The encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist leads the church and every Christian to give witness and to evangelize. The meaning and purpose of this theme has a more profound understanding and reinforcement of faith in the incarnate God, Jesus-Christ. Only someone who believes in the divinity of Christ can believe in the Eucharist. Whoever reinforces his faith in the Eucharist: Presence, Sacrifice, and Memorial of Jesus-Christ, deepens his faith in the divinity of Christ and his incarnation. “Holy Mass, Communion, and the Visit to the Blessed Sacrament: these are our three loves.”(S.L of our Founder, p.549). In its origin, the Eucharist is based on the Jewish Passover meal. It has also social aspect, which in the early Church was manifested in the forms of agape and the sharing of goods. But nowadays, it is present in various forms, because the Eucharist leads us to solidarity with others, making us promoters of harmony, fraternity, communion, peace and especially of sharing everything with the needy. St Paul said to the Corinthians: “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” (1Co.10:17). I would like to start my sharing with the following question: How can the Eucharist be Healer of the Phariseeism and Place of pardon or reconciliation in our li3.18cmves?
The Eucharist, Healer of the Phariseeism
As missionaries, we cannot hesitate to proclaim these paradoxical words of Jesus: “I came into this world for judgement, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind.” Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him”, surely we are not also blind, are we?” Jesus said to them, “if you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, ‘we see’, so your sin remains.” (Jn. 9,39-41). These words are still very important for us today. The Pharisees were not simply a limited group, belonging to the time of Jesus. They represent a type of behaviour that is a threatening possibility for the human being of every time and place. “Phariseeism” is any and every attitude of self-sufficiency. The belief that we are sufficiently informed, that our judgements are perfectly objective, that we really “know”, and that we act in a correct manner is “Phariseeism”. The attitude of the Pharisee is also to be seen in the attitude of those who observe and pass negative judgement on the actions of others and give credits if not distinctions to themselves, and think of themselves as beyond reproach. It’s the attitude of those who always take their own behaviour, values, and preferences as the sole possible norm and, in the light of it, spend their time looking for the sins of others. The Pharisee’s method is to attack the faults of others as a way of blinding themselves to their own faults. This is in fact a lifestyle that renders people literally blind: blind to their own deficiencies and blind to the corrections or values that come to us from others and above all from God. The Eucharist helps us, in the solitude of conscience, to stand before God and no longer before our own judgements or those of our fellows. It is here that the norm for evaluating our actions is no longer succeed or failure, not even the approval or rejection of society, but they become values in the eyes of Him who sees in secret. This truthful look at our life necessarily makes us aware of our sins and our connivance with the illnesses we see around us or experience within ourselves. Without this discovery no healing is possible, and the worst of alienation is to be no longer capable of this truthful critical self-awareness. “ If we say, “ we are without sin”, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1Jn 1:8). In the Eucharist, Jesus liberates not the healthy but the sick, that is, sinners. And all of us are sinners, suffering from the illness of individual and collective self-centeredness. For that reason, we can understand every Sunday, people fill the churches for the Eucharist. On major feasts the liturgy attracts masses of people, and the ceremonies often unfold in an atmosphere of exuberant joy. Our culture makes festivity, music, and dancing congenial to us. Consequently we prefer to exteriorize our faith and make our joy vocal. But isn’t there a danger that sometimes these celebrations may become pieces of camouflage? From there, we are supposed to know that the Eucharist liberates us from worship of self images, economical images and spiritual image that replace real Eucharistic life with mere ritual actions. Yet we are always in danger of slipping back into a type of worship that, instead of being the expression and source of a life of love, blinds us to what is objectively taking place in our celebrations. There is danger that we may think of the liturgy as a place where, like drunkards, we may forget for a while the realities of daily life. Even in the first Christian communities, at Corinth for example, some Christians evidently did not really understand the meaning of the Lord’s Supper. St Paul had to issue a forceful denunciation of all the people who in good conscience came together to celebrate the supper yet closed their eyes to the needs of their closest brothers and sisters (1Co. 11:17-34). In our day, too, some people think they can share the Eucharistic bread and wine on Sunday and then unscrupulously exploit their neighbour for the remainder of the week. Others think they can bracket their jealousy and vengeance for a short time and then give free reign to them again once Mass is finished. What we celebrate in the Eucharist is not our religious feelings, however intense these may be, but “the memorial of the death of Jesus”. (Lk 22, 19/1Co 11,24). Those words constitue the fundament of neo- testament of the Eucharist. We celebrate the memorial of all that he was for us, and of his limitless love that was stronger than the sin that crucified Him. In his beautiful and incisive apostolic letter “Mane Nobiscum Domine”=Stay with us, Lord signed on October 8, 2004, the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II, emphasizes that “The year of the Eucharist ( which already passed: October 2004-october 2005) must lead the communities to a particular concern for the different manifestations of poverty in the world, such as hunger and sicknesses, especially in developing nations, the loneliness of the elderly, un employment and the sufferings of immigrants. The criterion of charity will be the sign of the authenticity of our Eucharistic celebrations.” (ZENIT NEWS Agency, ZE 04100801). Our celebration of the Eucharist therefore implies a determination to follow Jesus in the practical details of life. If, we take part in the Lord’s banquet with a heart full of wicked plans, we are imitating Judas, not Jesus.
Meditation: Mt 4,4. 26:26. Mk 14:22-26. Lk 24:35. Jn 6:5.53 1Co.10:16- 17.
The Eucharist, place of Pardon or Reconciliation
The Eucharist reveals the mystery of Jesus-Christ who wished to enter into intimate communion with anyone who receives Him and he becomes “bread” for nourishment. He offers Himself in sacrifice that represents, in a bloodless manner, the unique bloody sacrifice of the cross for the whole of humanity. This can be well understood during the last supper. Looking at the event of the last supper, Judas Iscariot, one of the Apostles, betrayed his Master. From this event, lack of confidence can be underlined between the Master and the disciples. In this respect, the psalmist asserts: “Even my close friend, whom I trust, who shared my bread with me, has turned against me.”(Ps 41,9). This example offers us the opportunity to reconcile among ourselves and other people. The Last Supper re-establishes the links which are broken among us, so that we can witness the pardon for the new life. We can recall again the fact that a Jew was not eating at the same table with the pagans. Peter was reproached by his brothers about being circumcised: “ so when Peter went up to Jerusalem the circumcised believers confronted him, saying,’ you entered the house of circumcised people and ate with them?’ (ACTS 11:2-3). From this kind of behaviour, we should neither keep each other way from our hearts nor to dismiss each other but following the example of Christ, are we invited to overcome the enmity and put love among ourselves. From the preceding idea, even in the Good News, Jesus in his whole life did not differentiate the people on account of anything else except sin. But currently, the difference among us is creating hatred, human and socio-economical discrimination. To the contrary, Christ unified everybody even if He was sometimes criticized by his own. It may happen, however, that we, as Missionaries, do not conduct ourselves as we should under the rule of God or very often we go directly contrary to what God expects of us. The Gospel has set us on the path of freedom, but we easily fall back into the ways of those who are slaves to their sin and selfishness. Then God Himself always comes to our rescue and puts us back on the right way, because his reign is characterized by forgiveness. We in our turn can experience what Israel experienced so often and what countless straying souls have experienced in encounter with Jesus: the gift of reconciliation with God and one another in the Eucharist. God in His dealings with Israel, and Jesus in His dealings with his contemporaries, saved human beings from the hellish circle of sin and brought them back to full communion with God; and the church today continues the same ministry of reconciliation in the name of Jesus (Cf. Jn 20:23).
Conclusion
Finally, take into account the previous idea, in the Eucharist, we remember Jesus so that the memory may direct our life and that the spirit which sanctified his entire life, and which sanctifies the bread and wine may also sanctify our life. At Mass we bring our daily life to the Lord and seek nourishment for it from the life of Jesus and his love that persevered to the end, when his body was broken and his blood poured out. And the wish we give to the people after the final blessing Holy Mass is in the words, “Go in the peace of Christ”. This amounts to saying that we must live the Eucharist when we return to our community or our daily activities and in the meetings with other people. Otherwise, we become hypocrites. Our Eucharistic responsibility is not to mislead the people, showing our human, economic-spiritual power, but it is a guiding testimony as our Founder Joseph Allamano says: “Our life should be a Eucharistic life. Our hearts and minds should be constantly occupied with the Blessed Sacrament: not only before and after Holy Communion and during our visit to the Blessed Sacrament, but also during the day, while we’re studying and working.” (S.L.p.560). Dear Confreres, our daily life is supposed to witness to that type of the relationships we have with Jesus. “St Aloysius felt such an attraction for the Blessed Sacrament that his Superior had to forbid him to stay in church for extended periods of time. He was compelled to tell Our Lord:’ don’t attract me so much. The Superior doesn’t want it.” (S.L. p.557). Our Founder expressed his Joy if that behaviour, to get an extended time for prayers could characterize us. We are advised to create an “Extra-time” in addition to the community’s timetable, for the personnel prayers or adoration. Or even the Holy Rosary must take place in our daily prayers. Our Founder pleads us not to get in our mind the idea to find the solution to our problems or crisis in the realities of our society. “We must visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament frequently, as our duty of gratitude and also for our sins.” (S.L p.557). From that visit, we must do all we can to heal the memories of misunderstanding in the past and to promote new attitudes based on forgiveness, mutual esteem and respect. I hope we must resist all hostility and every spirit of rivalry between us, so that we may engage resolutely, through mutual collaboration, in the building up of the Church. “To be Sacramentines: this is the resolution I suggest to you, and I wish that you’d put it into practice. Try to live a life really permeated by the presence of Jesus among you. You must not only be ‘Consolatini’, but also ‘Sacramentini’. It’s not enough to work. You need to pray and make reparation (…) how much strength and consolation you’ll receive in the missions when you have difficulties and sorrows! I want Jesus (…) to be your advisor, comforter and help, especially in the missions.” (S.L. p.564).
