Bishop Ricken's Message
March 7, 2005

CHEYENNE – In the Saturday, Feb. 26 Casper Star-Tribune, there was a very thoughtful article headlined Pope’s suffering seen as important message for world, written by Victor L. Simpson, Associated Press writer. In this article, the author makes several very important points about the Pope’s pain and suffering in recent years and his plight with Parkinson’s disease, “trembling hands and quavering voice.”

The author argues that the Pope’s suffering definitely sends out a message of “dignity, courage and acceptance of the trials of life.” As we contemplate the comprehensive witness of this pontiff through his life and ministry as successor to St. Peter, the one element that comes to mind is the overarching principle governing his life, the principle of “self-donation.”

This particular concept has been made very popular by the Holy Father in his writings on the Theology of the Body. Now he is writing a new Theology of the Body in his own flesh through his physical suffering and in his own mind, dealing with the limitations of his body.

This writing in bodily form of his uniting his suffering with the suffering of Christ brings us up to pause and reflection. First of all, in a society with many medical advances, it causes questions about the length of life and how we are to treat this new opportunity of longer years of life; it calls into question the world’s drive for euthanasia and to put out of existence those people who challenge our comforts and do not fall into the worldly categories of “the beautiful people.”

Through his witness and suffering and his insistence upon being re-involved in his ministry after his hospitalization and his recuperation, is a sign that the Pope is still trying to communicate this comprehensive and demanding theme of the body as temple of the soul, of the body as a sanctuary where human life and character is carried and presented to the world. As Christ was nailed to the wood of the cross, so are so many who suffer in the agony of their illnesses and are unable to find much relief. Perhaps, they are able to find palliative relief but they still bear the suffering of Christ in their own body, especially those who are baptized in the faith.

Once again, we have to thank this Holy Father for his unique contribution, now more than ever, in his commitment to continue his witness to fulfill completely his call to serve the Church as successor to Peter and in his ‘yes’ to making a total gift of self.