Pastoral Message aired on KNXT-TV during February 2007
Bishop John T. Steinbock
My dear brothers and sisters,
At the beginning of every year, the Bishops of Southern California gather for an eight-day silent retreat. There are no talks. It is simply a time to be alone with the Lord. Each year, the Lord touches me deeply in a different way. But, each year the Lord leads me to renew the giving of my own life over to Him seeking only to live by His holy Will and seeking only His glory; and, He also renews within me the gift of trust in His loving presence within me no matter what comes in life. Both of these tremendous gifts He renews for me, by having me reflect on some aspect of His life. This year, the Lord led me to reflect on His words: “I am the Bread of Life.”
The Lord did not teach me anything new, but reemphasized in my life the great privilege we have of celebrating and participating in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. He reminded me of how He offered himself to his heavenly Father on that cross for all of us out of His great love for us, and how He invites us to offer ourselves with Him in every Mass we celebrate. He reminded me of how God calls upon me and everyone to offer every aspect of our lives to Him, by seeking his will and glory in all things. The only thing we can’t offer is sin. He reminded me of how He sits at the right hand of his Father, as our High Priest, continuing to intercede for us, bringing our offering to His Heavenly Father, and speaking on our behalf.
The Lord reminded me of the great gift of the Eucharist, through which He continues to offer Himself in an unbloody way, through the sign of bread and wine, as He once did in his bloody death on that cross. He makes His sacrifice present to us so we can unite ourselves with him in His offering. He reminded me of how He gives Himself in Communion to us, His own body and blood, in order to fill us with His divine love to empower us to live out his command, to love one another as He has loved us.
He reminded me of how He calls us into His one Body, so that living in unity and love, signified and effected through the Eucharist, that others may come to know that the Lord lives in this world in and through our lives. He reminded me of how receiving Communion is meant to lead us to care and love and serve everyone around us, especially the most forgotten and condemned of our society.
On and on I could talk of this great love the Lord gives us in the Eucharist, of how He is present on our altars and in our tabernacles to speak of His loving sacrifice on the cross, so that we might have forgiveness of sin and come to eternal life. How privileged we are, as Catholics, to have this great treasure the Lord has left His Church to bring Him and His sacrifice to His followers for all generations, until He comes again in glory. God bless you all. Come to the Lord Jesus in the Eucharist often. He yearns for us all.