“The Eucharist: Jesus’ great gift of Himself.” Pope Francis
The month of June opens with the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. It provides us with an opportunity to gather around the “real and loving presence of the Lord” and to renew and strengthen our faith in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and to recognize his presence among us, his mystical body. May we all pray for the grace to live “eucharistic lives” in solidarity and synodality with others, responding with fraternal solicitude to different forms of poverty and hunger in the world.” (JP II “Mane Nobiscum Domine.”)
“More than a symbol, it is the real and loving presence of the Lord.”
Let gather some of these words of the Holy Father, shared without comment. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to inspire us, challenge us, lead us, embolden us in our renewal of personal love and devotion to the Eucharist and the work we are about – restructuring, radical transformation, synodality, “transformed by love, passionate for mission.”
- Jesus spoke of himself as “the living bread that came down from heaven, the true bread that gives life to the world.” This morning, while I was celebrating the Eucharist, I thought about this a lot because it is what gives us life. Indeed, the Eucharist is God’s response to the deepest hunger of the human heart, the hunger for authentic life, because in the Eucharist, Christ himself is truly in our midst to nourish, console, and sustain us on our journey.
- Unfortunately, today many Catholics believe that the Eucharist is more a symbol than the reality of the Lord’s presence and love. It is my hope, then, that Catholics will be inspired to discover anew the sense of wonder and awe at the Lord’s great gift of himself, and to spend time with him in the celebration of the holy Mass and in personal prayer and adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.
- Pope Francis lamented that many people have lost the sense of adoration. We need to regain the sense of adoring in silence, adoration. It is a prayer we have lost, and we need to catechize the faithful on the prayer of adoration.
- The Pope insisted on the link between celebration Mass, eucharistic adoration, and sharing the Gospel with others. In the Eucharist, we encounter the one who gave everything for us, who sacrificed himself in order to give us life, who loved us to the end. We become credible witnesses to the joy and transforming beauty of the Gospel only when we recognize that the love we celebrate in this sacrament cannot be kept to ourselves but demands to be shared with all.
- This is the sense of mission: You go, you celebrate Mass, you take Communion. You go to adoration – and afterward? Afterward, you go out, you go out and evangelize; Jesus makes us this way.
- The Eucharist impels us to a strong and committed love of neighbor. For we cannot truly understand or live the meaning of the Eucharist if our hearts are closed to our brothers and sisters, especially those who are poor, suffering, weary, or may have gone astray in life.
- (Speaking off the cuff), Pope Francis said those who believe in the Eucharist must reach out to and visit the elderly, who are the wisdom of a people, and the sick, who take the form of the suffering Jesus.
- Pope Francis prayed that the Eucharistic revival and congress would “bear fruit in guiding men and women throughout the nation to the Lord, who by his presence among us, rekindles hope and renews life.”
ONE BREAD, ONE BODY
One bread, one body, one Lord of all.
One cup of blessing which we bless.
And we, though many, throughout the earth,
We are One Body in this One Lord!
By Sr Mary Lourdes Fabia, RGS
