Bishop's Column

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Bishop's Column

Bishop's Column

Written by Bishop Robert C. Morlino

Thursday, Dec. 24, 2015 -- 12:00 AM


	This column is the bishop’s communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop.

Dear Friends,

As we come upon Christmas, I’d like to take a moment to put on my old hat from my time as a philosophy professor -- but I’ll try to do it in a way befitting this limited space and broad audience.

I’d like to reflect briefly upon the mystery that is history and time itself.

Experience of time is subjective

Our experience of time is often so subjective that we can’t even begin to get at what “time” really means. What do I mean by subjective?

Little kids going on a five-hour car trip -- they get in the car and after three minutes you get, “Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” It takes forever in their minds to get there. There is almost no limit to the time it takes.

When you get older (and I’m getting there), time flies unbelievably. Our experience of time can be terribly subjective.

God created time

But for God, who is infinite -- without beginning or end -- time is limited and can be seen in a much different way. Let’s try to take a look at the concept of time as delineated by our understanding of God.

God created time; it’s a creature. Time had a beginning. When God said, “Let there be light!” both time and space necessarily came with it because light cannot simply “be”; it exists and moves across space and time. We talk about light years, because it takes light time (though it goes very fast) to cross a certain space.

Opening the Holy Doors

On this past Sunday we opened the Holy Doors, which are present at the two sites of the Cathedral Parish (St. Patrick Church and Holy Redeemer Church) and at the Schoenstatt Founder Shrine.

As I mentioned in my letter for the opening of the Year of Mercy, these doors should be a place of pilgrimage for us and they bear with them a plenary indulgence granted by Pope Francis.

It should be noted, however, that the indulgence does not simply come upon passing through the doors. There is spiritual conversion that is to be done. You need to grow in freedom from the attachment to sin.

A primary symbol of this Year of Mercy is the entrance through the Holy Doors. So, I encourage you to take the time and consider making several pilgrimages through one of the Holy Doors of Mercy.

In the second reading of this past Sunday (Phil 4:4-7) we have that wonderful admonition from the Lord. “Rejoice in the Lord always! Rejoice!”

Now, if you look around the world with all the violence, and at the collapse of the culture in our own country, and at the war against the Natural Law, against the law of human reason, which is being waged, there’s reason not to rejoice.

But St. Paul says to rejoice anyway — “Rejoice in the Lord always!” Nothing is so big that it can conquer the joy of Christ. Nothing.

Keeping Christ in the forefront

This Year of Mercy could also be called the “Big Picture Year,” where we keep the big picture in mind — Jesus Christ is still risen from the dead!