Our Journey of Love

Bishop Peter Ingham’s Lenten Pastoral Letter 2010

My dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, in our Diocese of Wollongong,

Today, 14 February, as you are no doubt aware, the world is celebrating Valentine’s Day. It has been well publicised and is the high-point of February sales for a variety of businesses: florists, greeting card manufacturers, chocolate–makers, restaurants and entertainment venues, in particular.

Today is also the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, the day on which I traditionally share with you my hopes and prayers for each of us as Catholic Christians and for us together as the Catholic Community of the Diocese of Wollongong as we begin our sacred journey with Jesus through Lent to Calvary and Resurrection. So this is my Lenten Pastoral Letter to you – and it is also my St Valentine’s Day Card.

Lent and St Valentine’s Day – now that’s a strange combination! Maybe not! In essence, St Valentine’s Day and Lent are both about love and how we put love into practice.

St Valentine was a priest in Rome in the middle of the third century. The Roman Emperor at the time had decreed that all marriages were to be suspended so that young men could have no excuse to avoid military service. Seeing the pain of many young couples, Valentine defied the Emperor and performed secret marriages. His actions angered the Emperor who had him beheaded on 14 February, now celebrated as St Valentine’s Day. St Valentine is the patron of engaged couples, happy marriages, love and lovers.

With St Valentine, I rejoice with all of you who live in love. Some of you, sadly, will have lost someone you love or suffered a broken relationship. I acknowledge your loss and grief. I hope you find consolation and companionship in your family circle and in the faith community where you worship. Those of you who live in love, and those who have lost loved ones, know better than any of us that even though love is often fired by desire and romance, there is more, much more to love than feelings of delight. You and I know that true love is not self-centred; it is other-centred. Your experience tells you that real love unites us, and completes us, and, in fact, joins us with God “because God is love.” (1 John 4:8 )

As disciples of Jesus Christ, through our Baptism, we believe that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in Jesus may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16 ). We also readily accept that Jesus said “no-one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” This Easter we shall once again celebrate the ultimate power of God’s love when Jesus laid down his life for us on the Cross to conquer sin, then conquered death by rising again. We learn again how sorrow is turned into joy.

Pope Benedict, in his first encyclical letter, God is Love, reminds us that love is not something we do as a duty. Rather, love is a natural response arising in us. At its deepest level, love is a response to God’s gift of love – God takes the initiative by loving us first.

Love is not confined to the special relationships we may enjoy with a limited number of people: love is about our relationships with all people and all creation because love is of God.

Real love grows in unique and wonderful ways. Love has a beautiful capacity to provide inspiration and shelter for others. It is not surprising then, that Pope Benedict urges us as Church to become “a community of love.” He challenges us, “As a community the Church must practise love.”

But how do we “practise love” as a community?

In my Advent Pastoral Letter last December, I announced “Our Journey Ahead” – the start of the Diocese’s pastoral planning process. The word journey brings to mind the idea of a track or a road (perhaps like the gently shaded road behind me here). Sometimes, we are sure of our journey’s end; at other times, it is more uncertain. In reality, our pastoral planning journey is nothing more than an attempt to improve our practice of love as a community. At this stage, we may not know all the twists and turns in the road, so to speak, but one thing is sure; namely, that if we enter into this diocesan journey with enthusiasm and commitment, it will help us to love one another more sincerely and to open our hearts to our neighbour with genuine concern. In this way our lives, both personally and as community, will proclaim with greater clarity and effectiveness, the good news that God loves the world so much that he sent his Son to be our Saviour.

Over the coming months, members of the Pastoral Planning Steering Committee will meet with parish and ministry groups across the Diocese to identify your needs and those of the wider Catholic community, and to gather ideas to assist us to work together to become a real “community of love.”

There is one element of love, though, that we must never forget: love always demands personal self-sacrifice. Ask any parent! Today we recall that St Valentine lost his life so that love could grow. Throughout Lent, we focus in a special way on Jesus who laid down his life out of love for us, so that we could experience how powerful and how abundant God’s love really is.

This year, as always, the Church calls us to use our Lenten journey to draw closer to Jesus through the special efforts we make to pray, to fast and to make self-sacrificing acts of love. Our Diocesan Lenten Program, Do You Love Me? based on the Sunday gospels, is a particularly rich resource to allow us to deepen our appreciation of God’s love for each one of us personally. The Lenten Program challenges us to respond to how good God is to us by the generous way we then try to reach out to serve one another. You know, it has been said that our loving service of each other is a bit like the rent we pay for the space we occupy on the earth.

I encourage you to join or form a Lenten Group in your Parish. If this is not possible, there is much to be gained by using the Lenten Program in a family setting or for your own personal prayer.

Traditionally, fasting is an important aspect of Lent. As we work together to “practise love” as a community, perhaps we could fast from any word or deed that could hurt another or damage a relationship or weaken love, whether it be within the community of the family or the wider community.

Project Compassion again depends upon our generosity to raise the money necessary to fund the many projects to assist people in need overseas or in Australia. Our willingness to contribute unselfishly to Project Compassion is a tangible answer to Jesus’ question, “Do you love me?” In Lent we learn again that the things we value most in life are the things that we cannot buy – love is given freely and love is received freely.

I pray that your homes and communities may be places where we listen to each other in peace and love. May our journey in trying to be a more loving person bring us joy; and may we come to know the presence of Jesus and his love.

May Mary whose love enabled her to say “Yes” to God’s plan and bring Love Incarnate, Jesus Christ, into the world, be with us as we embark on our Lenten journey together.

I pray every blessing on you and those you love, today and every day.

Have a blessed Lent!

Yours in the Lord,

Most Rev Peter W Ingham DD, BISHOP OF WOLLONGONG
Homily for all Masses 13 & 14 February 2010