Bishop Ricken's Message
February 2005

CHEYENNE – One of the most difficult things for us human beings to do is to learn to trust.
We have difficulty trusting one another. We have difficulty trusting God. This is one of the effects
of original sin and the fall of the first man and woman, Adam and Eve. The ability to trust comes
very, very slowly and with great difficulty.

And yet, as is written in the Letter to the Hebrews, Chapter 10, “ Since through the Blood of Jesus we have confidence of entrance into the sanctuary by the new and living way he opened for us through the veil, that is, his flesh, and since we have ‘a great priest over the house of God,’ let us approach with a sincere heart and in absolute trust, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water.”

Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and by the price of His blood, all of this has been changed. All of the effects of original sin have been changed.

By the gift of His sacrifice on the Cross, we can approach Him with sincerity of heart and “in absolute trust,” having our hearts purified, purified of evil and our bodies washed in pure water.

It is not that God is not trustworthy, “ for he who made the promise is trustworthy.” The problem is that because of our sinfulness we cannot see God’s activity clearly and we fail to trust Him as we could.

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews tells us to, “hold unwaveringly to our confession” because it is that faith which also imparts hope, that tenacity and fidelity to our religion and to our faith that gives us the hope which Christ died for.

The Letter continues, “We must consider how to rouse one another to love and good works.” Every day we ought to be showing by our example, that we are men and women, boys and girls, who exercise charity and love, that we extend ourselves beyond ourselves through good works, that we practice the stewardship of generosity with regard to our time, our talent, and our treasure.

The Letter continues, “We should not stay away from our assembly.” Last month in this column I wrote to you of the great importance about attending Mass every Sunday. This is the assembly about which the Letter to the Hebrews speaks. During this Lenten Season and throughout the year, I hope each and every one of you will attend Mass with great attention, devotion, and love.

The question is not what we get out of the Mass, but what we put into it with regard to preparation and receptivity to God’s grace. We are to encourage one another to keep up the practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, especially during the Lenten Season. This marvelous triad of prayer, giving time to God; fasting, denying our bodies of its wants and its comforts in order to realize that God is our Creator and that we are only temporarily here on this earth; and almsgiving, that we have an obligation to share what we have been given, especially with the poor and for the mission of the Church.

Then the Letter says, “This all the more as you see the day drawing near.” The day that the author is referring to is the second coming of Christ, the end times, the parousia. Lent is a time when we focus especially on preparing for Christ’s second coming, when we pull ourselves out of the doldrums of our comforts and our wishes, our achievements and our struggles, and place ourselves completely at God’s disposal for God’s will to be done.

During this Lenten Season, let us ask for the grace to grow in greater trust of the Lord. The Lord is totally trustworthy at all times and is there to assist us and help us, to bring us to the truth, to help acknowledge our need for Him, who wants us to trust in Him.

May God bless you with a very fruitful Lent. May the gift of trust grow in your lives.