Brothers and Sisters,
With the solemnity of Christ the King, last Sunday we closed the Year of Jubilee of Mercy that has given us the opportunity to revive our faith through a personal encounter with Jesus Christ in different events, liturgical celebrations and works of corporal and spiritual mercy we have practiced. We thank God, in a particular way, for the gift of the Jubilee indulgence when we walked on a pilgrimage as a parish community and we enter the Holy Door, when we received the Sacrament of Forgiveness and the Eucharist, when we fulfilled what the Church has requested us to receive indulgence of the extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.
I am sure that the Jubilee leaves in us many fruits of conversion, the desire to carry out works of mercy to make our faith more alive and active.
That is why at the beginning of the new liturgical year and the Advent season, I invite you to persevere in the theme of Mercy. This is the message that you priests have taken at the meeting in St. Maarten during October last: a Church that wants to reach everyone in the mission of Mercy.
An encounter with Jesus Christ accompanied by good works
Church prays at the beginning of Advent: “Almighty God, grant to the hearts of your faithful the fervent desire to meet Christ, who comes, accompanied by good works, so that one day we may be at His right hand and take position of your eternal kingdom.”
Advent is a time of hope, a hope that makes us active, not sitting passively or worse yet asleep on a sofa, as Pope Francis told the young people in Poland. But a hope that awakens us and leads us to walk (cf. Rom 13: 11ss), which makes us attentive and vigilant (cf. Mt 24, 44), because the Lord will come.
As we profess in the Creed there are two comings of the Lord Jesus: the first when he came as a human and was born of Virgin Mary in Bethlehem and the second when he will come with glory and power to judge the living and the dead.
St. Bernard says that between the first and the second coming, there is one in the middle: it is a coming that is hidden; only the chosen ones will see the Lord in the intimacy of their heart. This coming is a way that unites the first and second, he comes to comfort us and strengthen our faith and nourishes our hope and love.
Each year the Advent season and Christmas has a special significance: Christian people live it with particular joy and enthusiasm. Church, through the Word of God, the different image and signs offered by the Liturgy, prepares our heart to encounter Jesus Christ, a meeting filled with good works.
What does this mean?
Pope Francis tells us that these good works are the works of mercy that make our faith alive and active. They are simple gestures of each day that we can fulfil and that can bring a “cultural revolution” in our present world. “If each one of us, everyday performs one of the works of mercy, this would be a revolution in the world.
“How many saints have been canonised and today we still remember them, not because they have done great works, but because of the charity they have practiced! Remember Mother Teresa, who has been canonised this year. We do not remember her because of the big hospitals she opened around the world, but because she helped people who slept on the street, giving them back their human dignity ... These works of mercy are the expression of the face of Jesus Christ who cares for his younger brothers and sisters offering each one a little love and tenderness.”
A Church in Mission of Mercy
Our priests gathered in St. Maarten last October, invited our faithful of the Diocese and of each parish of our six islands to follow the mandate of Pope Francis and practice Mercy in its different aspects.
As practical activities, during this new Pastoral Year 2016-2017:
* We want to promote meetings of spiritual and social formation so that we can all be missionaries in the parish, in school and in the family.
* In all events of our parish and diocese we work in union, priest, religious and laity as disciples of Jesus with a missionary spirit to bring “the joy of the Gospel” to all.
* We want to let the Word of God encourage and motivate all our pastoral activities:
our meetings, preaching, catechesis and days of reflection.
* In all our Catholic schools, we encourage teachers to give the Word of God a place of honour and to help their students to read and meditate on the Word of God every week.
* We cooperate generously with the Bishopric and the parishes through the collections of every week to practice works of mercy and to maintain our churches.
Brothers and sisters, let us celebrate this Advent season and Christmas with a heart full of hope, listening to the messages that come from the prophets, united in prayer and charity with the whole community, in a particular way in the Christmas Novena.
We ask Virgin Mary to give us the ability to help others, to comfort others and to treat the other always with love and respect as she demonstrated with her Son Jesus.
Your servant in Jesus and Mary,
Luis A. Secco,
Bishop of Willemstad
