September 26, 2008

A Shepherd's Message

By Daniel Cardinal DiNardo

October is pro-life month each year in the Catholic Church in the United States.  The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops always sends out an excellent packet of material to the parishes of the country to help them educate God’s faithful people on the urgency of the task before us in this great land. What is needed is a genuine change of mind, a conversion, to the significance of the life questions and a renewed respect for the dignity of each human person.  I want to emphasize to every priest, deacon, member of a religious community, and to every member of the baptized in this local Church to reconnect one’s faith to the life he or she leads each day, to intensify the commitment to human life in a consistent way that honors the Catholic Faith and that law written in each human heart.

This past April, Pope Benedict XVI visited our country and showed himself to be a man of great wisdom, humility and charity.  In the course of an address he gave to the bishops on April 18, he reminded them of the subtle influence of a peculiar form of secularism present here.  The profession of faith and belief is sometimes isolated to the Sunday Liturgy; during the week decisions are then made whether in unethical business practices, exploitation of the poor, and disrespect for human personal life from conception to natural death that contradict the very faith that has been proclaimed.  The Pope stated: “Faith becomes a passive acceptance that certain things ‘out there’ are true, but without practical relevance for everyday life… This is aggravated by an individualistic and eclectic approach to faith and religion: far from a Catholic approach to ‘thinking with the Church,’ each person believes he or she has a right to pick and choose, maintaining external social bonds but without an integral, interior conversion to the law of Christ.”

“External social bonds without an integral interior conversion” this is the nub of the problem for all believers, but especially those of the household of Catholic Faith.  I have been privileged to serve in this archdiocese for four years and I see many signs of growth, of enthusiasm for the faith by our young people at Confirmation, of intense pastoral work by our priests, deacons, religious and lay ministers.  I have also seen a certain “disconnect” by some, most especially in their treatment of the life issues in their daily life, in the living out of our witness of faith.  Conversion is, first of all, deeply personal and involves receptivity and a listening to the grace of God operative through Christ and through the Sacramental life of the Church.  Conversion also has institutional moments and demands of the Church as a corporate body to be unafraid and perseverant in the proclamation of the Gospel of Life.  If you receive the great gift of the Body and Blood of the Lord on Sunday, you must practice Eucharistic consistency.  For example, there is a growing pervasive attitude that has begun to accept as normal the intentional killing of an innocent human being through abortion or the elderly through assisted suicide.  Our faith alerts us to such a reality and is working in us day by day to act to end this “death attitude.”  There are many ways to assist a culture of life in our volunteer efforts and in our very manner of speaking.  There is also our consistency of believing when we go to vote.

Our Catholic Faith always represents a transformation of our mind and behavior, a growing sense of conversion and joy at finding this pearl of great price, our encounter with the Risen Lord. Conversion and repentance is not sad; it is a joyful recognition that spurs us into witness and into work for the transformation of the world from a desert into a garden.

In his Homily at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on April 19 of this year, the Holy Father spoke: “The Church is called to proclaim the gift of life, to serve life, and to promote a culture of life… This is the message of hope we are called to proclaim and embody in a world where self-centeredness, greed, violence and cynicism so often seem to choke the fragile growth of grace in people’s hearts.”  But the victory has been won by Jesus Christ.  It is for us to be actively receptive to his grace and to act with this new kind of freedom in our daily lives, our business lives, and our political lives.

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