Advent Pastoral Letter of Mark, Bishop of Shrewsbury
My dear brothers and sisters,
Each week I visit parishes across the Diocese and see so many of you gathered for Mass. My journey around the Diocese continues but I can say today as your bishop with the Apostle Paul as we begin this new Advent, “the witness to Christ has indeed been strong amongst you.” (I Cor. 1: 4, 5). I realise, though, that we don’t always see this bigger picture. This is why as you gather for Sunday Mass today I would ask you to picture with me that vast gathering of which you are now a part. In our cities, towns and countryside we are united with all the faithful coming together across the earth in the celebration of this same Mass, this Holy Eucharist. In this we can see a true image of the Church gathered around Jesus Christ who makes himself “wholly and entirely” present in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist (CCC 1374).
In my last Pastoral Letter I reflected on how this weekly gathering of the faithful was suddenly made visible on the streets of our cities during Pope Benedict’s visit to the United Kingdom. As the Pope and Bishops expressed their hope in the Second Vatican Council, the living presence of Christ would always be, “a light brightly visible on the face of the Church” (Lumen Gentium no.1). The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this, “the Church has no other light than Christ’s according to a favourite image of the Fathers, the Church is like the moon, all its light is reflected from the sun” (CCC 748). In the year ahead I want us to consider how we give public witness to our faith, how this light is reflected in us.
We are also painfully aware – and openly confess at the beginning of every Mass – that our unfaithfulness and our sins often distort the true face of the Church. Public scandals can at times almost dim this light for so many. We can easily understand then why the Church from ancient times has literally kept images of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Saints before us (General Instruction to the Roman Missal n. 318). For in Our Lady and the Saints we see the truest image of the Church. This is why I wanted us in my first year as Bishop to raise our eyes towards Blessed Mary in whom the Church recognises her finest icon (Lumen Gentium no 68). As Pope Benedict explains: “Mary is so interwoven in the great mystery of the Church that she and the Church are inseparable, just as she and Christ are inseparable. Mary mirrors the Church, anticipates the Church, and in all the turbulence that affects the suffering, struggling Church she always remains the star of salvation. In her lies the true centre in which we trust, even if its peripheries very often weigh on our soul” (Anniversary of the Closing of the Second Vatican Council 8th December 2005).
As the Church at her beginning continuously prayed with the Mother of Jesus (Acts 1: 14) so we have prayed together during this Marian Year. We have prayed never to be diverted from the true centre which is Christ Himself. For the Church from earliest times has experienced how the veneration of the Mother of God brings us to deeper faith in Jesus Christ, truly God and truly man, just as she first “joyfully showed her firstborn son to the shepherds and the Magi” (Lumen Gentium 57). Amid whatever distorts the Church’s public image, we recognise in Our Lady what generations before us called “the star of the sea” helping us keep our bearings and maintain our true course. As our Pope Benedict wrote, “Jesus Christ is the true light that has risen above all the shadows of history. But to reach him we also need lights close by – people who shine with his light – and so guide us along our way. Who more than Mary could be a star of hope for us?” (Spe Salvi no. 49).
Following the example of our first bishop I once more entrust this Diocese to Mary the Help of Christians. Before the Lady Statue in the Cathedral, the image of which has travelled to every parish and school in the Diocese, I have prayed for us all. And just as the Church’s daily prayer ends with a plea addressed to the Mother of the Lord, “show us the blessed fruit of your womb” (The Salve Regina), so I now wish to close this Marian Year with that same prayer Pope Benedict repeated as a pilgrim in 2007: “Show us Jesus”. For whenever we look towards Mary, Pope Benedict explains, “she shows us Jesus” (Mariazell 8th September 2007). May this also be true of us as we gather today at the beginning of Advent. May all who look to us find reflected in our lives the truth of Jesus living in His Church present in His Word and, above all, present in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist. As we prepare to celebrate Christmas may this witness to Christ be strong amongst us (I Cor. 1: 4,5).
+ Mark
Bishop of Shrewsbury
Given at Shrewsbury Cathedral on the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
21st November 2011