Bishop R. Walker Nickless

Giving to those in need: Christ's love in this world

Feb. 15, 2007

My dear friends in Christ,

Next week, as we begin again the season of Lenten renewal, we should remind ourselves what it means to love like Christ loves. Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, wrote in his encyclical God is Love, "Love is the light - and in the end, the only light -  that can always illuminate a world grown dim and give us the courage needed to keep living and working." (no. 39)

In our baptism, we are each conformed to Christ. To live out our baptism means nothing other than, as Saint Paul says, to live such that "it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." We must become Christ's love in the world; that is our mission that never changes.

Let us begin this Lent with a renewal of our baptismal commitment to love as Christ loves, so that He will be more visible to those who do not yet know Him. This radiant love embraces all our brothers and sisters throughout the world, and especially those who suffer from all kinds of spiritual, emotional, and material poverty. Through our solidarity with them, Christ's redeeming love can heal the diseases that come with poverty.

Let us, then, begin our Lenten renewal with an obvious act of solidarity with the poor. Let us offer a generous share of our wealth to those in need, knowing that this act is a Christ-like act when we offer it for His sake. On Ash Wednesday, we should support the special collection for Aid to the Catholic Church in Central and Eastern Europe, where the spiritual poverty of 50 years of Communist tyranny still leaves much damage to the people of God. And on the first weekend of Lent, we should support also the Black and Indian Missions and Catholic Home Missions Appeal, for the least among us who crave the hope that Christ offers so abundantly.

We are all so very blessed, here in this diocese. What Christ gives to us freely, let us freely share with our brothers and sisters who are less fortunate. Most importantly, let us share our spiritual wealth. These acts of almsgiving will be for us the foundation of our Lenten renewal, shining anew into the darkness of the world the love Christ pours into us every day.

I pray that all of you may grow closer to God, the Holy Trinity of Love, as we pass through the Lenten season into the joy of Passiontide and Christ's Resurrection.

Your brother in Christ,

Most Reverend R. Walker Nickless,
Bishop of Sioux City