Dear Friends,

On this Sunday, as we rejoice on the Feast of our Patron, Saint Isaac Jogues and the other Martyrs whose lives were sacrificed on our North American continent, we find ourselves in this month of October set aside as “Respect Life” Month. As Catholics, we must make it our constant care to make sure that our Lord’s mandate or the Church’s message is not clouded or muddied by others; whether they be on the left or the right; whether they be conservative or liberal; whether they be believers or not. The Church’s message of Life is rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and begins with respecting the dignity of every person, even if we, on our own, cannot perceive that dignity in the other person or they cannot perceive it in themselves. The call to “Respect Life” starts within our own hearts, enlightened by God’s grace to love and respect, God, others and ourselves and to share that message of God’s love in what we say and how we act. During his Apostolic Visit to the U.S.A. in April of 2008, Pope Benedict addressed the issue of “Life” within the context of our Faith. In his homily at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, he said:

As a communion of pure love and infinite freedom, the Blessed Trinity constantly brings forth new life in the work of creation and redemption. The Church, as “a people made one by the unity of the Father, the Son and the Spirit” (cf. Lumen Gentium, 4), is called to proclaim the gift of life, to serve life, and to promote a culture of life. . . . The proclamation of life, life in abundance, must be the heart of the new evangelization. For true life – our salvation – can only be found in the reconciliation, freedom and love which are God’s gracious gift. This is the message of hope we are called to proclaim and embody in a world where selfcenteredness, greed, violence, and cynicism so often seem to choke the fragile growth of grace in people’s hearts. Saint Irenaeus, with great insight, understood that the command which Moses enjoined upon the people of Israel: “Choose life!” (Dt 30:19) was the ultimate reason for our obedience to all God’s commandments (cf. Adv. Haer. IV, 16, 2-5). Perhaps we have lost sight of this: in a society where the Church seems legalistic and “institutional” too many people, our most urgent challenge is to communicate the joy born of faith and the experience of God’s love.

I am particularly happy that we have gathered in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. . . . I would like to draw your attention to a few aspects of this beautiful structure which I think can serve as a starting point for a reflection on our particular vocations within the unity of the Mystical Body. The first has to do with the stained-glass windows, which flood the interior with mystic light. From the outside, those windows are dark, heavy, and even dreary. But once one enters the church, they suddenly come alive; reflecting the light passing through them, they reveal all their splendor. Many writers – here in America we can think of Nathaniel Hawthorne – have used the image of stained glass to illustrate the mystery of the Church herself. It is only from the inside, from the experience of faith and ecclesial life, that we see the Church as she truly is: flooded with grace, resplendent in beauty, adorned by the manifold gifts of the Spirit. It follows that we, who live the life of grace within the Church’s communion, are called to draw all people into this mystery of light.

This is no easy task in a world which can tend to look at the Church, like those stained-glass windows, “from the outside”: a world which deeply senses a need for spirituality, yet finds it difficult to “enter into” the mystery of the Church. Even for those of us within, the light of faith can be dimmed by routine, and the splendor of the Church obscured by the sins and weaknesses of her members. It can be dimmed too, by the obstacles encountered in a society which sometimes seems to have forgotten God and to resent even the most elementary demands of Christian morality. … In a word, it is not always easy to see the light of the Spirit all about us, the splendor of the Risen Lord illuminating our lives and instilling renewed hope in his victory over the world (cf. Jn 16:33). (my emphasis) Yet the Word of God reminds us that, in faith, . . . we (are summoned) to ever deeper faith in God’s infinite power to transform every human situation, to create life from death, and to light up even the darkest night. And they make us think of another magnificent phrase of Saint Irenaeus: “where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church and all grace” (Adv. Haer. III, 24, 1).

Be of good cheer and have a blessed week!

Msgr. Grous