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| Bishop Speaks | ||||
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| June 19, 2003 Edition | ||||
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Return to our God
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God our Father, if we allow him, leads us from the darkness of indecision and fear into the light of his love and the security of doing it his way. Such is his everlasting love.
Fear, loneliness, pain
We all cry out in various ways for acceptance and we sometimes take roundabout routes as a way of covering our fear of rejection by seeking ways that temporarily melt away our loneliness and give us relief, however long or short, only to discover that it only intensifies the pain.
We are shy in our lives about accepting God's love, a love without condition, because often we cannot fathom the depth of God's love and its abiding presence in our lives. We sometimes shrink from what that love will demand of us.
I seldom, if ever, contemplate in prayer the length, depth, and everlasting love of God without first recalling Jesus' biblical teaching from what is known as "The Prodigal Son."
The younger son in the parable was an admirable, promising young man who very probably wished to go out into the world with the help of a little of his dad's wealth, get started and show the dad he could make it in the world on his own, make good money and establish himself as a man respected and successful by worldly standards.
Drift or decide
He then would make his dad proud, but it did not work out that way. The young son began to taste of the forbidden fruit, intense ambition, and unbridled search for pleasure.
He began to search the ways of the world which ultimately led him to shipwreck and disaster. He became poor and penniless, drenched in regrets, lost chances, and in some ways became like driftwood rushed ashore by pounding ocean waves. He woke up one day and said, "I must go home to my father's house," only to see his father waiting for him and welcoming him with open arms.
Rembrandt's 'Prodigal Son'
The portrait of the Prodigal Son painted by Rembrandt hangs in the dining area of the Bishop's Residence. Nearby the picture are reflections of the Scripture story depicted in the painting.
Let me recall for you a few descriptions. I do so because there are many, many sons and daughters who, like the prodigal figure of the parable taught by Jesus, never leave the world that hurts them and harms them because they cannot see the abiding, everlasting, unconditional love of God.
The descriptions help us ponder some points of reflection. The father in the portrait is old because Rembrandt thought and felt that the wisdom of life is born of experience and suffering and length of years.
The father's eyes are damp with sadness. His face furrowed by years of searching for the son who is the beloved of his heart and the joy of his declining years.
In the father's face you see tenderness and strength. His teary, almost blurry eyes cry silently for the son to return.
Love stronger than death
The son's face is turned toward the father in the portrait so we see no exchanged glance but we do see a still youthful head, tattered clothes, badly worn sandals, kneeling before the father. The father's hands rest on his son's back. The son's royal cloak is now tattered and torn like a sail on a ship at sea, having battled the elements of strong wind and rain.
There in warm embrace the son wakes up after an intense search to discover the world for himself. He simply decided to come home. Perhaps he knew in his heart that his father would welcome him and yet his elder brother would stand in solemn judgment on him.
At home with father's love
But the father's love was so great and the light of acceptance and final sense of belonging so strong, he experienced what we all look for in life and when we find it we embrace it forever. It is the everlasting love of God for us his sons and daughters.
For anyone who reads this article or column and is touched by it, I praise God because this is the manner of God's love in the life of each of us.
The human heart suffers greatly in the world today. Contradictory values fight for supremacy in the lives of many and our hearts remain restless until they rest in God . . . in his everlasting love.
The Prodigal Son parable offers hope, true love, and the fullness of God's everlasting love.
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Bishop Bullock:
Writes letter to the priests of the Madison Diocese
Dear Father:
We are in transition to a new beginning with Bishop Robert Morlino, our Fourth Bishop of Madison. He is in transition after nearly four years as Bishop of Helena. I, as you know, am transitioning to retirement. Madison is my home; I will remain here and reside at the Bishop O'Connor Catholic Pastoral Center with an office on the first floor.
No transition is easy. You and I have moved from childhood to adolescence to adulthood and some to middle and old age. As I said to you early on, June 14, 1993, in my opening talk: "I am your Bishop and we have a collegial ministry. Such a statement is likely to get you priests thinking yes to the first part, but on the second part, we'll have to wait and see. However cautious we may feel about talk of collegiality, however much we may fear that it merely masks a less attractive situation of attempts to control one another, and the attempt in response to protect our own turf, we still need to work at it.
"Collegiality is the way Church life is supposed to be organized. We need to work at it from both sides - priests and bishops. Just as no one of us prays alone, so no one of us teaches alone or exercises pastoral judgment alone. Everyone knows that the Church is not a democracy, where majorities rule, but it isn't supposed to be a feudal system either where position gives an authority which ends all arguments."
First, let me say thanks to all of you for these 10 years: the novena of years, plus one. I thank each and all of you for your priestly work whatever your status by age, active, or retired.
One quality among many in our presbyterate is "we get along with each other." Even though there are ideological differences among us we can sit at the same table, gather around the altar, or be in prayer and do so with ease.
There are sharp divisions of approach but not factions. I, for one, have thanked God often for that gift to our presbyterate. I thank you for it.
Second, I thank you for understanding me even when we disagreed and I especially ask forgiveness of anyone who may have felt hurt or wronged.
One of the dynamics of our day in leadership roles is we must make decisions more quickly than years ago and we have to consult more people. Years ago Bishops and priests had much more time and had to consult no one. Today the demands of administration are great and our areas of consultation and communication are intense.
At any rate, I thank God. I thank you. I pledge my prayerful best to be with you here in the Diocese of Madison in my retirement after August 1st. For 10 years I was your Bishop and now Formerly Bishop of Madison, retired but always your fellow priest.
Some details that you may find helpful:
• Current status of bishops
Bishop Robert Morlino is indeed appointed Bishop of Madison but will not be fully so until after he takes canonical possession of the Diocese and is duly installed. In the interim Bishop Morlino was appointed Apostolic Administrator of Helena. My resignation has been accepted by Pope John Paul II and therefore the See is vacant. I have been elected Diocesan Administrator of Madison until August 1, 2003.
• What do you call us and for how long? How do you pray for us?
Bishop Morlino is Bishop-Designate before August 1, 2003 - The Most Reverend Robert C. Morlino, Bishop-Designate of Madison, Helena, Montana. Bishop Bullock is The Most Reverend William H. Bullock, Diocesan Administrator, Diocese of Madison.
Prayers in the Canon of the Mass before August 1st: "For John Paul our Pope, for William our Administrator, Bishops Robert and George. . ." After August 1st: "For John Paul our Pope, our Bishop Robert, and Bishops George and William. . ."
After August 1st, Bishop Morlino's full title is Bishop of Madison. Bishop Bullock is Formerly Bishop of Madison or Bishop Emeritus of Madison, 702 S. High Point Road, Madison, Wisconsin.
• Installation dates
I urge you to circle your calendars and make room in your schedule for the Vespers Service and Canonical Possession Ceremony, 6:00 p.m. on July 31, 2003; and 2:00 p.m. Eucharist and Installation on August 1, 2003 at St. Raphael Cathedral.
• New appointment requests
All appointments for my presence to which I committed myself will go to Bishop Morlino beginning immediately after August 1, 2003. Bishop Morlino may ask Bishop Wirz and/or me to take some of these scheduled appointments.
Any new appointment requests brought to my attention since May 23rd for the presence of a Bishop after August 1st automatically go to Bishop Morlino and I will not schedule in any installation of pastors.
In the past, Bishop Wirz always deferred to me and my schedule and then we divided the work. It is my belief that Bishop Morlino will do the same. If there's any overflow after that, Bishop Morlino may ask me to represent him.
I trust these items have been helpful. Many priests and people reflecting on my enormously busy schedule this spring said, "Bishop, you're overscheduled," to which I replied, "By this time I thought my Successor would have been installed and I would be retired."
At any rate, all is well. Bishop Morlino is impressed with us, eager to serve as our shepherd, excited about many aspects of the Diocese, and will in time put his own print on the history of our Diocese as the fourth Bishop of Madison. Let us pray for one another in the days and months ahead. Thank you for your many kindnesses to me. I appreciate all of you and give you my pledge of prayer as I ask for yours in return.
In my remarks to you at the Clergy In-Service Day I quoted from Father Philip Murnion's May 8 remarks to the National Federation of Priests' Councils convention in Kansas City, Missouri. I am pleased to repeat some of them in this letter. "Respect for priesthood increasingly is earned, not presumed. Though the priesthood still validates the individual priest, more and more each priest must authenticate the priesthood."
A second quotation is, "If ever we needed a reminder that the life of each priest affects every priest, the last year and half more than provided such a reminder. Yet we seem to be undergoing increasing individuation of priests, leaving each to his own life and ministry, mission and community, spirituality and development."
If we will serve God's people well we must move from a survival mode to one of full immersion into the promises of Christ. We belong to God and in Jesus he cares for us; he is leading us through suffering, through a long purification.
We are moving to thrive in a renewed Church. We lift ourselves in Christ from the smoldering embers of sexual abuse by clergy, priests, and bishops into a new promise to protect children and pledge ourselves to heal old wounds. The mystery of the cross is no stranger to the priest. We embrace it, shoulder it, and rely on its power to redeem.
The words of the preface of the Holy Spirit assure us, "God gives his gifts of grace for every time and season as to keep us always by his power so that with loving trust we may turn to him in all our troubles and give thanks in all our joys."
St. Augustine reminds us that we belong to each other in Christ: "For you, I am a bishop but with you, I am a Christian. The first is an office I have accepted, the second is a grace I have received; one is a danger to my salvation, the other a safety. If then I seem happier by far to be redeemed with you and walk with you than I am to be placed over you as bishop, it is only because I hope to be more completely your brother and servant."
For you I was your Bishop, now I remain your fellow priest and brother. "Oremus pro invicem" are happy watchwords for us in the future. Let us pray for one another.
Give your best to Christ each day; pledge anew each day your loyalty and support for your newly appointed Bishop, Bishop Robert Charles Morlino.
Grace, Mercy, and Peace,
Most Reverend William H. Bullock
Diocesan Administrator
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