Pope: communion, service and
mercy foster “Eucharistic culture”
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| Pope Francis meeting participants in the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses. (Vatican Media) |
Pope Francis on November 10 met participants in the plenary
assembly of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses.
By Robin Gomes
Pope Francis is encouraging attitudes of communion, service
and mercy in Christian communities in order to create a “Eucharistic culture”
through prayer and action grounded in the Eucharist.
In an audience to participants in the plenary assembly of
the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses on
Saturday in the Vatican, he said this will help the Church to meet the
challenges of a secularized and globalized world.
National delegates of bishops’ conferences from around the
world participated in the plenary assembly, in preparation for the next International
Eucharistic Congress in 2020 in the Hungarian capital, Budapest.
Eucharistic culture
Celebrating a Eucharistic Congress in the modern and
multicultural city, where the Gospel and the forms of religious affiliation
have been marginalized, the Pope said, means cooperating with God’s grace in
order to spread, through prayer and activity, a “Eucharistic culture”
This culture, he pointed out, is grounded in hearing the
Word of God and in breaking the bread in the Eucharistic celebration. For this
to happen, the Holy Father recommended the attitudes of communion, service and
mercy.
Communion
He explained that communion is established with the Lord and
among the faithful at Mass where they are nourished by His body and blood.
The Pope also underscored the importance of Eucharistic
adoration outside the Mass, which is an important feature of Eucharistic
Congresses.
Service
The Pope explained that the attitude of service impels the
Eucharistic community to be present in places of frailty, under the shadow of
the cross, in order to share and to bring healing.
He said that through spiritual and corporal works, the balm
of mercy can be poured in numerous places and situations, such as families in
difficulty, young people and adults without work, the sick and the elderly who
are abandoned, migrants experiencing hardship and acts of violence, and many
other forms of poverty.
In these places of wounded humanity, the Pope said,
Christians celebrate the memorial of the Cross and make living and present the
Gospel of Jesus the Servant, by spreading the seeds of a Eucharistic culture by
becoming servants of the poor.
Mercy
The Pope said we complain about the “corrosive river misery”
flowing through our society, such as of oppression, arrogance, cruelty, hatred,
forms of rejection and lack of concern for the environment. But, he said,
this swollen river is powerless against the “ocean of mercy” that inundates our
world. The Eucharist, he said, is the wellspring of this ocean of mercy that
helps form the image and structure of the People of God suited to our modern
age.
The Holy Father wished that the Budapest Eucharistic Congress
be able to foster processes of renewal in Christian communities, so that the
salvation whose source is in the Eucharist will find expression in a
Eucharistic culture capable of inspiring men and women of good
will in the fields of charity, solidarity, peace, family life and care for
creation.
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