My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

MAY AND MOTHERS

I hope that your Mother's Day was joyful and faithful last Sunday.  I offered, and still offer, my prayers for all the mothers in our diocese, whose vocation in the family is the backbone of a healthy society and Church.  Without the love, teaching, and prayer of my own mother, I would hardly have been able to discern my own priestly vocation, and I know that we all depend on our mothers in this way.

Mary, the holy Mother of God, is also our mother.  Because we are baptized into the Body of Christ, the same Body that was Jesus before and after His Resurrection, we are mystically present with Him, even from the Annunciation.  In a special way, Mary gave birth to the Church, that is, all of us, when she bore Christ.  Mary as our mystical mother shows us the same love, teaching, and prayer that our own mothers do; and we all depend greatly on Mary for our faith and faithfulness.  We should pray daily that she will help us, by her example and her intercessions, to love Jesus as she did, with perfect faith and humility.

The Church, in another way, is also our mother.  "Holy Mother Church" is a phrase not much heard today, but it is still a true and useful way to think about our relationship with Christ's Body.  The holy sacrament of Baptism, we know, incorporates us into Christ, that is, literally makes us part of His Body.  The waters of Baptism are in one sense the tomb: just as Christ died, was entombed, and rose again, so we too in Baptism die, enter the tomb of the font, and rise again in new life.  The water is thus also, in another sense, the womb of the Church, from which we are born into Christ's new and pure life.  This womb, the sacrament of Baptism, is given to the Church alone by Christ, when he told his Apostles to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."  Only the Church, the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, offers the way to true life.

When we say that the Church is our mother, we mean two practical things.  First, like our mother, the Church guides us and teaches us for our own good.  The Magisterium, the teaching authority of the Church, which all the faithful are to follow with filial devotion, is the motherly voice of the Church.  She teaches us, for example, about our true nature as human beings, about our relationships with others in the Church and in the world, how to pray well, how to want what is good and resist the temptation of what is not good.  She also chastises us when we need it, not to punish us but to raise us to be mature and responsible.

Second, we are the Church.  Apart from the Magisterium, which is exercised by the College of Bishops in union with the Bishop of Rome, all of us are the mother for all of us.  We are all responsible for the salvation, faith, and morals of each other.  This does not "trump" the individual moral responsibility for sin and wrongdoing, but sin never happens in isolation.  I always bear some measure of blame for another's sin, because I did not succeed in convincing him not to sin.  We are all equally brothers and sisters in Christ, and we must accept the responsibility to love each other, to bear with each other's faults and weaknesses while encouraging each other precisely in overcoming these weaknesses.  We as the members of the Body must cooperate with each other in being Christ in the world.

I hope and pray that, in May, the month of Mary, and always, you will remember not only your mother in the flesh, but also your mother in the spirit: Mary, our mother became Mother of God, and the Church, our mother from baptism. May we truly be as "little children" in our humble, faithful, and trusting response to the many daily graces of God in our lives, for the glory of His name!

185 AIR REFUELING WING

My schedule of Confirmations continues and I enjoy seeing different parts of the diocese. However, this past week, I had a chance to do another kind of traveling. Father Paul Arts, Rector of Our Cathedral of the Epiphany, and I joined other ministers from Sioux City on a flight that took us up over Iowa and 26,000 feet above South Dakota. We were privileged to see the mid air refueling of two aircraft. What an experience and what a view! I am very grateful for the individuals involved with the 185th Air Fueling Wing here in our city. I found everyone we met to be competent, dedicated and welcoming. It was an adventure that I will never forget.
 
As we look forward to celebrating the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord this Sunday, please know of my continued prayers for all of you. May the gift of the Holy Spirit, which we all await on Pentecost, fill us with wisdom, grace and peace.

Your brother in Christ,

Most Reverend R. Walker Nickless
Bishop of Sioux City