February 22, 2003
Dear Friends in Christ,
On this, the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, a symbol of our unity and cooperation, the first reading speaks very directly to me personally, when it says:
Tend the flock of God in your midst, overseeing not by constraint, but willingly, as God would have itÉ
During my time as Archbishop of Atlanta, it has been my blessing to have the willing cooperation of many people, and many Catholic associations. And I can truthfully say, that rarely have I had to invoke my authority, relying instead on the goodness, and the willing generosity of the Catholics who live and worship in North Georgia.
On this occasion, as it has been for the past nine years, my first duty as overseer is to thank you, the members of the Atlanta Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women, for all the help and support you have given me, and for everything that you have done and continue to do for the Church.
As I read through the readings for this Mass, the words of a part of the Psalm struck me as very applicable to the AACCW. Of course, the words of Psalm 23 are famous and often repeated, and I think the main reason for this, other than their sheer comforting power, is that they lend themselves so well to so many aspects of our Faith. The phrase that particularly caught my attention this time were:
You have spread a table for me in the sight of my foesÉ
Now the first meaning we must give to these words is the recognition of what God has done for us, in sending us His Son our Lord, who at the Last Supper, set a table before us, a holy and eternal banquet, from which we can never cease to take nourishment for our souls. We approach this table every time we come to Mass Ð we bring with us our hunger for all that the Lord gives us, when He give us His Body and Blood Ð we proclaim with our hearts and minds and voices, those same words confessed by St. Peter, just moments before our Lord made him the first head of the Church on earth:
You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And we know, that for His sake, and because of the strength He gives us, we are celebrating this banquet in the sight of our foes. Not in glee Ð not as a people gloating over the grace of their victory Ð but with the certain knowledge, that whenever we show our faith, whenever we come with belief to the table of the Lord, someone out there, some struggling soul, will see what we do, will break before the untiring strength of our witness, will be converted, and pass from our foe, into our friend.
Such is the power of the Christ Ð such is the power of His Church, to change lives, not by constraint, not by force, but by willing example, and by unfettered generosity.
And this leads me to apply the allegory of the Òtable set by GodÓ to one more level of meaning. And that meaning is this: that turning from the feast at the Table of the Lord, it has always been, and I know will continue to be the work of the Catholic women of this Archdiocese, to set that same table for as many hungry souls as you can reach.
Four legs support this table of your apostolate. One is spirituality Ð the spirituality you all show by being faithful to the rites of our beloved Church, and by exercising the power of prayer, and by putting above all other trusts in this world, your trust in God, in His triune dependability.
The second leg of the table is leadership Ð the leadership you exert on behalf of the Church to get so many things done Ð but also the leadership you use to bring about the excellent formation of our young people. The icon of a good mother is a force before which all the powers of hell must fall Ð to the point where I believe that if children survive growing up and become good and devout men and women, then somewhere in the history of their soulÕs development, there is the imprinted memory of a good mother, who led them when young, and who will ever lead them towards what they know they should do, towards that kind of life they know they should lead.
Next, is the leg of service Ð service to your families, to the parishes which form the center of your religious lives, and service to the world. For you all know, as well as the saints did, that charity cannot be confined to close quarters, but must be broadcast and practiced both near and far. Service, in the name of Christ, is the right of all who lack justice. And only justice, exercised by the righteous, can produce that love in the world which brings peace -the same love, that led Christ to the cross, and beyond suffering, to the victory of resurrection.
These three supports of the life of the Councils of Catholic Women Ð spirituality, leadership and service, are well known to you, since they form the essence of your mission statement. But I would add, a fourth leg, the final stabilizer of our human efforts to present to the world the saving banquet of our Lord Ð I would add something simple and innate, something that is yours to have and to understand and to keep for all eternity, and that is your womanhood. With Mary, the Mother of Christ, the Mother of God, you share in the deepest mystery of our Creator, and outside Himself, the deepest mystery He has made known to us Ð the mystery of forming life, of nurturing life, of living with the fiercest single-mindedness for the sake of the life you bear, the life that is entrusted to your care, the life that is your meaning. Mothers, grand-mothers, aunts, or just friends and companions Ð as women, you have an attitude of God that is not manÕs to understand, but only to appreciate and to revere. I hope that I speak for all the Catholic men of our Church, when I tell you that this is something that, from the bottom of our souls, we honor you for, and that we love you for.
Dear friends, no special cause, no political referendum, no social-action initiative brought into being the Councils of Catholic Women Ð but rather, the desire of God to act through His daughters on earth. And speaking of the source of your life together, we can echo the words of our Lord:
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
When we give out the awards for which we have gathered, Women of the Year, and Young People of the Year, it is our Father in Heaven who is revealing through their example, the ideals that you all live for, and that we have spoken about. But for the recipients, young and old, male and female, it is the support, the encouragement, and above all, the prayers of every committed member of the Atlanta Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women, who has made this display of excellence possible. For when we are excellent, it is because God is excellent is us, and makes us to share His excellence with one another. That is the unity and cooperation our Lord taught His Apostles Ð and that is the unity and cooperation we live, day to day, as His followers and His servants.
May God continue to breathe His Holy Spirit into your work for many years to come, and with that Spirit, bring even greater and more excellent gifts, to the Church in Atlanta and North Georgia.
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