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BISHOP'S LENTEN MESSAGE
Striving to live up to promises of the Cross

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

As we approach once again the season of Lent, we remember that our most profound goal, the reason we are and remain Catholic despite every cost is to love Jesus Christ first and above all – precisely because He loved us first, “while we were yet sinners”. During these special 40 days of Lent, we are given another opportunity to draw closer to Christ in love. We love Christ for many reasons, but one of the most compelling reasons is to recognize the price He paid for us – giving his very life so we could be free to love.

If we examine our lives closely, we see how selfish our love can be at times. We need to change and to grow in our love of Christ. Our Lenten commitment to change begins with the symbol of receiving ashes on Ash Wednesday. The ashes of the palms we used a year ago to celebrate Palm Sunday represent the false hope of the world. Our savior is not like any earthly king or ruler. The world cannot save, and the worldly who love its goods above God must not be imitated. When we put on these ashes, we carry the Cross of Christ, for this day at least, literally on our own flesh. It is through the suffering and the cross that we are saved. In Lent, we try and share in a very personal way with the sufferings of Christ. The “things” we might give up can bring us closer to Christ in his suffering.

This is the journey of Lent, which imitates the wandering of Israel in the wilderness, between Egypt and the Promised Land. “Forty years I endured that generation. I said they are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not know my ways” (Ps 95:10). The Church in this world wanders likewise, between baptism and Heaven. Our hearts go astray, too; but we do know God’s ways, because He has taught them to us in the Gospel of His Son, whose face and Sacred Heart we see and feel. So then, if we are to love Christ above all, we must do the things each day which His love teaches. Prayer, and fasting, and alms-giving are God’s tools (see Mt 6), which we all can use to love Christ more, and to love others more in Christ. Each year, Lent reminds us to make better use of these gifts, as we strive to live up to the promises of the Cross with more and deeper commitment.

Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict, has said that we cannot grow in love for God without using these tools intently. “Saint Augustine, in a homily on the First Letter of John, describes very beautifully the intimate relationship between prayer and hope. He defines prayer as an exercise of desire. Man was created for greatness—for God himself; he was created to be filled by God. But his heart is too small for the greatness to which it is destined. It must be stretched. ‘By delaying [his gift], God strengthens our desire; through desire he enlarges our soul and by expanding it he increases its capacity [for receiving him]’” (Spe Salvi, 33). We want Christ and to know more and more of His love for us. This should be the one goal of our prayer this Lent.

If we practice prayer, fasting, and almsgiving this Lent with a clear intention of clinging only to God in hope, and of becoming more like Christ, then we will recognize in ourselves the ways we have not clung to God alone or been like Christ in the past. What we practice externally sheds light on what we really think and feel internally. Our Lenten discipline is without benefit if we have no desire for interior renewal and change. We must, therefore, run also to the Sacrament of Confession. Here, especially, Christ unveils for us His merciful love and forgiveness, and with his gracious regard washes us free from sin, free to love purely.

In the Litany of the Holy Face, we find this prayer: “I salute Thee, I adore Thee, I love Thee, O adorable Face of Jesus my beloved, noble seal of the Divinity! With all the powers of my soul, I apply myself to Thee, and most humbly pray Thee to imprint in me all the features of Thy divine countenance.” This is, indeed, what Lent helps to prepare us for: that in our loving union with our Lord Jesus Christ in the Paschal mystery, the love which we show to the world every day through our faces and hearts may be only His, for the salvation of many souls! We must let Christ live in us and for him to be able to do this, we need to make room. These special 40 days of grace are meant to help us clean up our hearts, so that Christ may dwell ever more fully. What needs to change in our lives? What do we need to let go of so that there is room for Christ?

My brothers and sisters let us use the 40 days of Lent well. I ask you to pray for me and all our priests and deacons. We in turn promise to pray for you and those you love. When the celebration of Resurrection of Christ comes on April 24, may we all rejoice in our new found faith, hope and love!

Your brother in Christ,

Most Reverend R. Walker Nickless
Bishop of Sioux City