'Hidden Glory': Here are highlights from Bishop Varden's meditations for papal Lenten retreat

ROME (OSV News) -- Norwegian Bishop Erik Varden preached a series of meditations for the first Lenten retreat of Pope Leo XIV and the Roman Curia, reflecting on the splendor of truth and the Christian idea of freedom, as well as sin, abuse and Church corruption.

Bishop Varden of Trondheim, a Trappist monk, shared wisdom from contemplative life during the retreat, drawing from the writings of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, a 12th-century abbot and doctor of the church.

"It is tempting to think we must keep up with the world's fashions. It is, I'd say, a dubious procedure. The Church, a slow-moving body, will always run the risk of looking and sounding last-season," Bishop Varden told the pope and the cardinals in a meditation on Feb. 24 in the Pauline Chapel of the Apostolic Palace.

"But if she speaks her own language well, that of the Scriptures and liturgy, of her past and present fathers, mothers, poets, and saints, she will be original and fresh, ready to express ancient truths in new ways, standing a chance, as she has done before, of orienting culture."

Pope Leo chose Bishop Varden to preach at the week retreat, which runs through the evening of Feb. 27, reflecting on the theme, "Illuminated by a Hidden Glory."

-- Splendor of truth

Many people today are earnestly asking the question, "'What is truth?'" Bishop Varden said in his evening meditation on Feb. 24, noting that often people ask the question "with remarkable good will, notwithstanding their confusion, fear, and the rush they are always in."

-- The Church cannot let the question go unanswered, he said.

"We need our best resources to uphold substantial, essential, freeing truth against more or less plausibly shining, more or less fiendish substitutes," Bishop Varden said, underlining the "imperative to see and articulate the world in Christ's light."

He noted that the Second Vatican Council's universal call to holiness was "to embody truth," and that "the Christian claim to truth becomes compelling when its splendor is made personally evident with sacrificial love in sanctity, cleansed of temptations."

-- Christian freedom

Bishop Varden also reflected in his morning meditation on Feb. 24 on how "the notion of 'freedom' has become contentious in public discourse" with political causes utilizing "the jargon of freedom."

"Christian freedom is not about seizing the world with force," he clarified."It is about loving the world with a crucified love magnanimous enough to make us freely wish, one with Christ, to give our lives for it, that it may be set free."

"To subscribe to a Christian idea of freedom is to consent to pain," he said. "When Christ tells us: 'Resist not evil', he does not ask us to countenance injustice. He lets us see that justice's cause is sometimes best served by suffering for it, refusing to meet force with force. Our emblem of freedom remains the Son of God who 'emptied himself.'"

-- Abuse and corruption

On Feb. 25, Bishop Varden addressed the subject of clerical sexual abuse in a meditation titled "The Fall of Thousands."

"Nothing has done the Church more tragic harm, and compromised our witness more, than corruption arisen within our own house," he said. "The worst crisis of the Church has been brought on, not by secular opposition, but by ecclesiastical corruption. The wounds inflicted will take time to heal. They call out for justice and for tears."

Bishop Varden acknowledged the temptation when confronting abuse "to look for a diseased root," noting that early warning signs are not always present.

Citing St. Bernard, he said that where people pursue noble endeavors, enemy attacks will be fierce, adding that St. Bernard still "holds men and women responsible for the way in which they use their sovereign freedom."

"There are falls that reek hellishly, bringing destruction to the guilty and carrying ruin in their wake. That wake is often broad and long, pulling in many innocents," the bishop said.

-- Hidden glories

In a Feb. 25 meditation, Bishop Varden highlighted the "hidden glory" that is perceptible now before reaching the glories of heaven.

"The Church reminds women and men of the glory secretly alive in them," he said. "She shows us that present mediocrity and despair, not least my despair at my own persistent failures, need not be final; that God's plan for us is infinitely lovely; and that God, through Christ's Mystical Body, will give us grace and strength, if only we ask."

He highlighted how the Church manifests the radiance of "hidden glory" in her saints and channels "hidden glory" in her sacraments, especially the Eucharist.

The saints, he said, "stand as proofs that even illness and degradation may be means providence uses to realize a glorious purpose, bestowing strength on the feeble and making them radiant."

-- Angelic priestly ministry

On Feb. 26, Bishop Varden reflected on "angelic encounters," which he said, are always personal and can never be replaced "by a download or a chatbot."

Quoting the popular prayer that asks one's guardian angel to "enlighten, keep, govern, and guide," Bishop Varden noted that St. John Henry Newman saw a "priest's ministry as angelic."

"The priest is at home in this world, unafraid to go into dark woods in search of the lost. At the same time he keeps his mind's eyes raised towards the Father's face, letting its radiance illumine all present reality," he said.

He also called Cardinal Newman's vision of the teacher as "angelic enlightener" a prophetic challenge, given how much so-called "education" is now farmed out to digital, artificial media, while young people yearn for trustworthy teachers who can impart wisdom.

"A man or woman truly free is glorious to behold," Bishop Varden concluded in his evening meditation Feb. 26.

The papal retreat concludes on the evening of Feb. 27 with a meditation on "Communicating Hope." On March 1, Pope Leo is scheduled to deliver the Angelus address to pilgrims in St. Peter's Square and visit the Roman parish of the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ.