In the Heart of the Church |
THE EUCHARIST AND MISSION
Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, Archbishop of Ranchi, India
Address at the 49th International Eucharistic Congress
Quebec City, Canada
June 20, 2008
I am extremely pleased to be here among you and to deliver this
address on the Eucharist and Mission. I consider it an unique
privilege to speak about what is so dear to my heart, and I thank
the organizers for giving me this opportunity.
Our God is the God of history, a God of relationship, a God who
communicates with mankind. His creative act itself is an act of
relationship. Through this act of love He shared His life with human
beings. Human beings continue this creative act by sharing their
love with one another. Sin is the absence of this love in the lives
of human beings. When this love is absent, we are not experiencing
the true God, nor are we able to build an authentic human community.
The Holy Scriptures point out to the breakdown in human beings'
relationship with God such as in the case of Adam and Eve which
caused them to lose the Paradise of happiness or when Cain killed
his brother and brought death into the world for the first time.
Jesus came to give us once again this transforming experience of God
as love. As the Gospel according to John tells us, "for God so loved
the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes
in him might not perish but might have eternal life" (John
3:16).Everything that Jesus did, his miracles, his teachings, his
whole life was a proclamation of God's love. In his death and
resurrection he was like the grain of wheat which falls to the
ground and dies and by dying produces much fruit (Jn 12:26) Our Holy
Father, Pope Benedict XVI describes this so beautifully in his first
encyclical Deus Caritas Est (n.12), when he says: "His death on the
Cross is the culmination of that turning of God against himself in
which he gives himself in order to raise man up and save him. This
is love in its most radical form." The institution of the Eucharist,
the day before he died, was the symbolic recapitulation of Jesus'
life which reached completion in the total self-gift of himself by
dying on the cross. He commanded his disciples to "do this in memory
of me", and entrusted them with the task of making this last day
become a reality in their lives until he will come again in glory to
transform the whole universe into the new heaven and the new earth
where there will be the perfect love relationship between God and
human beings, and among human beings.
The Church is the community that, following in the footsteps of
those first disciples and apostles, continues down the centuries to
fulfil this mission in the world. When we celebrate the Eucharist we
proclaim the great redemptive act of Christ and we commit ourselves
to continue his work in the world by living a life of love and
sharing. This is what the early Christians did in order to show
their identity. They recognized the Lord in the breaking of the
Bread and they were recognized as Christians by their sharing of the
bread (Acts 2, 44-47) The Eucharist, therefore, was an act by which
they expressed their religious identity, an identity based on their
relationship to God and to their fellow human beings.
When the Disciples of Christ translate the love of God - which they
experience in Christ in the Eucharist - into their everyday lives,
into their relationship
with each other and with other human beings, then they are building
a new society, a new creation.
Pope John Paul II expresses this same idea in a more deeply
theological way in Ecclesia de Eucharisitia (n. 35) when he says
that "the profound relationship between the invisible and the
visible elements of ecclesial communion is constitutive of the
Church as the sacrament of salvation." Allow me to put it another
way by sharing with you the story of my own people who were
transformed into a new creation after they came to believe in the
risen LORD and accepted JESUS as the only Saviour of the World.
Up to 163 years ago, the tribal peoples of Central and North East
India had not yet heard of JESUS. They were poor and totally
illiterate. The rich landlords and the powerful people oppressed and
exploited them mercilessly. The poor Tribals were left without any
hope of justice. Many fled to the Assam Tea Gardens or to the
forests of the Andaman Islands in the search for survival. Those who
remained in the ancestral lands were on the verge of extinction, and
had lost the very will to live. At this juncture in their history,
God heard their cry and in 1845 sent some Christian missionaries to
Ranchi, the heartland of the Tribals.
For four years the missionaries laboured in vain. Then one fine day
four Tribals approached them because they had heard that these
missionaries were preaching about a man who was killed and is still
alive. So they wanted to see him. They came to the missionaries and
said: "We want to see JESUS". Their constant question was: where is
JESUS? We want to see Him? The missionaries did not know what to do
and these tribals got angry and called them cheats and liars. Then
the missionaries invited them to prayer and finally they were
baptized.
Some thirty years later in 1869 the Archbishop of Calcutta (now
Kolkata) sent the first Jesuit missionaries to these Tribal people.
Four years later a group of six Tribal families, numbering 28
persons were baptized in the Catholic Church. But the real movement
of grace started with the arrival of the servant of God, Fr.
Constant Lievens, S.J., now known as the apostle of Chotanagur, the
land of the Tribals. When this Jesuit came, there were only 56
Catholics in the territory. He lived only seven years but by the
time he died, due to overwork, exhaustion and tuberculosis, there
were 80,000 (eighty thousand) baptized Catholics and more than
twenty thousand catechumens in the area!
How did this happen? What was difference between these Jesuit
Missionaries and first missionaries who came thirty years before
them? The answer is: The Eucharist, the way the catholics
understood, celebrated and lived the Eucharist made all the
difference. Many of the first Christians embraced the Catholic faith
because of this. The Loreto Sisters were the first Religious women
to arrive to help the missionaries in the work of evangelization.
Four Christian girls from an educated family studying in the
boarding school with the Loreto Nuns in Ranchi embraced the Catholic
faith and in 1897 founded in Ranchi the first indigenous Religious
Congregation of The Daughters of St. Anne's. This indigenous
congregation of women now has more than a thousand Sisters spread in
23 Indian dioceses and also in dioceses outside India. The simple
nuns played a very important role in the work of evangelization.
This young Church in the Tribal lands has grown so much that today
it constitutes 10% of the whole Catholic population of India which
is 18 million. Though materially poor, it is nevertheless self
sufficient in many aspects and has its own nuns, priests and
bishops. One of the Characteristics of this Church has been that
these tribal Catholics became bearers of the Faith wherever they
went. For this reason, this extraordinary growth of the Church in
the tribal lands has become known as the ‘Miracle of Chotanagpur'.
Many do not know Blessed Mother Teresa too is part of this miracle.
Among the Jesuits working in the Kolkata mission, that included
Ranchi, there were two Albanians. When these Jesuits returned home
to Albanian on a visit, they gave talks to school children in an
effort to promote missionary vocations and to raise funds for their
mission. One of those who heard them was a teenage school girl
called Agnes - the future Mother Teresa; she was then 13 or 14 years
old. She listened attentively to one of the missionaries who told
about what was happening among the Tribals in Ranchi, and she
decided to come to India to work among the Ranchi tribals.
At that time she had only one way to come to India, and that was to
become a Loreto nun, because that order had nuns working in Kolkata
and in Ranchi too. So she joined the Loreto order in Ireland and
from there came to Kolkata, India. When I was a young Bishop, one
day I had the privilege to take Mother Teresa in my car. She was
accompanied by three of her Missionaries of Charity Sisters. From
them I came to know that Mother Teresa had worked till past midnight
re-organizing their community. She was sitting next to me in the
front seat and naturally I was feeling timid sitting next to someone
like her. But being a true Mother she told me to sit comfortably.
This gave me courage. I said: Mother I was told that you worked very
late last night. You are not young any more. From where do you get
the strength to do all that you are doing? Her reply came with the
speed of bullet: JESUS in the Eucharist.
I believe this has been and is the secret of the success of Mother
Teresa and of the Missionaries of Charity. Whenever she opened a new
community anywhere in the world, she always called it one more
Tabernacle. Mother Teresa is an example of how much the Mission of
the Church is nourished and driven by the Eucharist.
Now let us then take a look at that mission.
1. THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH
The Second Vatican Council's Pastoral Constitution on the Church in
the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes n.1) teaches that the life and
mission of the Church is closely related to the world into which
Jesus sent his disciples to continue the task entrusted to him by
the Father. Among the many characteristics of today's world in which
the Church has to carry out her mission I would like to highlight
three: the socioeconomic disparity; religious pluralism; and
diversity of cultural identities.
The Church must dialogue with all these aspects of human society
with a view to building up communion among all peoples. In his
Message for the 81st World Mission Sunday 2007, Pope Benedict
teaches that the missionary task of the Church, the first service
she owes people in today's world is "to guide and evangelize the
cultural, social and ethical transformations; to offer Christ's
salvation to the people of our time in so many parts of the world
who are humiliated and oppressed by endemic poverty, violence and
the systematic denial of human rights."
A. The Mission of the Church and the Socio-economic reality of
the world
As we look around the world today, we see a tremendous gap between
rich and poor, we see that humanity is restless, dissatisfied, in
constant search of a better life and above all of a future that can
assure them security, happiness and peace. This is the reality in
spite of the fact that the world has made great progress in the
fields of technology and science and there is a greater well-being
today than in the past, while the scientific ethos promises a future
that will be ever better.
What then is the real meaning of this thirst we find among so many
people across the globe? What is the meaning of this restless search
of humanity today? What is it that prevents humanity from building
up a new society where all its dreams and longings will find
fulfilment? An analysis of the needs of the human person reveals
that the following underlying currents are present in this search
and struggle:
i) There is a need for personal fulfilment, a need for the
realization of the values of justice, truth, freedom, love,
equality, and peace within human societies
ii) There is a strongly felt need to build a more just world order
and a new humanity
iii) There is a great need for communion with fellow human beings
We as Christians know that Jesus came to redeem the world and
transform humanity it into a new society in which all the above
needs will be fulfilled. He did this not as a mere social worker,
but as a living sign of the Love of God. He died and rose from the
dead to prove that he is such a sign. He established a community,
the Church, to continue to be this sign in the world until the world
is finally transformed by the love of God. He gave us the Eucharist
as a memorial, as a continued manifestation in the world of this
Love. That is why we, Christians celebrate the Eucharist until He
comes again in glory to finally establish God's Kingdom.
B. Mission of the Church and Religious pluralism
One of the most striking phenomena in the world today is the growth
and revival of the other world religions. The have come to centre
stage in an unexpected way: Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism and
Christianity and most forcefully in the 400 million strong
Pentecostal groups. It is clear to all that the Church has to
undergo a change in her attitude towards them, a new approach is
required. If in the past - up to the Second Vatican Council
(1962-65) she considered them in a rather negative way, today she is
called by the Spirit to build up a dialogical relationship with
them. Interreligious dialogue has become part and parcel of her
mission of evangelization in the modern world.
And she has to share with them her own rich experience of God in
Christ rather than taking a negative doctrinal approach to them. The
experience of Christ in the Eucharist who gathers all the peoples of
the world into one family through his love is a very important
factor in her mission in the multireligious context of the world. It
is Jesus in the Eucharist who teaches us the true lessons of
dialogue and communion, lessons that sometimes we are slow to learn.
C. The Mission of the Church and the multicultural world.
Christ came to gather together all the nations of the world into the
Kingdom of God, and the mission of the Church is to continue that
work until the end of history when Christ comes again in glory to
finally bring that about. God has endowed every people with his
gifts. Each people, each nation, has its own way of expressing the
divine gift of life and existence. The Church, following in the
footsteps of her Lord and Master, strives to eliminate from the
world all types of discrimination among peoples and seeks to foster
communion among all as is envisaged in the book of Revelation (Rev.
21, 1-7; 22-27).
The Eucharistic experience enables the Church to see the presence of
God in all the temporal realities. The life of sharing into which
the Eucharist initiates the People of God opens new horizons and
facilitates the building of a human community in which rivalry and
discrimination have no place.
2. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE EUCHARIST AND THE MISSION THE
CHURCH.
Pope John Paul II in his 2004, Mission Sunday Message called
"Eucharist and Mission", insisted that "around Christ in the
Eucharist the Church grows as the people, temple and family of God:
one, holy, Catholic and apostolic. At the same time she understands
better her character of universal sacrament of salvation and visible
reality with a hierarchical structure."
This is clearly evident in the life of the early Christians for whom
the Eucharist was central to their existence as a community. They
met often for this common feast. They gathered in the private houses
of fellow Christians. They listened to the teaching of the Apostles,
prayed together, conversed about their own problems, shared a meal
and commemorated the Lord who was present in their midst in the
breaking of the bread in memory of him.
As a consequence of this Eucharistic sharing their care and concern
for one another developed and grew. They shared their possessions
and became visible as true disciples of Jesus. This fellowship meal
and the life of sharing were the hallmarks of their religious
identity. They understood the symbol instituted by Jesus Christ as a
call to build up a new society based on the dual commandment of
love: love of God and love of neighbour.
The life of sharing was so essential to the Eucharistic community
that for the Apostle Paul, a celebration in which this spirit of
love and sharing were absent was not the Lord's Supper. (1 Cor.11,
20). The Eucharist lost much of its meaning if it did not inspire
and promote compassion, mercy and love. This is expressed
beautifully in the Acts of the Apostles: "There was not a single
needy person among them" (Acts 4, 34).
That is the reason why the early Christians were so acceptable to
many people, especially the poor and the marginalised. Christianity
was a dynamic movement towards the liberation of mankind from
selfishness and exploitation, which are at the root of the unjust
society. All were meant to equal in the believing community and this
was symbolized by the Eucharistic meal. This was not an easy ideal
to be reached. This was a spirituality developed in the midst of the
ordinary everyday life with its daily struggles and, at that time
also, in the midst contestation and persecution. Ordinary men and
women lived this Christian spirituality and began the process of
building a new society, a new human family as envisaged by Jesus
Christ.
The early Church Fathers placed very great stress on this community
building and on the social dimension of the Eucharist. "Do you wish
to honour the Body of Christ? Do not despise him when he is naked.
Do not honour him here in the Church building with silks, only to
neglect him outside, when he is suffering from cold and from
nakedness. For he who said, ‘This is my Body' is the same who said,
‘You saw me, a hungry man, and you did not give me to eat'. Of what
use is it to load the table of Christ? Feed the hungry and then come
and decorate the table. You are making a golden chalice and you do
not give a cup of cold water? The Temple of your afflicted brother's
body is more precious than this Temple (the church). The Body of
Christ becomes for you an altar. It is more holy than the altar of
stone on which you celebrate the holy sacrifice. You are to
contemplate this altar everywhere, in the street and in the open
squares" (St. John Chrysostom).
The Second Vatican Council's constitution on the liturgy ushered in
a change in the life of the worship of the Church. It transformed
the Eucharistic celebration by insisting on three main aspects of
that celebration:
i) Eucharist as an act of the community. The Council's document,
Sacrosanctum Concilium (n.1), explained the motivation for the
changes being made. It said they aimed "to foster whatever can
promote union among all who believe in Christ; to strengthen
whatever can help to call the whole of mankind into the household of
the Church" and it (n.7) reminded that Christ is present, "when the
Church prays and sings, for He promised: "Where two or three are
gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them"
(Matt. 18:20)"
ii) The same Constitution maintained that the faithful participate
actively in the celebration of the Eucharist. It pointed out (n.14)
that "Mother Church earnestly desires that all the faithful should
be led to that fully conscious and active participation in
liturgical celebrations which is demanded by the very nature of the
liturgy. Such participation by the Christian people as "a chosen
race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a redeemed people (1 Pet.
2:9; cf. 2:4-5), is their right and duty by reason of their
baptism." That same text (n.48) reminded people that "the Church,
therefore, earnestly desires that Christ's faithful, when present at
this mystery of faith, should not be there as strangers or silent
spectators; on the contrary, through a good understanding of the
rites and prayers they should take part in the sacred action
conscious of what they are doing, with devotion and full
collaboration."
iii) The Fathers at the Second Vatican Council also taught that the
effect of participating in the Eucharistic celebration is the
building up of a community of love and sharing (GS n. 38). Their
document on the liturgy (n.37) described the Eucharist as "a
memorial of His death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign
of unity, a bond of charity, a paschal banquet in which Christ is
eaten, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory
is given to us".
These changes indicate how the Church's mission is nurtured and
strengthened by the Eucharist. We are celebrating this Eucharist
Congress with the theme, "Eucharist as the gift of God for the life
of the World". As disciples of Jesus, living in a period of the
Church's life when the thrust towards the evangelizing mission is
acquiring prominence again we must make sure that our Eucharistic
life gives us a renewed sense of mission. We are celebrating the
Eucharist in a world that is torn apart by discrimination,
dehumanized by exploitative socio-economic structures, often
dominated by the selfishness of human greed and avarice, which at
times, have unfortunately even been justified by religious
principles.
The Good News that the world needs today is a society based on
brotherhood and sisterhood and lived in sharing. Then the true God,
the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who has made us also His
children in Jesus Christ will appear in our midst. Our Eucharistic
celebration should enable us to work towards that ideal. How shall
we achieve it? How can we celebrate in a way that will help us to
arrive at this goal? These are the reflections that we shall make
together as the disciples of Jesus around the Eucharist, which is
not only a memorial of His saving death and resurrection, it is also
His Living presence among us.
Pope John Paul II expressed this beautifully in his Encyclical
Letter: Dominum Et Vivificantem, "Through the Eucharist the Holy
Spirit accomplishes that "strengthening of the inner man" spoken of
in the Letter to the Ephesians. Through the Eucharist, individuals
and communities, by the action of the Paraclete-Counselor, learn to
discover the divine sense of human life, as spoken of by the
Council: that sense whereby Jesus Christ "fully reveals man to man
himself", suggesting "a certain likeness between the union of the
divine persons, and the union of God's children in truth and
charity". This union is expressed and made real especially through
the Eucharist, in which man shares in the sacrifice of Christ which
this celebration actualizes, and he also learns to "find himself...
through a... gift of himself" through communion with God and with
others, his brothers and sisters."
3. THE EUCHARIST AS THE SOURCE OF THE MISSION.
Christian mission consists in communicating God's love to all
peoples so that all may be united in one community with God our
Father. This is very clearly expressed by Jesus: "I revealed your
name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to
you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word" (John
17, 6). The goal of Jesus' mission is to make all the peoples of the
world share in the life of God. This is being done today through the
Eucharist by which Jesus continues his mission through the ministry
of the Church. Through Baptism people are joined with Christ in his
death and resurrection, through Confirmation they receive his
Spirit, and through the Eucharist they are constantly nourished by
his life as Son of God and by the life of Christian witness. They
share this life with all those who come into contact with them,
until all are filled with the same life of Christ.
This is what we proclaim at every Mass: `we proclaim your death O
Lord, until you come'. The Eucharist is, therefore the source of
Christian life and mission. Let us examine the dynamics by which
this takes place:
a) The Church fulfils her mission by loving others as Christ loved
her. Christ laid down his life for the world. This is symbolized in
the Eucharist: this is my body given for you In the Eucharist the
Church participates in this selfgiving love and is thus enabled to
continue his mission.
b) The Church fulfils her mission with the constant assistance of
the Holy Spirit. In the Eucharist the Church receives the Spirit of
Jesus who died and rose from the dead. The apostolic energy of the
Church comes from this Spirit.
c) In a society that is governed by the principles of consumerist
globalization, and the promotion of a culture of death, the Church
is called to promote the globalization of love and solidarity by
promoting a culture of love and sharing. In the Eucharist, which
proclaims the self-giving of Christ so that all may have the
fullness of life, the dynamics of a new globalization which unites
all human beings and the whole of creation is daily proclaimed. This
is what is meant by the new evangelization which Pope John Paul II
launched at the beginning of the new millennium, with the Eucharist
as its source and centre. I am sure it would be our common desire
that a new missionary spirit that transforms the world emerges from
this Eucharistic Congress.
d) The heart of the Good News is Jesus, dead and risen. In our
evangelization we proclaim Christ; we not only perform the miracles
of Christ, but proclaim the loving kindness of God. In the Eucharist
we recognize this Christ in the breaking of the bread and we
proclaim him as one who is alive and present in our apostolic
activities. Without the Eucharist we cannot truly proclaim him as
living because we do not have an experience of him present
in our midst. The Eucharist is therefore, necessary for the
authenticity and effectiveness of our evangelizing mission.
e) The goal of our mission is full communion between God and human
beings, and between human beings, expressed through a life of love
and sharing. The daily celebration of the Eucharist initiates us
into this communion: we are united with God by receiving the body of
the Son of God; we are united among ourselves by receiving the body
of Christ in the form of the communion that we have shared; we are
united with the whole of creation because the bread that we share in
the Eucharist is the fruit of the earth, that earth which God
created as a sign of his love and which we distorted through our
sinful use of it. By becoming the body of Christ, it is once again
capable of manifesting God's love. By participating in it, we commit
ourselves to restore the Divine goodness to the whole creation.
f) By the death and resurrection of Christ, God made a new covenant
with the whole humanity. Every Eucharistic celebration and
participation renews this covenant. Every participant in the
Eucharist becomes the promoter of this covenant among all peoples by
practicing the terms of this covenant which is nothing other than
the commandment to love. The symbolic liturgical act becomes real
lifecentred commitment. The evangelizing mission of the Church
continues by building up communities that are free from all types of
injustice, discrimination, oppression and exploitation, communities
that are truly humanizing.
g) The Eucharist makes our evangelizing mission in a multi-religious
society very effective. The Christian community that participates in
the Eucharist acquires an unconditional openness to the presence of
God. They can approach people of any religion with a positive
attitude and share with them their own experience of God. Dialogue
becomes the method of communication with people of other religions.
This will result in communion with people of other faiths without in
any way compromising one's own faith convictions. Those who have
experienced Jesus in the Eucharist can share the same love with
which they are loved by Jesus in their relationship with others
irrespective of their faith, just as Charles de Foucault did with
the peoples of the desert in North Africa.
4. THE EUCHARIST BUILDS UP THE COMMUNITY OF MISSION
Pope Paul VI in his exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi (n. 28) connects
the Eucharist with Mission: "For in its totality, evangelization -
over and above the preaching of a message - consists in the
implantation of the Church, which does not exist without the driving
force which is the sacramental life culminating in the Eucharist".
From the very beginning of the Church we see that the Eucharist
builds communities of mission, whether this mission is exercised in
the form of proclaiming the Gospel or as a martyrdom of faith
witnessing, as we have seen, for example, in China and many other
countries in the past century. The connection between the Eucharist
and the communities of mission rests on a basic characteristic of
Christian mission itself. The Christian missionary is first and
foremost a witness of Christ and not a mere pupil that has learnt
the truths about Christ. A witness is one who has experienced what
he communicates. The Eucharist is the source of this witnessing
power. There the Christian meets the living Christ and becomes
capable of proclaiming what he has seen, heard and touched. We shall
see how this actually happens in every Eucharistic celebration,
especially in the parish
a) The community that gathers for the celebration
The Sunday Eucharistic celebration is the gathering of the whole
community. It is an occasion in which the members of the community
can know the Lord more deeply and know one another, meet one another
and become aware of the need for communion and solidarity. It is not
a mere opportunity for fulfilling an obligation of worship. This
means that they have to move beyond their anonymous presence in the
church. One cannot live the Christian life alone, in splendid
isolation from everyone else.
This means that the Sunday worshipper has to come to realize that
the God whom he or she has come to meet is one who has entered into
their lives and shares His love with them so that they may become
visible signs of this love through their love and concern for one
another. The true God, the God of the Christians, is the God who is
present in the midst of His people. Hence to meet Him there is no
other means than to live a life of love and concern for one another.
Benedict XVI in one of his first Pastoral Visits as Pope, to Bari in
May 2005 said in his homily, "The Sunday precept is not an
externally imposed duty, a burden on our shoulders. On the contrary,
taking part in the Celebration, being nourished by the Eucharistic
Bread and experiencing the communion of their brothers and sisters
in Christ is a need for Christians, it is a joy; Christians can thus
replenish the energy they need to continue on the journey we must
make every week".
b) The community that listens to the Word
This community of love is strengthened in their faith in such a way
that they become capable of proclaiming it with their lives. The
liturgy of the Word does not only instruct people in the truths of
faith, it deepens their faith in such a way that they become capable
of translating it into love. Their faith is placed in the context of
community where they have to become witnesses to this faith; they
have to be transformed in such a way that they can be leaven in the
midst of the society in which they live.
The Lineamenta for next October's Synod of Bishops on the Word of
God tells us that "The Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi of
Pope Paul VI still has a timely character in teaching the art of
proclamation. Likewise, the Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Est of
the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, emphasizes the close connection
of charity with the proclamation of the Word of God. Logically
speaking, after having received the Word of God which is love,
proclaiming the Word would be impossible without putting love into
practise through acts of justice and charity.
These are only a few tasks and goals of particular importance in
treating the evangelizing mission of the Word of God."(n. 25)
c) The community that brings the bread and wine.
The bread and wine that they bring to the altar is the symbol of
their daily life of interaction with one another. They are not mere
ritual elements. They represent the community with its life of
relationships. In the early Church these were taken from the table
of sharing and thus expressed their relationship among themselves.
Today, I believe it is again necessary to emphasize the social and
communitarian dimension of the bread and wine that is brought to the
altar. This can be done in the following manner. In the first place
it is ideal that the faithful bring these gifts to the altar as a
symbol of their own lives. Moreover, together with the bread and
wine, it would be good if they bring other gifts which express the
concern for the community. The offertory collection could be given a
greater community building significance. The community gathered
together as the body of Christ should realize that there are members
among them who do not experience God's love because there are not
enough people who translate this love into human love and sharing.
By bringing the bread and wine we proclaim our own readiness to
contribute our share to build up the body of Christ, the community
of brothers and sisters in Christ in our parish.
d) The community is transformed into a self-giving community at the
consecration.
The centre of the Eucharistic celebration is the transformation of
the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. The bread and
wine, which the community brought, is now made into the self-giving
body of Jesus. This self-giving first took place on Calvary; now
this self-giving has to take place in the community which is the
body of Christ in today's World. By proclaiming the self-giving of
Christ in the bread and wine brought by the community, the
community allows itself to be consecrated and to become the visible
signs of the self-giving of Christ in the world of today.
So we may say that through the consecration, the new society built
on self-giving and sharing is coming into existence in our world.
Hence, consecration is not only a moment to adore Jesus who becomes
present on the altar, it is especially a moment in which the
community of the Christians, the visible body of Jesus today,
becomes a self-giving community. The community joins with Christ in
his selfgiving by which the world will be transformed and a new
society will come into existence.
e) The birth of a new community of the Spirit.
At the beginning of creation the Spirit of God hovered over the
primordial waters and the whole universe came into existence by the
power of this same Spirit. At the new creation, inaugurated by the
resurrection of Christ, the Spirit of Christ is poured over
humankind in order to enable it to give birth to a new world. The
agent of this new creation is the Church, the Spirit-filled
community. At Holy Communion, Jesus, the Incarnate Word who died and
rose from the dead and who is filled with the Spirit of God, enters
into our hearts, fills us with his Spirit in order to make us become
collaborators with him in building up a new society founded on love
and sharing.
f) The community that is sent in mission.
The end of the Mass is not the conclusion of an act of worship. It
is the beginning of the mission of the Church. I am here reminded of
the words of John Paul II, "Certainly ‘no Christian community can be
built up unless it has its basis and centre in the celebration of
the most Holy Eucharist' (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, n. 33; cfr
Presbyterorum Ordinis n. 6). At the end of every Mass, when the
celebrant takes leave of the assembly ith the words "Ite, Missa est",
all should feel they are sent as "missionaries of the Eucharist" to
carry to every environment the great gift received. [Message of His
Holiness, John Paul II, for World Mission Sunday 2004, "Eucharist
and Mission" of a Eucharistic life.] We are sent out into the world
to make the symbols of the Eucharistic worship become realities
We go out into the world after the Eucharist challenged by the word
of God, prophetically charged by the Spirit of the risen Lord and
committed to work for the transformation of the world. This is the
meaning of the phrase: We proclaim your death O Lord, until you
come. That is, we are going out to continue the work of Christ to
bring about the Kingdom of God where Divine love will be translated
into human love, where Divine life will be manifested in communion,
where creation will be transformed into a new earth and new heaven
in which all the peoples of the world will live as brothers and
sisters. The Eucharist empowers us to do this. This is the ultimate
goal of all our Eucharistic celebrations.
g) Eucharist and the evangelizing mission of the parish community
The parish is a leaven that transforms the whole of society in a
given area. There will be people of other religions and ideologies
living there. All of them must be able to experience the Gospel
through the Christian community. The Eucharist has the role to
leaven the Christian community. We do not bring the people of other
religions into our Eucharistic celebration; but we participate in
the Eucharist in such a way that we are imbued with the self-giving
love of Christ, which is the core of the Gospel and we carry this
love to all our brothers and sisters. They will thus experience the
Good news of Jesus Christ through us, and in their turn, they will
contribute towards the transformation of society.
Our Eucharistic experience will, thus have a missionary dimension.
The people of other faiths and ideologies should see us as a
community that is capable of living in love and sharing, as it was
the case with the early Christians. The Eucharist plays an important
role in this in as much as it imbues us with the selfgiving Spirit
of Christ and makes us become Spiritfilled and Spirit-led
communities.
h) The Eucharist and the creation of a new society The selfish
interests of individuals is achieved at the cost of the common good.
The spirit of competition, which is the norm of progress and growth,
exalts the powerful and mighty; it fosters the growth in the number
of the poor and the oppressed classes. It affirms the individuals
and destroys the community. It presents consumerism as a value and
creates poverty as the permanent lot of many men and women of today.
It is necessary to bring in the value of selfgiving and sharing as
the guiding norm for building up the society. The participation in
the Eucharist should empower us to become agents that build up a
society based on self-giving, not on selfishness. Where there is
sharing, there no one will be in need, where there is greed and
selfishness there everyone will be always in need because nothing
can satisfy selfish people.
CONCLUSION
The Eucharist has a power that can challenge any situation that is
opposed to the Kingdom of God. Jesus faced death and inaugurated the
new Kingdom of God through his resurrection. The early Christian
community found their genuine identity and their strength to bear
witness to the Gospel in their Eucharistic gathering. They were able
to face the challenges of the most powerful empire that opposed the
Christian message.
Let us try in this Eucharistic Congress to discover the power of the
Eucharist as a force for transformation not only of our own lives
but also of the whole of society; and to bring out its potentiality
to make our Christian life credible and our Christian witness
powerfully convincing. Let us resolve to make the Eucharist the
building power of our parishes and of our small Christian
communities. If this is systematically done both by the pastors
through their animation and by the faithful through their active
involvement in the Sunday celebrations, our Christian communities
will give rise to a new society in their parish territory. The new
society which we need is not a mere industrially or technologically
advanced social set-up, rather it is a society in which acceptance
of one another, love for one another and mutual sharing will become
the law and style of life. Only Christians who experience week after
week the unconditional self-giving love of Christ in the Eucharistic
celebration can do this.
May our parishes, transformed by the Eucharist, become leaven in the
midst of the world, heralding a new society, free from oppression
corruption, discrimination, exploitation and poverty and may they be
filled with the fruits of mutual love, mutual acceptance and mutual
sharing. Before I conclude, let me return to the story of the
Tribals in India. Over the years, a paradigm shift has taken place
in the thinking of our people, so that their strong faith in Jesus
Christ continues to liberate, transform, and empower them, as they
live and interact in daily life with people of other religions,
cultures, and ethnic groups, in an India buffeted by forces of
globalization, consumerism, communalism, war and terrorism. I want
to repeat what I said at the First Asian Mission Congress in 2007
(?) during the sharing on the Story of Jesus of the tribal people,
"Here were people that were "no people". They were mercilessly
trampled under foot. Their will to live was crushed to powder and
dust. But once they accepted Jesus, they rose again with him in
baptism. ...Again and again I have heard Catholic
aboriginal/indigenous Eucharistic Crusade children saying: "ham
krusvir kissi se kam nahin - We Eucharistic Children are not
inferior to anyone!"
Indeed, today they are a force to reckon with. Indeed the sacraments
of the Church, especially the Holy Eucharist, the word of God, and
the experience of fellowship in the parishes, small communities, and
spiritual movements of the Church, enable me as a Bishop, and the
priests, religious and the laity that I know, to fulfill the
insightful words of the International Theological Commission: "What
gives Christians their identity and makes them different from other
people is their remembrance and expectation of Jesus Christ. The
memories and hopes of the pilgrim people of God in time and space
give them their own unique identity and special character,
protecting them always and everywhere from the dangers of
dissolution and loss of identity. Through its shared memory and
expectation of Jesus Christ, the people of God knows by faith,
truths and realities that other peoples neither know, nor can ever
know about the meaning of existence and human history."
Truly Christ transformed the Passover meal into the centre of the
Christian life, into the experience of the presence of the risen
Christ in the midst of His People. The Eucharist is not a mere
remembrance of a past event; rather, it is our participation in the
ongoing life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the
affirmation of our hope that He shall come again in glory. Let us
strive to witness this reality is our mission in today's world.
Thank you.
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