Bishop-elect sees joyful service as a natural response to God’s infinite goodness
“Servite Domino in Laetitia.”
Bishop-elect Ralph B. O’Donnell chose this verse from Psalm 100, “Serve the Lord with gladness,” to be his motto as a bishop.
It’s a sermon he hopes to preach continuously in word, action and disposition.
“I’ve really known a lot of joy in the priestly life and by following the Lord,” he said. “And joy is meant to be deep-seated within us.”
He noted that the Latin word “laetitia” can be translated as “gladness” or “joy.”
Which does he prefer?
“Either is great!” he said. “They’re mostly the same, based on how you experience them.”
As a priest, he’s spent time with families while they’re grieving the loss of a loved one, such as a child or a spouse.
“And there’s tremendous sadness in the loss,” he said. “But deep within the heart of a disciple is also the joy in the fact that we know that life doesn’t end here. There is joy in the deeper reality of hope in the Resurrection.”
“When we come to acknowledge our own limits, shortcomings or sinfulness, we’re still offered the joy through the gift of reconciliation and the redemption offered to us from God,” he stated. “God sends that message to us in Christ — redemption, forgiveness — and we pray for the grace to receive it, turning toward the Lord and allowing his mercy to influence us.”
Service becomes a natural response of a disciple, imitating Christ.
“Jesus came to serve, not to be served, and he says to the Apostles, ‘Those who wish to be great among you must be the servant of the least,’” the bishop noted.
He feels blessed to have come from a loving family and to have experienced so much joy even when dealing with challenges in life.
“From very early on in my life,” he said, “I was able to make the connection between living your love for Christ by caring for those around you — family, friends and neighbors. Seeing this example made me want to respond in kind, to imitate that love.”
Psalm 100 is a song of thanksgiving, an invitation to enter through the Temple gates, giving loud praise to God while serving him with gladness.
“Know that the Lord is God!” the psalm continues. “He made us, we belong to him, we are his people, the flock he shepherds.”
“Enter his gates with thanksgiving, his courts with praise! Give thanks to him, bless his name; good indeed is the Lord! His mercy endures forever, his faithfulness lasts through every generation.”
Saints preserve us
So, who is this man who will stand at the Lord’s altar, take his place in the chair of bishop and teacher, and serve the Lord with joy across these 38 counties through preaching, teaching and living the Word of God?
“I am first and foremost a man truly indebted to the love and mercy of Christ,” Bishop-elect O’Donnell acknowledged. “So mindful of my own need for his mercy, I am encouraged knowing of his desire to heal and strengthen all who call upon him.”
The bishop-elect hesitates to single out a favorite saint he goes to for intercession.
“Thinking of favorite saints is similar to reflecting about members of your family,” he said. “We don’t think of favorites but rather in terms of those we’ve come to appreciate for different qualities, loving them because of who they are, or how we’ve encountered them in life.
“What they’ve done and how they’ve done it can become a reference point for how we might follow the Lord,” he stated. “The goal is always to be Christlike, and sometimes it really helps to follow the lead of someone you respect, who’s followed the Lord.”
Some of the saints he relates particularly well to are: Pope St. John XXIII, who led the Church from 1962-65 and convened the Second Vatican Council; St. Therese of Lisieux, filled with simplicity and childlike eagerness to serve the Lord; St. Ignatius of Loyola, who founded the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits); St. Peter Claver, a 17th-century Jesuit who ministered to enslaved people debarking from slave ships; and St. Oscar Romero, a 20th-century Salvadoran archbishop who stood with the oppressed people of his homeland.
“And most recently, St. Simon and Jude,” he said, referring to two of Jesus’s 12 Apostles. “Because I’ll be ordained and installed in Jefferson City on their feastday.”
The list could go on.
“Just like with family and friends, once you get started, you continue to realize how indebted you are to them for their witness,” he said. “I am glad we don’t have to be limited in how we study and emulate the saints.”
“Bond of perfection”
One of Bishop-elect O’Donnell’s favorite Scripture passages is from St. Paul’s Letter to the Colossians:
“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.
“And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Colossians 3:12-17)
He signed his Oath of Fidelity in preparation to be ordained a transitional deacon in 1996, placing the letter over the opened text containing that verse.
“It’s a nice tradition we had,” he said. “We’d sign the oath in the presence of a few witnesses at the seminary, and choose a suitable Scripture verse that captured an aspect of the life we hoped to live in Christ.”
The passage from Colossians offered him a suitable balance of challenge and reassurance.
“Over the past 28 years of priestly ministry, that verse has become for me a ready reference of what it means to act like a disciple of Jesus Christ,” he said. “It is a positive instruction about what we can do to help bring about the Kingdom.”
