CEBU Archbishop Jose Palma likened the 51st International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) to the encounter of the early disciples with the Risen Christ.
“We, the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, gathered to celebrate the 51st International Eucharistic Congress in Cebu City, Philippines, now relive the beautiful experience of the two disciples of Emmaus,” Palma said in his congress statement issued on Saturday.
Palma, who is also the president of the 51st IEC, said that it is the Holy Spirit who sent the people to participate in the event.
“This congress is like the gathering of the early disciples when they joyfully shared stories of how each of them encountered the Risen Lord in the Scripture and in the Breaking of the Bread,” Palma said. Sections of the statement on the “Bread of Life,” “Bread of the Poor,” “Bread of Dialogue” and “Bread of Mission” were read in French, Spanish, English and Chinese.
“The Eucharist commits us to the poor. To love and come to their help. We are challenged to reach out to the poor and help uplift them materially and spiritually as a concrete way of living out the Eucharist,” Palma said.
He added, “The Eucharist compels us to act and give them something to eat. The example of Jesus, particularly the meal stories, teaches us what every Eucharist should be, breaking bread with the poor and marginalized.” Palma said the presence of “our brothers and sisters who have less in life” is a constant reminder that the poor is the privileged place of encounter with Jesus outside the Eucharist.
He reiterated that the Eucharist, which is the sacrament of the Bread of Life, fills the spirit of the people and strengthens their resolve as they take the tortuous path of dialogue with religions, cultures, youth and the poor. “We are empowered by the Holy Spirit for mutual understanding, openness and conversion of hearts and minds. The Eucharist—the Real Presence of Jesus—sustains our hearts and nourishes our souls as we journey toward the convocation where God gathers us all in inclusive communion, banishing distinctions that alienate and celebrating the gift each one brings.”
Energized and renewed by the Eucharist, Christ’s missionary disciples, he said, are sent into the world to “be broken bread for a broken world.”
“They move from Eucharistic celebration to Eucharistic commitment. The Eucharist is not just a gift but also a task and mission that can change the world. Indeed, the Eucharist enables us to effectively respond to the cry of the poor, the cry of the earth, and the cry of Jesus Christ,” he said, adding that missionary dynamism springs from an encounter with Jesus through deep prayer because the lungs of evangelization is prayer.
“We are a people on a mission; truly, IEC 2016 is a clarion call to mission for all of us. Our Eucharist is the source and goal of the Church’s mission. May the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of the Incarnate Word and the Eucharistic Lord, accompany us, missionary disciples, in order to share Jesus Christ in us, our hope of glory,” he said.
Living the Eucharist means loving the poor
Meanwhile, for Orlando Cardinal Quevedo, living the Eucharist is simple: practice what you preach, and have genuine love for the poor and oppressed.
“Our sharing in the Eucharist the Body and Blood of Christ is also a sharing in his mission,” said the prelate on Wednesday. “[I]n the Eucharist, we are sent by the spirit of Jesus on mission—a mission to the poor, the oppressed and marginalized—to all who are needy and in need of love and service.”
“To be Eucharistic is to live the life of Jesus, a life of love and service. It is by living Eucharistically that we act Eucharistically…. We see a host of burning issues that need Eucharistic action. We cannot be indifferent to them.”
Where are the men?
In the Philippines, noted the prelate, the men seem to be missing in Sunday Masses. And even if the churches are full every week, only a fifth of parishioners are able to attend. Thousands receive Holy Communion, even if only a handful go to confession.
So, even if on Sundays “we seem to be a nation of saints,” social ills remain. “There is massive poverty, homelessness, street children, human trafficking, the drug problem and other forms of criminality. And media reports speak of horrendous corruption from top to bottom,” Quevedo told 51st IEC delegates at the Waterfront Hotel.
“Our faith is focused on externals and rituals, processions and private devotions. Deep down, they manifest the Filipinos’ authentic awareness of God’s presence in everything that is blessed or holy,” the archbishop of Cotabato added.
“But the question remains: What does the Holy Eucharist really mean? How should we participate? What does it tell us about how we should live?”
‘A being for others’
Quevedo, 76, recalled how, as a young theology student in the 1960s, he learned a classic Latin theological formula, “Eucharistia facit Ecclesiam, Ecclesia facit Eucharistitam,” which means “The Eucharist makes the Church; the Church makes the Eucharist.”
According to him, the Eucharist makes the Church because the Church was borne out of the Paschal Mystery—the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ. The Church makes the Eucharist, he explained, because in the Mass, the New Sacrifice, the Church commemorates Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for the salvation of men. But it can also mean more, Quevedo said, because the Church is “living and operating in our space and time.”
He reminded IEC delegates that the Eucharist is communion, the deepest kind of union, and communion with Jesus is “with His very being, a being for others.”
Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco and CBCP News
Image credits: Maria Tan