Bishop LeVoir's Message
50th Anniversary Closing Celebration
Holy Redeemer, Marshall, MN
November 16, 2008

The identity and mission of the Diocese of New Ulm is really the identity and mission of the Church in general. This information comes from the Second Vatican Council and the teaching of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.

I remember talking with Bishop Schladweiler about the Second Vatican Council and the wonderful experience he had there and how much he enjoyed meeting the other bishops, the Italian people, and working on the documents of the Second Vatican Council. As we go into the future, it is the vision of the Council that we are still working on implementing in the Church today.

The identity in the Church today comes from our common baptism. By baptism we are all made other Christs. As St. Paul says, "we put on Jesus Christ in baptism."

That really is our identity, to be another Christ. Each of us is made that in baptism and each of us is called to act that out in our daily life by what we say and by what we do. Our identity is to be other Christs and the Church is the Body of Christ - all of the baptized united together with our Lord. The mission that we have as other Christs, is what the Lord received from his father - that we be priest, prophet, and king. Those are very ancient titles that were applied to our Lord, but they really have a contemporary meaning.

A prophet is one who speaks for God - one who reveals the truth. Jesus being God the Son Incarnate was truth itself. The prophetic role of Jesus is to teach the truth. He came to proclaim the Gospel. As Church we strive to do the same thing - to proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ and to reveal what Jesus came to reveal to us. As he told his followers if you carry on the mission that I have to preach the Gospel, "Whoever hears you will hear me."

We have that responsibility and obligation to carry on that mission of Jesus Christ - to teach the truth. That is the prophetic role very simply.

Just like the prophetic is tied to truth, the priestly role is tied to the love of God. Jesus revealed this to us in everything he did. Love is a self gift. Jesus gave himself to us totally and completely. The two premier places where he did that were when he became one of us. We celebrate this at Christmas. This was a total self-giving by our Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't hold anything back. He didn't just appear to be human or pretend to be human, but rather he gave himself totally and became totally human for us as well as remaining true God.

The other premier act of love for us was he gave himself to us on the cross and in the resurrection. Again our Lord didn't hold anything back. He gave everything. He gave his whole life. And so he reveals love to us and we need to have that revelation of love because we don't know what it is unless Jesus reveals it to us.

That priestly role of our Lord is the revelation of love and the Church as Christ in the world as that same mission to reveal love. We do that primarily by the celebration of the Eucharist. Everything we do that is connected with the liturgy celebrates that loving priestly role of Jesus Christ. Whether we are a priest, deacon, extraordinary minister of Holy Communion, server, reader, a liturgy director - whatever we are - when we are involved in prayer in the liturgy, we participate in that priestly loving office of Jesus Christ.

So, prophetic is tied to the truth, and the teaching of the truth that the Church does. The priestly role is that role of love that Jesus had and we too as other Christs have. And finally the role as king. Jesus was a king in different ways. In one way he had a self discipline about himself. He had a way to govern himself so that he could give himself, so that he could love.

Secondly, Jesus always used the things of this world for the good of others. Our Lord was in no way selfish or egotistical. He always thought about the good of others and  used things for the benefit of others.

He changed water into wine. He fed the thousands with loaves and fishes and he gave us his body and blood as he changed bread and wine into his very self.

These are the two things that Jesus did in his kingly role and again the Church does the same thing. The Church has that self discipline that comes primarily through the Church law and the rules and regulations that are involved in the operation of a diocese and then the using of things for the good of others - that persons are always more important than things.

We have organizations such as, Catholic Charities, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the food shelf, all things that take care of the basic physical needs of others. The Church is involved in that role. So the Church too participates in the kingly role of Jesus Christ.

As we move into the future, it is good for us to review in our minds the basic things about ourselves - our identity that we are to be Jesus Christ and we are to be Jesus for others. We do that by imitating those things that Jesus himself did: by handing on the truth, no matter where we are, in whatever situation we find ourselves; by loving; by giving of ourselves; by thinking of others before we think about ourselves; by a life of prayer; by thinking of God and giving ourselves to him; and finally by that kingly role - disciplining ourselves and then seeing to the needs of the poor and less fortunate.

As we go into the future, our identity and our mission as followers of Jesus Christ are good things to keep in mind. As I go into the future with you, I hope to lead in these ways. The vision of the Second Vatican Council and John Paul II and Benedict XVI is a clear vision.  It is something you will hear me talk about and repeat so that in our lives we continually show forth the loving face of Jesus to others in our diocese.

God bless you.