Bishop Sartain

Photo from the website of St. Scholastica Monastery

Our diocese has a new pastor of souls. Bishop Joseph Imesch will turn 75 next month, the retirement age for bishops. The Vatican announced today that the Most Reverend James Peter Sartain (pronounced SAR-tan), currently bishop of Little Rock, will replace him.

From what I see online, Bishop Sartain appears to be God-centered, zealous for vocations, not overly-bureaucratic, and friendly to the excellent Couple to Couple League. God grant that he is as he appears.

Bishop Sartain wrote an article about faith in Christ, quoted here, that gives me hope. He wrote:

Several of our priests, when poking fun at themselves for making a self-evident point, quote the fictional preacher who is fond of saying, ‘Jesus said, and I tend to agree … .’

It’s a great line. As if a preacher could ever make himself the judge of Jesus’ teaching!

The line makes me laugh, but it also makes me think. I wonder if at times even we Christians approach the teaching of Jesus as something with which we may agree or disagree, as if it is simply one of many philosophies of life among which we may pick and choose as suits our sensibilities.

A modern tendency to give equal weight to all ideas and opinions has a subtle but devastating effect on the Christian life because it seduces us into thinking that there is no such thing as absolute truth. If we think there is no such thing as absolute truth, we will never truly believe that Jesus is the Son of God and Savior of the world. In line with modern habits, we might judge Christian teaching to be acceptable, reasonable or even appealing—but that’s a far cry from actually being a Christian.

The mission of God’s Son was not to teach a philosophy but to reveal the Truth so we might be saved. He himself is the Truth, the Absolute Truth. He is God’s complete revelation of himself.

Please pray for our new bishop and for retiring Bishop Joseph Imesch.