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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
On the Solemnity of the Epiphany, I started a week retreat together with the bishops of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Be assured that I am praying for you during my retreat, but I also ask that you pray for me, too. The Epiphany was a great day to begin a retreat, a longer period of intense prayer.
Christmas reminded us to open our hearts more fully to Christ. To accept His precious gift, God Himself, coming to share in our humanity, so that we can share in His divinity. It is by our living like Christ, but also sharing Him with others that we encounter and live with each day that they can receive the great gift of peace which only He can give and help our world become the way God desires it to be.
Our God comes to us at Christmas as a baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes, calling us out of ourselves as only babies and children can do. Each year, the nativity scene calls us to ponder the Law of the Gift written on the human heart by the God who is Love.
As Christmas is about God’s search for us, the Epiphany is a time to look at our response to Him, our learning to live in the world as He did many, many years ago. That’s what the Magi were doing, searching for God and His peace in their lives, striving to honor Him and learn from Him, as they turned over their gifts and themselves to Him. It is in our accepting the Christ child and learning to live in His way that our world is made a clearer reflection of Him, and peace will come to us not only now, but forever.
We have so many things that disturb our peace, just watching the news over these past weeks with the attacks on our Jewish brothers and sisters so nearby us, and the disturbances and violence going on in the Middle East. In our own personal lives, we have things that disturb our peace, too, illnesses and the deaths of loved ones, addictions, all types of abuses, problems at work or school, relationship problems, the list can go on and on. It is no wonder that so many, from our youth to our elderly, are searching for peace.
Let us resolve that our celebration of Christmas and Epiphany this year, our recalling of the birth of Christ into our world, will not only open our hearts more fully to God, the King of Love, but that it will also make us more and more willing to love as He did, even in a world where Christianity is becoming rare.
May others come to know Jesus and His peace through us, my brothers and sisters in Christ! We are His disciples in the Diocese of Metuchen. He chooses to need us to make Himself known, what an honor, privilege and responsibility. If not us, then who will do this here and now?
As we share the love and peace of the Christ Child, remember we are not alone. We are blessed by the Virgin Mary’s “yes” to God to become the Mother of God as she brought Him into the world and our lives. Most recently, we were blessed through our consecration to Jesus through Our Lady of Guadalupe; she is tethered to us and will not let us down as she continues to bring Jesus to us, so we can share Him with all we encounter. Yes, you and I are Jesus’ disciples today and each day, and He desires to be with us even now and until we rest in heavenly peace with Him, always.
These are my thoughts and prayers as I begin my retreat, for me personally, but also for our beautiful diocese, each of you. I will continue to pray intensely as we journey into the coming year sharing the love of Christ through our lives and inviting are brothers and sisters who have fallen away from the practice of the faith to return.
Soon we will be sharing with you how each one of us can take one step forward in our renewed faith as individuals and a diocese and also hopefully bring souls to Christ as St. Juan Diego did so many years ago.
In the days ahead, I pray that you will embrace and live the consecration we have taken. I ask you, too, to pray for me on my retreat, that I may more fully open myself to receive Christ so that I can be the Catholic Christian and shepherd that God is calling me to be. May we all take one step closer to Our Lord in 2020, so that it will be a year of Grace for us all! Know of my love and prayers for you and God bless you all.
The Most Reverend James F. Checchio, JCD, MBA Bishop of Metuchen