. 

Especially during this season of Lent, all of our priests make the Sacrament of Reconciliation more freely available, with both longer and more frequent times before Mass, and with parish “Reconciliation services.”  We should all be eager to take advantage of these opportunities.  We need to be healed of our wounds, by the blood flowing from the wounds of our Savior.  We need to be fed with real food, the Eucharistic body and the words of absolution which He Himself gives us.  Only then, hale and strong, can we “run so as to win!”

My prayers continue to be with you in these days of preparation for the celebration of new life at Easter.  I count on your prayers for me.

Your brother in Christ,

Most Reverend R. Walker Nickless