by Jim Beckman, director of the Secretariat for Evangelization and Catechesis
How’s your Lent going? By the time you read this, there will be a couple weeks left. It’s time to renew whatever commitments we made and dig in for the final stretch.
It reminds me of my high school and college days playing sports. Coaches would encourage us to “dig deep,” find something deep inside and give that one more push all the way past the finish line. Lent is a lot like that, particularly when you get to this time. The doldrums set in, the end seems so far away, and we can find ourselves waning in resolve. But then, we look up and realize the end is not that far. Our spirits lift; we have a surge of “I can do this!” well up within. At least I hope that is what we all are experiencing. Dig deep! There’s not that much to go, so finish strong!
One thing that may inspire the end of your Lenten journey is another kind of digging. This past January, Archbishop Coakley released his second pastoral letter, “Go Make Disciples! Building a Culture of Conversion and Discipleship for the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.”
Since its release, I have been spending a fair amount of time reading and studying it. The letter is filled with many kernels of wisdom, and I have found it to be quite inspiring during my Lenten journey. It has gotten national attention as well. The week after its release, a priest on EWTN preached an entire homily on the new letter and quoted from it numerous times.
Since January, our staff has been providing copies of the letter. If you haven’t gotten your copy yet, check your parish – 40,000 copies were distributed across the archdiocese. I have been telling people that this is like getting a letter from your parent when you’re away on a trip or away at college. But, this is not just any letter. It’s one of those weighty letters that parents sometimes write to share their heart with us, to tell us what is important and to help us navigate the path of life. Archbishop Coakley, our spiritual father, is doing just that. He is sharing his heart for our archdiocese and providing a clear spiritual vision for how we need to be living our lives in modern times.
I sincerely hope every Catholic in the archdiocese will read this very important letter some time during the next year. We are working hard to make the content more accessible for all ages. A new study guide has just been completed and is available online at archokc.org/2030. The new study guide also is being re-tooled for various age groups and is available in Spanish.
All this work has led me to some important takeaways from the archbishop’s new letter. He says in the letter, “The deepest desire of my heart is to see the Church of central and western Oklahoma flourish as a community of faith that nurtures and raises up fervent missionary disciples. Our task is to prepare good soil to receive the seed of faith.”
And, in another section, he says, “Till the soil of your heart, be generous in your response to Christ. Say ‘yes’ to him and embrace the call to holiness. Be a disciple and accept his challenge to go and make more disciples!”
This really is the driving theme of the whole letter – be disciples yourselves, go make more disciples of others! Archbishop Coakley includes a lot of very practical wisdom for how to actually do that.
As your Lent comes into its final stretch, I encourage you to “dig in”! Dig in to this new, heartfelt message from our shepherd. He has much to share with us, and it becomes a bit of a rally cry for us as a Church right now. There are a lot of things going on these days that could lead to discouragement, even despair.
This new pastoral letter is a breath of fresh air in the midst of all this. I hope and pray that the letter is as much of a blessing to you as it has been for me!