The Eucharist - Centre of Your Life and Work

Homily given in the Faculty of Theology of Taipei, 4 December 2011
2nd Sunday of Advent, Year B

Today's Gospel (Mk 1, 1-8) - recalling the prophecy of Isaiah that we heard in the First Reading (Is 40, 1-5.9-11) - presents John the Baptist as the messenger who prepares the way for Jesus, prepares people to accept Jesus who, having come to save the world, was beginning his public ministry.

We have already accepted Jesus. It is to us, therefore, that the Second Reading explicitly refers (2 Pt 3, 8-14), in which Saint Peter exhorts us to be prepared for the Second Coming of the Lord, which will take place at the end of time, by living now "in holiness and devotion", seeking "to be without spot or blemish before [God] ". In other words, we must now, during our earthly lives, seek to accept Jesus ever more profoundly, to be able to be united joyfully with Him for all eternity. In fact, our acceptance of Jesus is perhaps too superficial, especially if we compare it with the acceptance demonstrated by the saints.

With this teaching of today's Readings in mind, I am happy to meet you for this Eucharistic celebration. Indeed, the Eucharist is the most important occasion and means of assistance for wholeheartedly accepting Jesus and for preparing ourselves to meet him after our death.

"The Centre of the Your Whole Life"

a. Truly, in celebrating the Eucharist in your midst, I feel that I am in the very heart of your Centre of ecclesiastical studies. The Code of Canon Law, speaking, for example, of the seminary, prescribes: "The Eucharistic celebration is to be the centre of the entire life of a seminary" (can. 246 §1). Speaking of the parish, the same Code establishes that the Eucharist is to be the centre of the parish assembly of the faithful (can. 528 § 2). When it speaks of Religious houses, it demands that the Eucharistic celebration be truly the centre of the community (can. 608).

b. Then, widening our view, I should like to note that the Church in practice combines everything with the Eucharist: all celebrations, commemorations, anniversaries, feasts, and not only feasts of the Lord, but also the feasts of Our Lady and the Saints. Even the other Sacraments are administered during the Sacrament of the Eucharist: confirmation, marriage, priesthood, and, increasingly more, also baptism and the anointing of the sick.

For no other Sacrament, only for the Eucharist, does the Church periodically organise national and international Congresses. Only for the Eucharist has the Church instituted a special solemnity (that of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ); only for the Eucharist does she organise processions, adoration, etc.

What is more, the Church wants the Eucharist to be at the centre of our lives.

c. Why does the Eucharist have such a special place? Why is it involved in everything? Why is it important, too, for your Centre of theological studies, for all of you who are preparing for the priesthood or for other forms of the apostolate?

The reason is very simple. "The Eucharist", as the Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us, "is the source and summit (fons et culmen) of the whole Christian life. The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented towards it" (n. 1324).

Truly, the Eucharist is the source and, at the same time, the summit, culmination ("fons et culmen") of all our worship, of the entire Christian life, of the whole apostolate.

Two Aspects of the Eucharist

To understand better how the Eucharist is the source and summit of the whole Christian life and of the whole apostolate, we must take into particular consideration two aspects of the Eucharist.

a. In the Eucharist Christ is really present. The Eucharist, in fact, is not "memory" in the sense of a recollection of a past event; but when we celebrate the Eucharist, the two thousand years that separate us from the passion and death of Jesus on the Cross are cancelled. This passion and death on the Cross become really present and effectively operative among us. Christ becomes really present, with all the power of His redemptive love. In celebrating the Eucharist, we place ourselves, in a certain way, under the Cross of Jesus - really present and operative - to draw from this Cross the fruits of redemption: light, strength, forgiveness, grace and salvation.
In this way, the Eucharist becomes our nourishment; it really becomes the bread of our spiritual lives. Jesus expressly said: "My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink" (Jn 6: 55).
Therefore, we celebrate the Eucharist on the altar which is in the form of a table, to which we come to be nourished.

b. However, this is only one aspect of the Eucharist: there is also another one, a very important one, that we often forget and certainly we speak too little of it. So, I should like to underline it clearly: as the Eucharist is nourishment for our daily Christian lives, so - on the other hand - all our Christian lives must be a preparation for participating fully in the Eucharist and be oriented towards the Eucharist. How?

Jesus, who died for us on the Cross and who becomes present in His redemptive love during the celebration of the Eucharist, invites us to participate in His Cross. He exhorts each one of us to take up his or her own cross. He clearly said this: "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me" (Mt 16: 24; Mk 8: 34; Lk 9: 23). "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple" (Lk 14: 27); what is more, as we read in the Gospel of Saint Matthew: "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me is not worthy of me" (Mt 10: 38). How can we not hear these words of Jesus when we celebrate the Eucharist? When He is present among us with His redemptive Cross?

Obviously, I am not talking here of unreasonable self-mortification or penances. Rather, what I mean is that we must be ready for whatever sacrifices, whatever labours, whatever effort is needed to carry out the will of God, to conquer sin and to live as persons redeemed with the love of Christ.
When you do not want to pray, then is the time to take up your cross. When you find it difficult to forgive, then is the time to take up your cross. When a temptation is tormenting you, then is the time to take up your cross. When your duties seem to you to be too difficult, then is the time to take up your cross. When you must take a clear position, as a Christian, in an uncomfortable situation, then is the time to take up your cross. When you must renounce something because of your faith, then is the time to take up your cross. When there is a duty of the apostolate to be done, then is the time to take up your cross. Each day we have so many opportunities for freely taking up our cross, for the love of Christ.

And when we freely take up our cross, to unite it to the Cross of Christ in the Eucharist, then we accomplish a great thing: we complete in our flesh - to use the words of Saint Paul (Col 1: 24) - what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for our salvation (in fact, so that the Cross of Christ can save us, there has to be the contribution of our cross). When we freely take up our cross, to unite it to the Cross of Christ in the Eucharist, then to the wine of the Cross of Jesus we add a drop of the water of our cross (as the priest does symbolically during Holy Mass). Then, to the immense love of Christ crucified we unite our love.

c. This is full participation in the Eucharist: when, on the one hand, we draw grace, forgiveness and nourishment for our Christian lives from the Cross of Christ, present among us; and, on the other hand, we take up our cross, as the expression of our love, to unite it to the Cross of Christ.
It is then that the Eucharist truly becomes the centre of our Christian lives, and becomes the source and summit (on the one hand, source: on the other, summit) of all our worship and of all our Christian living, of all our apostolate.

It is then that the celebration of the Eucharist cannot be without fruit.

Mary and the Eucharist

Since Mary Immaculate is an important figure for Advent, I should like to note, in the context of what I have said, that Mary is presented as she who, in the best way possible, participated in the Cross of Jesus, and that therefore she is a symbol, the example of our participation in the Eucharist.

On the one hand, she was enriched, in a unique way, by the fruits of the redemptive Cross of Jesus: in fact, in view of the Passion and salvific death of Jesus on the Cross, she was born without original sin, she was born immaculate, right from the beginning full of grace and, as such, she remained her whole life long.

On the other hand, Mary participated intensely in the sufferings of Jesus, and not only when, full of sorrow, she stood at the foot of the Cross, to the extent that she is sometimes even called Co-Redemptrix.

Thus, no Mass is ever celebrated in which Mary is not mentioned.

Conclusion

In this meaningful Eucharistic celebration, my hope - and my prayer to the Lord - is that the Eucharist may become ever more the "source and summit" of all your education in this Centre of studies and, afterwards, of your apostolate.

In fact, the measure of your understanding and living this Great Sacrament will greatly condition not only the quality of your acceptance of Jesus, but also your authentic Christian joy and the effectiveness of your service in the Church and in the world.