Pope Benedict XVI Blog

Bishops at General Synod in Rome: Eucharist is the antidote for "culture of death"

Eucharist is antidote for culture of death, say bishops

Vatican City, Oct. 06, 2005 (CNA) - As the 11th General Synod of bishops continued their fourth day of meetings yesterday in Rome, the idea of the Eucharist, as an antidote to what John Paul II coined as the "culture of death", figured prominently in the remarks of many prelates.

Archbishop Juan Francisco Sarasti Jaramillo C.I.M., of Cali Colombia, said in his address that, "The Eucharist is the response to the negative signs of modern culture. In the first instance, in the face of a culture or anti-culture of death that traffics in arms, builds systems of wide-scale destruction, legalizes abortion and authorizes research on human embryos, Jesus defines and gives Himself to us as 'Bread of Life.'"

"In the second instance," the Archbishop continued, "our culture is marked by hatred and terrorism. ... The Eucharist offers the permanent possibility of reconciliation with God and our brethren, an invitation to find reconciliation among ourselves before worshipping the Lord."

He added that, "Another modern trait is that of scientific positivism or relativism, yet the Eucharist reaffirms the reality of the 'mystery' and the value of belief and love as a way to knowledge; with Eucharistic faith, upheld by ecclesial tradition and based on the words of the Lord, we have access to real, though imperfect, certainties. Finally, in the face of the solitude and desperation that undermine mankind today, the Eucharist offers us ... profound companionship and a promise of eternal life that fills us with definitive hope."

Likewise, Archbishop Stanislaw Rylko, who is President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, said that "Increasing secularization, as well as the spread of religious indifference and of a 'strange forgetfulness of God' - as the Holy Father Benedict XVI calls it - provoke among many baptized of our time a worrying deterioration, if not even loss, of their own Christian identity.

He stressed that, it is in the Eucharistic celebration where lay Catholics realize the fullness of their Christian roles.

"It is in the Eucharist", he said, "that lay Christians fully realize their participation in the triple mission entrusted to them by Christ: priestly, prophetic and royal. ... As the Holy Father recalled in Cologne, the real revolution that changes the world starts with the Eucharist. ... In this way the Eucharist becomes not only the heartbeat of the Church, but also of the world. For this reason true lay spirituality can only be Eucharistic spirituality."

more...

posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 7:28 PM