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Pope Benedict XVI- Homilies |
"The Eucharist Is Not a Meal Among Friends"
Homily given at 49th International Eucharistic Congress
Quebec City, Canada
H.H. Benedict XVI
June 22, 2008
www.zenit.org
Homily was given by
the Holy Father satellite Sunday at the closing
Mass of the 49th International Eucharistic Congress
Lord Cardinals,
Excellencies,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
While you are gathered for the 49th International Eucharistic
Congress, I am happy to join you through the medium of satellite
and thus unite myself to your prayer. I would like first of all
to greet the Lord Cardinal Marc Ouellet, archbishop of Quebec,
and the Lord Cardinal Jozef Tomko, special envoy for the
congress, as well as all the cardinals and bishops present. I
also address my cordial greetings to the personalities of civil
society who decided to take part in the liturgy. My affectionate
thought goes to the priests, deacons and all the faithful
present, as well as to all Catholics of Quebec, of the whole of
Canada and of other continents. I do not forget that your
country celebrates this year the 400th anniversary of its
foundation. It is an occasion for each one of you to recall the
values that animated the pioneers and missionaries in your
country.
"The Eucharist, gift of God for the Life of the World," this is
the theme chosen for this latest International Eucharistic
Congress. The Eucharist is our most beautiful treasure. It is
the sacrament par excellence; it introduces us early into
eternal life; it contains the whole mystery of our salvation; it
is the source and summit of the action and of the life of the
Church, as the Second Vatican Council recalled ("Sacrosanctum
Concilium," No. 8).
It is, therefore, particularly important that pastors and
faithful dedicate themselves permanently to furthering their
knowledge of this great sacrament. Each one will thus be able to
affirm his faith and fulfill ever better his mission in the
Church and in the world, recalling that there is a fruitfulness
of the Eucharist in his personal life, in the life of the Church
and of the world. The Spirit of truth gives witness in your
hearts; you also must give witness to Christ before men, as the
antiphon states in the alleluia of this Mass. Participation in
the Eucharist, then, does not distance us from our
contemporaries; on the contrary, because it is the expression
par excellence of the love of God, it calls us to be involved
with all our brothers to address the present challenges and to
make the planet a place where it is good to live.
To accomplish this, it is necessary to struggle ceaselessly so
that every person will be respected from his conception until
his natural death; that our rich societies welcome the poorest
and allow them their dignity; that all persons be able to find
nourishment and enable their families to live; that peace and
justice may shine in all continents. These are some of the
challenges that must mobilize all our contemporaries and for
which Christians must draw their strength in the Eucharistic
mystery.
"The Mystery of Faith": this is what we proclaim at every Mass.
I would like everyone to make a commitment to study this great
mystery, especially by revisiting and exploring, individually
and in groups, the Council's text on the Liturgy, "Sacrosanctum
Concilium," so as to bear witness courageously to the mystery.
In this way, each person will arrive at a better grasp of the
meaning of every aspect of the Eucharist, understanding its
depth and living it with greater intensity. Every sentence,
every gesture has its own meaning and conceals a mystery. I
sincerely hope that this Congress will serve as an appeal to all
the faithful to make a similar commitment to a renewal of
Eucharistic catechesis, so that they themselves will gain a
genuine Eucharistic awareness and will in turn teach children
and young people to recognize the central mystery of faith and
build their lives around it. I urge priests especially to give
due honor to the Eucharistic rite, and I ask all the faithful to
respect the role of each individual, both priest and lay, in the
Eucharistic action. The liturgy does not belong to us: it is the
Church's treasure.
Reception of the Eucharist, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
-- by this we mean deepening our communion, preparing for it and
prolonging it -- is also about allowing ourselves to enter into
communion with Christ, and through him with the whole of the
Trinity, so as to become what we receive and to live in
communion with the Church. It is by receiving the Body of Christ
that we receive the strength "of unity with God and with one
another" (Saint Cyril of Alexandria, In Ioannis Evangelium,
11:11; cf. Saint Augustine, Sermo 577).
We must never forget that the Church is built around Christ and
that, as Saint Augustine, Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Albert
the Great have all said, following Saint Paul (cf. 1 Corinthians
10:17), the Eucharist is the sacrament of the Church's unity,
because we all form one single body of which the Lord is the
head. We must go back again and again to the Last Supper on Holy
Thursday, where we were given a pledge of the mystery of our
redemption on the Cross. The Last Supper is the locus of the
nascent Church, the womb containing the Church of every age. In
the Eucharist, Christ's sacrifice is constantly renewed,
Pentecost is constantly renewed. May all of you become ever more
deeply aware of the importance of the Sunday Eucharist, because
Sunday, the first day of the week, is the day when we honor
Christ, the day when we receive the strength to live each day
the gift of God.
I would also like to invite the pastors and faithful to a
renewed care in their preparation for reception of the
Eucharist. Despite our weakness and our sin, Christ wills to
make his dwelling in us, asking him for healing. To bring this
about, we must do everything that is in our power to receive him
with a pure heart, ceaselessly rediscovering, through the
sacrament of penance, the purity that sin has stained, "putting
our soul and our voice in accord," according to the invitation
of the Council (cf. "Sacrosanctum Concilium," No.11). In fact,
sin, especially grave sin, is opposed to the action of
Eucharistic grace in us. However, those who cannot go to
communion because of their situation, will find nevertheless in
a communion of desire and in participation in the Mass saving
strength and efficacy.
The Eucharist had an altogether special place in the lives of
saints. Let us thank God for the history of holiness of Quebec
and Canada, which contributed to the missionary life of the
Church. Your country honors especially its Canadian martyrs,
Jean de Brebeuf, Isaac Jogues and their companions, who were
able to give up their lives for Christ, thus uniting themselves
to his sacrifice on the Cross.
They belong to the generation of men and women who founded and
developed the Church of Canada, with Marguerite Bourgeoys,
Marguerite d'Youville, Marie of the Incarnation, Marie-Catherine
of Saint Augustine, Mgr Francis of Laval, founder of the first
diocese in North America, Dina Belanger and Kateri Tekakwitha.
Put yourselves in their school; like them, be without fear; God
accompanies you and protects you; make of each day an offering
to the glory of God the Father and take your part in the
building of the world, remembering with pride your religious
heritage and its social and cultural brilliance, and taking care
to spread around you the moral and spiritual values that come to
us from the Lord.
The Eucharist is not a meal among friends. It is a mystery of
covenant. "The prayers and the rites of the Eucharistic
sacrifice make the whole history of salvation revive ceaselessly
before the eyes of our soul, in the course of the liturgical
cycle, and make us penetrate ever more its significance" (Saint
Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, [Edith Stein], Wege zur inneren
Stille Aschaffenburg, 1987, p. 67). We are called to enter into
this mystery of covenant by conforming our life increasingly
every day to the gift received in the Eucharist. It has a sacred
character, as Vatican Council II reminds: "Every liturgical
celebration, because it is an action of Christ the priest and of
His Body which is the Church, is a sacred action surpassing all
others; no other action of the Church can equal its efficacy by
the same title and to the same degree " ("Sacrosanctum Concilium,"
No. 7). In a certain way, it is a "heavenly liturgy,"
anticipation of the banquet in the eternal Kingdom, proclaiming
the death and resurrection of Christ, until he comes (cf. 1
Corinthians 11:26).
In order that the People of God never lack ministers to give
them the Body of Christ, we must ask the Lord to make the gift
of new priests to his Church. I also invite you to transmit the
call to the priesthood to young men, so that they will accept
with joy and without fear to respond to Christ. They will not be
disappointed. May families be the primordial place and the
cradle of vocations.
Before ending, it is with joy that I announce to you the meeting
of the next International Eucharistic Congress. It will be held
in Dublin, in Ireland, in 2012. I ask the Lord to make each one
of you discover the depth and grandeur of the mystery of faith.
May Christ, present in the Eucharist, and the Holy Spirit,
invoked over the bread and wine, accompany you on your daily way
and in your mission. May you, in the image of the Virgin Mary,
be open to the work of God in you. Entrusting you to the
intercession of Our Lady, of Saint Anne, patroness of Quebec,
and of all the saints of your land, I impart to all of you an
affectionate Apostolic Blessing, as well as to all the persons
present, who have come from different countries of the world.
Dear friends, as this significant event in the life of the
Church draws to a conclusion I invite you all to join me in
praying for the success of the next International Eucharistic
Congress, which will take place in 2012 in the city of Dublin! I
take this opportunity to greet warmly the people of Ireland, as
they prepare to host this ecclesial gathering. I am confident
that they, together with all the participants at the next
Congress, will find it a source of lasting spiritual renewal.
[Translation of the French portions by ZENIT]
Look
at the One they Pierced!
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