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| Bishop Speaks | ||||
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| September 21, 2006 Edition | ||||
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Dear friends,
In mid September, September 14 and 15 respectively, to be exact, we celebrated the twin feasts of the Exultation of the Holy Cross and the feast of Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows. At this particular time of the year these twin feasts direct our attention toward the role of suffering and sadness in every human life - that is, we are able to see in the Cross of Christ, triumph, and exultation, which means hope in times of sadness and suffering and difficulty.
It is interesting that the sadness and suffering of 9/11 happened so close to our celebration of these two feasts, as if in God's providence these feasts are given to us as the interpretive key of 9/11 and of so many of the other events and circumstances that we encounter in our daily lives.
Two years ago on September 15 I underwent the serious open-heart surgery to which God's providence had called me, as a way to growing in my closeness to Jesus on the Cross. As I have written previously, at the time of the surgery there was simply no other place where Jesus was for me and I had to allow Him to embrace me from His Cross, as Mother Teresa has said so beautifully.
The sufferings of the direct victims of 9/11 and of their families and friends is something that has changed the world, as has been said so often these days, something that we as Americans "will never forget." But there is triumph in the Holy Cross; it is none other than a place of glory.
And so when we walk into Church each Sunday and look at the Crucifix we see beyond the instrument of execution and torture, used by brutal Roman Emperors for those they considered the lowest form of criminal life, to the glory of our salvation guaranteed by Jesus' resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Cross Fathers have as their motto in Latin, "Ave Crux, Spes Unica" that is "Hail to the Cross, Our Only Hope!" To look to the crucified Lord and be given the gift of the vision of resurrection glory is the irreplaceable gift of our faith that comes to us through Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist.
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During these days of transition for Bishop Swain to his new Diocese of Sioux Falls, S.D., I have called Fr. Donn Heiar to serve as Vicar General and to undertake a new parish assignment, and I have called Fr. Kevin Holmes to serve as Rector of the Cathedral Church of St. Raphael and Holy Redeemer and St. Patrick Parishes in downtown Madison. The new year of parish and school activities is just beginning and, in this and many other ways, Fathers Heiar and Holmes are being called by the Lord to enter in an unexpected way more deeply into the mystery of the cross of Jesus.
Their transfer will cause the transfer of other priests again at a very unexpected moment, that they too will see Christ crucified calling them in unexpected directions at unexpected times. Our wonderful Catholic faithful in the Diocese of Madison do not expect their priests to be transferred at the beginning of the ordinary year of parish activities - everything is "ready to go." The concern inevitably arises "it's going to be so much more difficult as a new priest gets adjusted to our circumstance just as everything is getting in gear." And our priests are loved and lovable and our people, humanly and spiritually, very understandably, find it difficult to let go.
As Bishop Swain has said, he came 40 years ago on a bus to Madison not knowing anyone here, but turned out to be very happy as he was embedded into the life of the Madison community and eventually of our diocesan community. Fathers Heiar and Holmes are being called to places that are less familiar for them, and so are the brother priests who will have to move as a result of their transfers. And so God's wonderful, faithful people will have to give up a beloved priest at an unforeseen moment and begin to love the best out of their new priest. In all of this there is an experience of the cross, which is at the same time a wonderful experience of hope.
Mary, Our mother of Sorrows, stood at the foot of the Cross and would never have deserted her Son, even in the face of His gruesome death. Surely, as St. Ignatius of Loyola has surmised, Jesus first appeared to the Mother of Sorrows after His resurrection so that her sadness might be turned into joy. Through the difficulty and uncertainty of change, Bishop Swain, Fr. Heiar, Fr. Holmes, his brother priests who would accept unexpected transfers, and the wonderful people of our diocese who will be asked to let go of their beloved priests and begin to love another, all of these enter into the mystery of the suffering and death of Christ as Mary did.
But this is a time of passage when they will walk in hope on the road that leads nowhere else than to resurrection glory. Let us pray together for all of our brother priests and wonderful people who are experiencing a certain uprooting at this time. Let us offer them the strongest loving support during these important days.
Thank you for reading this, God Bless each one of you. Praise be Jesus Christ!
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