VATICAN CITY, MAY 14, 2004 (VIS) -
Dear Brother Bishops,
1. "God who is rich in mercy, out of great love ..., made us alive
together with Christ" (Eph 2:4-5). With these words of Saint Paul I warmly
welcome you, the Bishops of the Church in California, Nevada and Hawaii, on the
occasion of your visit ad limina Apostolorum. Continuing my reflection on the
munus sanctificandi of Bishops, I wish to reflect on the call to a profound
conversion of heart and mind, essential to the new impetus in Christian living
to which I have invited the whole Church. I am confident that a commitment to
ongoing purification and deep renewal will bring about a greater appreciation of
the Church’s sanctifying mission and embolden her prophetic witness to
American society and the world.
2. Every member of the Church is a pilgrim along the path of personal
sanctification. Through baptism the believer enters into the holiness of God
himself, being incorporated into Christ and made a dwelling place of his Spirit.
But holiness is not only a gift. It is also a task, intrinsic and essential to
discipleship, which shapes the whole of Christian life (cf. Novo Millennio
Ineunte, 30). Impelled by the Lord’s explicit teaching – "this is the
will of God, your sanctification" (1 Th 4:3) – the community of believers
rightly grows in the awareness that it is holiness which best expresses the
mystery of the Church (cf. Novo Millennio Ineunte, 7) and which stirs the desire
to give "striking witness" (Lumen Gentium, 39).
As Bishops you must be at the forefront of this spiritual journey of
sanctification. Your episcopal ministry of ecclesial service, marked by your
personal quest for holiness and your vocation to sanctify others, is a
participation in Jesus’ own ministry and directed towards the building up of
his Church. It demands a pattern of life that unequivocally rejects any
temptation to ostentation, careerism, or the recourse to secular models of
leadership and instead requires you to bear witness to the kenosis of Christ, in
pastoral charity, humility and simplicity of life (cf. The Code of Canon Law, c.
387; Ecclesia in America, 28). Walking in the presence of the Lord, you will
grow in a holiness lived with and for your priests and people, inspiring in them
the desire to embrace the high standards of Christian life and guiding them
along the footsteps of Christ.
3. The credibility of the Church’s proclamation of the Good News is
intimately linked to the commitment of her members to personal sanctification.
The Church is always in need of purification and so she must constantly follow
the path of penance and renewal (cf. Lumen Gentium, 8). The Father’s will that
all believers be sanctified is amplified by the Son’s fundamental exhortation:
"Repent, and believe in the gospel" (Mk 1:15). Just as Peter boldly
echoed this imperative at Pentecost (cf. Acts 2:38), you are charged with
heralding a kerygmatic call to conversion and penance, proclaiming the boundless
mercy of God, and inviting everyone to experience the call to reconciliation and
hope at the heart of the Gospel (cf. Pastores Gregis, 39).
The courage to face the crisis of the loss of the sense of sin, to which I
alerted the whole Church early in my Pontificate (cf. Reconciliatio et
Paenitentia, 18), must be addressed today with particular urgency. While the
effects of sin abound – greed, dishonesty and corruption, broken relationships
and exploitation of persons, pornography and violence – the recognition of
individual sinfulness has waned. In its place a disturbing culture of blame and
litigiousness has arisen which speaks more of revenge than justice and fails to
acknowledge that in every man and woman there is a wound which, in the light of
faith, we call original sin (cf. ibid., 2).
Saint John tells us: "If we say we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves" (1 Jn 1:8). Sin is an integral part of the truth about the human
person. To recognize oneself as a sinner is the first and essential step in
returning to the healing love of God. Given this reality, the Bishop’s duty to
indicate the sad and destructive presence of sin, both in individuals and in
communities, is in fact a service of hope. Far from being something negative, it
strengthens believers to abandon evil and embrace the perfection of love and the
fullness of Christian life. Let us boldly announce that indeed we are not the
sum total of our weaknesses and failures! We are the sum of the Father’s love
for us, and capable of becoming the image of his Son!
4. The lasting peace and harmony so longed for by individuals, families and
society can only be won through that conversion which is a fruit of mercy and
constituent of genuine reconciliation. As Bishops you have the difficult yet
satisfying duty of promoting the true Christian understanding of reconciliation.
Perhaps no story better illustrates the profound drama of metanoia than the
parable of the Prodigal Son, upon which I have elsewhere commented at length
(cf. Dives in Misericordia, 5-6). The prodigal son is in a certain sense all men
and women. We all can be lured by the temptation to separate ourselves from the
Father and thus suffer loss of dignity, humiliation and shame, but equally so we
all can have the courage to turn back to the Father who embraces us with a love
which, transcending even justice, manifests itself as mercy.
Christ, who reveals the abounding mercy of God, demands the same of us, even
when confronted with grievous sin. Indeed mercy "constitutes the
fundamental content of the messianic message of Christ and the constitutive
power of his mission" (ibid., 6) and thus can never be set aside in the
name of pragmatism. It is precisely the father’s fidelity to the merciful love
proper to him as a father that sees him restore the filial relationship of his
son who "was lost and is found" (Lk 15:32). As pastors of your flock
it is with this merciful love – never a mere sense of favor – that you too
must "reach down to every prodigal son, to every human misery, and above
all to every form of moral misery, to sin" (Dives in Misericordia, 6). In
this way you will draw good from evil, restore life from death, revealing anew
the authentic face of the Father’s mercy so necessary in our times.
5. Dear Brothers, I particularly wish to encourage you in your promotion of
the Sacrament of Penance. As a divinely instituted means by which the Church
offers the pastoral activity of reconciliation, it is "the only ordinary
way for the faithful to reconcile themselves with God and the Church"
(Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1484). Though it cannot be denied that the
profound power of this Sacrament is often considered today with indifference it
is also the case that young people in particular readily give testimony to the
graces and transforming benefits it bestows. Strengthened by this encouraging
message I again appeal directly to you and to your priests: arm yourselves with
more confidence, creativity and perseverance in presenting it and leading people
to appreciate it (cf. Novo Millennio Ineunte, 37). Time spent in the
confessional is time spent in service of the spiritual patrimony of the Church
and the salvation of souls (cf. Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, 29).
As Bishops, it is of special importance for you to have frequent recourse to
the Sacrament of Reconciliation in order to obtain the gift of that mercy of
which you yourselves have been made ministers (cf. Pastores Gregis, 13 ). Since
you are called to show forth the face of the Good Shepherd, and therefore to
have the heart of Christ himself, you more than others must make your own the
Psalmist’s ardent cry: "A pure heart create for me, O God, put a
steadfast spirit within me" (Ps 51:12). Sanctified by the graces received
in your regular reception of the sacrament, I am confident that you will
encourage your brother priests and indeed all the faithful to discover anew the
full beauty of this sacrament.
6. With fraternal affection I share these reflections with you and assure you
of my prayers as you seek to make the sanctifying and reconciling mission of the
Church ever more appreciated and recognizable in your ecclesial and civic
communities. The message of hope which you proclaim to a world often fraught
with sinfulness and division will not fail to evoke fresh fervor and a renewed
zeal for Christian life! With these sentiments I commend you to Mary, the Mother
of Jesus, in whom is effected the reconciliation of God with humanity. I gladly
impart to you and to the priests, deacons, Religious, and lay faithful of your
Dioceses my Apostolic Blessing.