Solemnity of Christ the King 2017
Establishment: School Sisters of Christ the King as a Religious Institute of Consecrated Life
Bishop James D. Conley
November 26, 2017
Bishop Finn and Bishop Folda, my brother priests and seminarians, consecrated religious women and men, dear brothers and sisters in Christ!
It is with great joy in our hearts and gratitude to almighty God, on this Solemnity of Christ the King, that we celebrate the establishment of our own School Sisters of Christ the King, as a Religious Institute of Diocesan Right with permission of the Holy See.
Founded by my predecessor, the Most Reverend Glennon Patrick Flavon, the Seventh Bishop of the Diocese of Lincoln in 1976, the School Sisters of Christ the King have educated thousands of children, both in our Catholic schools and in our CCD programs throughout the Diocese of Lincoln and beyond.
In 1996, my immediate predecessor, the Most Reverend Fabian Wendolyn Bruskewitz, the Eighth Bishop of Lincoln, recognized the School Sisters of Christ the King as a Public Association of the Faithful.
And today, my dear brothers and sisters, the School Sisters of Christ the King, who have committed their lives to loving the Lord, Jesus Christ, the King of the Universe, these past 40 plus years, are established as an institute of consecrated life, officially recognized as a religious community in the life of the Church.
Establishing the School Sisters of Christ, the King, as a religious institute, is a recognition of God’s guiding hand on their lives, their charism, and their community over these past 40 years. It is a recognition that they live the life of consecration to which they have been called, as a public, vital and enduring part of the Church’s own life.
Today is also a call to the School Sisters, to deepen their consecration to Jesus Christ our King, and to his bride, the Church. And so, as the School Sisters of Christ the King are recognized today as an institute of consecrated life, it is important for all of us to consider the essence of consecrated life itself.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that consecrated life is “one way of experiencing a ‘more intimate’ consecration, rooted in Baptism and dedicated totally to God. In the consecrated life, Christ's faithful, moved by the Holy Spirit, propose to follow Christ more nearly, to give themselves to God who is loved above all and, pursuing the perfection of charity in the service of the Kingdom, to signify and proclaim in the Church the glory of the world to come.”
In consecrated life, our religious sisters give themselves entirely and freely to Christ our King; they seek to follow him perfectly, in the light of the Holy Spirit, they seek to serve his Kingdom, and to be signs of Christ’s eternal glory.
The Second Vatican Council reminds us that consecrated religious are witnesses to the power and potential of our baptism, and to the reality of the universal call to holiness. Because of their singular commitment to Christ, consecrated religious remind us that union with Christ is the final aim of our each of our lives, and the only thing that really gives it meaning.
Consecrated religious are called, above all else, to pursue holiness with zeal, and singularity of purpose. To pursue intimacy with Christ, and to witness to that pursuit. For that reason, an institute of consecrated life is not only defined by what it does -- by its apostolate -- but by the way in which it places the pursuit of holiness above all else.
At the fundamental core of religious life, therefore, is prayer. To serve Christ, as a School Sister of Christ the King, is to know Christ. To bear fruit in apostolic life requires fruitful interior lives. The heart of consecrated life is not the classroom, or the office, or any apostolic work. The heart of consecrated life is prayer, union with the heart of Jesus Christ, especially in the Sacred Liturgy and in the Eucharistic Sacrifice of the Mass.
Immediately following the Public Profession of Perpetual Vows of Mother Joan Paul Tobin, the First Mother Superior of the Religious Institute of the School Sisters of the Christ the King, and the subsequent Public Profession of Perpetual Vows of the other Sisters, Sister Mary Ruth Jones of Fargo, North Dakota, will consecrate herself to God by perpetual vows of chastity, poverty and obedience in the community of the School Sisters of Christ the King.
We rejoice with Sister Mary Ruth and with her family, and with her Bishop, as she consecrates herself to God on this historic day. And we pray, in the words of the solemn blessing of the professed, that our loving Father will guide the steps of his servant on her pilgrimage through life, so that when she comes at last to the throne of Christ the King, she will not fear him as her judge, but hear the voice of her Bridegroom lovingly inviting her to the wedding feast of heaven.
As we come to the close of the liturgical year on this last Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Gospel of St. Matthew reminds us of the Last Judgment -- that in the fullness of time, Christ will come in glory, in the company of angels, when he will be seated upon a throne which reveals his kingship to the whole world. When the Lord comes in glory, he will judge those who have followed him, and those who have not, separating them like sheep and goats, and welcoming those who were his disciples to share the glory of his eternal kingdom.
The Lord, in his glory, will judge whether or not he has become the king of our hearts during this life. Whether we have loved as he calls us to love: feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, visiting the prisoner. The Lord will judge whether we have loved him by loving those he has called us to love. The Lord will judge whether he has reigned as king of our hearts, and king of our lives.
As this liturgical year winds to a close, and the old year fades, all of nature reminds of the changing of the seasons. As winter approaches, the leaves on the trees are dying, animals need shelter, and even the power of the sun seems to weaken.
This change of season, both in nature and in the liturgy, reminds us that we are all in need of daily conversion, of changing from our old ways of sin and laziness, to a renewed zeal and fervor for the spiritual life and for holiness.
Life here on earth is a pilgrimage, of constantly moving and changing along our pilgrim way to God. In a famous quote of his, Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman put it like this: “In a higher world it is otherwise; but here below, to live is to change, and to be perfect is to change often.”
But in that same passage, what is often not quoted, is the paradox of it all. Newman writes that “things change in order to remain the same… that old principles reappear under new forms.”
Dear School Sisters of Christ the King, you remind us of the permanent things, the signs of the Kingdom. By your consecration you remind us that we were made for more.
Bishop Flavin founded the School Sisters of Christ the King because he wanted to build a laity who knew Jesus and who knew their Catholic faith; a laity who could give compelling reasons why they believed and who could live apostolic lives of faith, hope and charity, as missionary disciples, winning souls for the Lord! But he knew that he couldn’t do that without the presence of religious sisters in the schools and in the parishes teaching the faith and witnessing to the Kingdom of God.
Brother and sisters, today we strengthen the bonds of the School Sisters of Christ the King to Holy Mother Church. They are reminded of their call to intimate union with Christ -- to, as the Second Vatican Council teaches, “the fervor of charity, and the perfection of divine worship.”
And today, the Church holds the School Sisters of Christ the King up for us, as she does with all religious institutes, to remind us that each one of us is called to the same. That each one of is called to holiness, before all else. That each one of us is given the grace of baptism to pursue intimate union with the Lord. That nothing we do in this life will bear fruit, if it does not begin in the silence of prayerful intimacy and worship of the Lord.
Today, the School Sisters are a reminder, for each one of us, of what it means to make Christ the King of our hearts.
Let us give thanks to the Lord for their witness, and pray that we all might follow Jesus Christ, in worship, in holiness, and in charity.
