You may have seen Pope John Paul II's newly-released Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way just out in bookstores. I've immensely enjoyed reading it, and [re]commend it to you. Our Holy Father continues to be a shining example of the “servant of the servants of God,” even amidst the physical suffering he endures. While our Holy Father wrote this book “as a sign of love” to his “brother bishops,” he also states that it is for “all the People of God.”
A key theme which permeates this personal memoir is this: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will last” (Jn 15:16). Our Holy Father encourages us to look back with him at what is the source of our vocations " this call from Jesus Christ. With a renewed appreciation of this call, he encourages us to “rise” and “be on our way,” to “go and bear fruit that will last.”
In short, he calls us to new beginnings…
Recently, while driving on Route 66 to the Mass in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Our Lady of the Valley Church in Luray, Virginia, I found myself marveling at the intersection of the seasons " the dazzling array of red, orange, brown and yellow which carpet the rolling foothills of the Shenandoah. I couldn't help but be filled with gratitude for the beauty of the changing of the seasons, the cycles of nature. All speak to the glory of God.
Nature is on the threshold of a new beginning, and so are all of us. Before us are two new seasons, Thanksgiving and then Advent, a new liturgical year, as well as the continuation of the “Year of the Eucharist,” begun last month, and a fresh chance for renewal in our own lives.
In Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way, Pope John Paul II encourages bishops to “try to ensure that as many as possible of those who, together with him, make up the local Church can come to know him personally.” He writes, “Interest in others begins with the bishop's prayer life: his conversations with Christ, who entrusts 'His own' to him.”
Coming to know you over the past five years and sharing with you my conversations with Christ has been a joy for me. In this past week alone, I had the opportunity to worship with over 150 Hispanic youths at the Mass for our Interdiocesan Mission, confirm a number of our teens at the parishes of St. Clare of Assisi in Clifton, Virginia, and of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Vienna, Virginia, and recall the ways our diocese is helping the poor through Catholic Charities at the annual fundraising dinner for the Charities Ball in February. The conversations I have with each of you at these and numerous other events throughout our sprawling and growing diocese often remind me of the questions I answered when I was consecrated a bishop over 16 years ago:
“Are you resolved as a devoted father to sustain the people of God and to guide them in a way of salvation in cooperation with the priests and deacons who share your ministry?
“Are you resolved to show kindness and compassion in the name of the Lord to the poor and to strangers and to all who are in need?
“Are you resolved to pray for the people of God without ceasing, and to carry out the duties of one who has the fullness of the priesthood so as to afford no grounds for reproach?”
Over 16 years ago, I said “Yes” to these questions, and I re-affirm to you this desire to continue serving each of you in imitation of the Lord Jesus, the Good Shepherd.
In the upcoming Thanksgiving and Advent seasons, so many of us will experience the joy of spending time with family and friends, of nurturing the love that unites us. I pray that it will be also be a time when we will return to the core of Christ's call to us: to “the love of the Father and the love of Christ for us, His and our joy, and also our friendship and fidelity,” which express themselves in the commandment to “love one another as I have loved you.”
