0
0
Pope Francis greets the national eucharistic congress
in the united states of America
Monday, 19 June 2023
“Promote vocations to the priesthood”
Dear brothers and sisters,
I am pleased to extend a warm welcome to all of you who are members of the committee preparing the upcoming National Eucharistic Congress in the United States of America. I thank you for the work you have already undertaken and I encourage you to continue your efforts to contribute to a revival of faith in, and love for, the Holy Eucharist, the “source and summit of the Christian life” (Lumen Gentium, 11).
We are all familiar with the account of the multiplication of the loaves recorded in the Gospel of John. The people who witnessed this miracle returned to the Lord the next day, hoping that he would perform another sign. But Christ wanted to change their hunger for material bread into a hunger for the bread of eternal life (Jn 6:26-27 – Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not seek the food that perishes, but the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you; for on Him has God the Father set His Seal.”).
This is why Jesus spoke of himself as the living bread that came down from heaven, the true bread that gives life to the world (cf. Jn 6:51 – I am the living bread that came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh). I thought a lot about this while I was celebrating Mass this morning because it is this bread that gives us life.
In fact, 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 feed us, to console us, to sustain us on our journey.
Sadly today, there are those among the Catholic faithful who believe that the Eucharist is more a symbol than the reality of the Lord’s presence and love.
It is more than a symbol; it is the real and loving presence of the Lord.
It is my hope, then, that the Eucharistic Congress will inspire Catholics throughout the country to rediscover 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.
I believe that we have lost the sense of adoration in our time.
We need to rediscover the meaning of adoration in silence.
It is a form of prayer that we have lost. Too few people know what it is.
It is up to the bishops to catechize the faithful about prayer through adoration.
The Eucharist demands it of us.
In this regard, I cannot fail to mention the need to promote vocations to the priesthood, because as Saint John Paul II said, “There can be no Eucharist without the priesthood”.
We need priests to celebrate the Holy Eucharist.
I also trust that the Congress to be an occasion for the faithful to commit themselves with ever greater zeal to be missionary disciples of the Lord Jesus in the world.
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 of the joy and transforming beauty of the Gospel only when we realize that the love we celebrate in this sacrament cannot be kept to ourselves but demands to be shared with all.
This is the meaning of a missionary spirit.
You go to the celebration of Mass, you receive communion, you adore the Lord and then what do you do? You go out and evangelize. This is what Jesus asks this of us.
The Eucharist, then, 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 who may have gone astray in life.
Two groups of people come to mind whom we must always seek out: the elderly, who are the wisdom of a people, and the sick, who are the image of the suffering Jesus.
Dear friends, the National Eucharistic Congress is an important moment in the life of the Church in the United States.
May all that you do be an occasion of grace for each one of you and may it bear fruit in leading men and women throughout your nation to the Lord who, by his presence among us, rekindles hope and renews life.
Entrusting you to the maternal intercession of Mary Immaculate, Patroness of your country, I assure you of my prayers for you, your families and your local Churches.
I impart my blessing to all of you and ask you to remember to pray for me. Thank you.
