ADDRESSES, DISCOURSES, MESSAGES

HOMILY AT THE CONCLUDING MASS, 6/22/08,
OF THE 49TH INTERNATIONAL EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS
(By satellite feed to Quebec)





The homily was delivered in French and English, beginning in French, translated here:



Lord Cardinals,
Excellencies,
Dear brothers and sisters,

As you are assembled for the 49th International Eucharistic Congress, I am happy to join you through television and thereby associate myself with your prayers.

First of all, I wish to greet Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Archbishop of Quebec; and Cardinal Josef Tomko, my special envoy for the Congress, along with all the cardinals and bishops present.

I also address my heartfelt greetings to the personages from civilian society who have chosen to take part int today's liturgy. And my affectionate thoughts go out to the priests, deacons and all the lay faithful present, along with all the Catholics of Quebec, of all Canada and all the continents.

I do not forget that your country celebrates this year the 400th anniversary of its foundation. It is an occasion for everyone to remember the values that inspired the pioneers and missionaries of your country.

"The Eucharist, gift of God for the life of the world" is the theme that was chosen for this Eucharistic Congress. The Eucharist is our most beautiful treasure. It is the sacrament par excellence; it introduces us early to eternal life; it contains all the mystery of our well-being; it is the source and the summit of the Church's activity and life, as we are reminded by the Second Vatican Council (Sacrosanctum Concilium, No. 8).

It is therefore particularly important that pastors and faithful alike should continually seek to examine this great sacrament in depth. That way, each one can affirm his faith and comply with his mission better in the Church and in the world, knowing that the fecundity of the Eucharist is in his personal life as it is in the Church and the world.

The spirit of Truth bears witness in your souls; bear witness in your turn to Christ before other men, as the Alleluia antiphon of today's Mass says.

Participation in the Eucharist does not keep us apart from our contemporaries - on the contrary, because it is the supreme expression of God's love, it calls us to commit ourselves with all our brothers to face current challenges and to make the planet a place where it is good to live.

To do this, we must fight ceaselessly so that every person may be respected from his conception to his natural death, that our rich societies may welcome the poorest and give them back their dignity, that every person may be able to feed and make a living for his family, that peace and justice may spread throughout all the continents.

These are the challenges which should mobilize all our contemporaries and for which Christians should draw their strength from the Eucharistic mystery.

He said the following in English:

"The Mystery of Faith": this we proclaim at every Mass. I would like everyone to make a commitment to study this great mystery, especially by revisiting and exploring, individually and in groups, the Council’s text on the Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, so as to bear witness courageously to the mystery.

In this way, each person will arrive at a better grasp of the meaning of every aspect of the Eucharist, understanding its depth and living it with greater intensity. Every sentence, every gesture has its own meaning and conceals a mystery.

I sincerely hope that this Congress will serve as an appeal to all the faithful to make a similar commitment to a renewal of Eucharistic catechesis, so that they themselves will gain a genuine Eucharistic awareness and will in turn teach children and young people to recognize the central mystery of faith and build their lives around it.

I urge priests especially to give due honour to the Eucharistic rite, and I ask all the faithful to respect the role of each individual, both priest and lay, in the Eucharistic action. The liturgy does not belong to us: it is the Church’s treasure.

Reception of the Eucharist, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament – by this we mean deepening our communion, preparing for it and prolonging it – is also about allowing ourselves to enter into communion with Christ, and through him with the whole of the Trinity, so as to become what we receive and to live in communion with the Church.

It is by receiving the Body of Christ that we receive the strength "of unity with God and with one another" (Saint Cyril of Alexandria, In Ioannis Evangelium, 11:11; cf. Saint Augustine, Sermo 577).

We must never forget that the Church is built around Christ and that, as Saint Augustine, Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Albert the Great have all said, following Saint Paul (cf. 1 Cor 10:17), the Eucharist is the sacrament of the Church’s unity, because we all form one single body of which the Lord is the head.

We must go back again and again to the Last Supper on Holy Thursday, where we were given a pledge of the mystery of our redemption on the Cross. The Last Supper is the locus of the nascent Church, the womb containing the Church of every age.

In the Eucharist, Christ’s sacrifice is constantly renewed, Pentecost is constantly renewed. May all of you become ever more deeply aware of the importance of the Sunday Eucharist, because Sunday, the first day of the week, is the day when we honour Christ, the day when we receive the strength to live each day the gift of God.

He resumed in French:

I would like to invite all the pastors and the faithful to a renewed attention to their preparation to receive the Eucharist. Despite our weakness and our sins, Christ wishes to make his dwelling in us when we ask him for healing.

That is why we must do all we can to receive him with a pure heart, by regaining, through the sacrament of penance, the purity which sin has soiled, "with our minds attuned to our voices", according to the invitation of the Council (cf. Sacrosanctum Concilium, No. 11).

Indeed, sin - especially mortal sin - opposes the grace of Eucharistic action in us. On the other hand, those who cannot have communion because of their individual situation will perhaps find strength and redemptive effect through a communion of desire and participation in the Eucharistic celebration.

The Eucharist has a very special place in the lives of saints. Let us thank God for the history of saintliness in Quebec and Canada which has contributed to the missionary life of the Church.

Your country honors in particular its martyrs Jean de Brébeuf, Isaac Jogues and their companions, who gave their lives for Christ, thus associating themselves with his sacrifice on the Cross.

They belong to the generation of men and women who founded and developed the Church in Canada - with Marguerite Bourgeoys, Marguerite d'Youville, Marie de l'Incarnation, Marie-Catherine de Saint-Augustin, Mgr François de Laval who founded the first diocese in North America, Dina Bélanger and Kateri Tekakwitha.

Place yourselves in their school. Like them, have no fear - God accompanies and protects you. Make every day an offering to the glory of God the Father, and take part in building the world, remembering with pride your religious heritage and its social and cultural influence, and taking care to spread around you the moral and spiritual values that come to us from the Lord.

The Eucharist is not a meal among friends. It is the mystery of alliance. "The prayers and rites of the Eucharistic sacrifice continually relive before the eyes of our soul, in the course of the liturgical cycle, the entire history of salvation, and allows its significance to penetrate us more and more" (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross [Edith Stein], Wege zur inneren Stille [The way of inner peace], Aschaffenburg, 1987, p. 67).

We are called to enter this mystery of alliance in conforming our life more each day to the gift we receive in the Eucharist. It has a sacred character, as Vatican-II reminds us: "Every liturgical celebration, because it is an action of Christ the priest and of His Body which is the Church, is a sacred action surpassing all others; no other action of the Church can equal its efficacy by the same title and to the same degree" (Sacrosanctum Concilium, n. 7).

In a way, it is a 'celestial liturgy', an anticipation of the banquet in the eternal Kingdom, proclaiming the death and resurrection of Christ, until he comes again (cf. 1 Cor 11,26).

So that the People of God may never lack for ministers to give them the Body of Christ, we should ask the Lord to make a gift of new priests to his Church. I invite you also to transmit this call to priesthood to young boys, so that they may be prepared to respond to Christ with joy and without fear. They will not be disappointed. May the families be the primary place and cradle of priestly vocations.

Before concluding, it is with joy that I announce the meeting place for the next International Eucharistic Congress. It will be in Dublin, Ireland, in 2012.

I ask the Lord to make each of you discover the profundity and greatness of the mystery of the faith. May Christ, who is present in the Eucharist, and the Holy Spirit, whom we invoke on the bread and wine, accompany your daily routine and your mission. Following the example of the Virgin Mary, may you be available for God to work in you.

Entrusting you to the intercession of Our Lady, of St. Anne, Patroness of Quebec, and all the saints of your land, I impart to all an affectionate Apostolic Blessing, and to all who are present from different parts of the world.

He concluded in English:

Dear friends, as this significant event in the life of the Church draws to a conclusion I invite you all to join me in praying for the success of the next International Eucharistic Congress, which will take place in 2012 in the city of Dublin!

I take this opportunity to greet warmly the people of Ireland, as they prepare to host this ecclesial gathering. I am confident that they, together with all the participants at the next Congress, will find it a source of lasting spiritual renewal.