On June 26 of last year, just before praying the midday Angelus with the usual crowd gathered in Saint Peter’s Square, Pope Benedict XVI said that the Eucharist is the medicine which combats modern day individualism.
“In a culture that is ever more individualistic -- like that in which Western societies are immersed and which is spreading throughout the world -- the Eucharist constitutes a kind of ‘antidote,’ which operates in the minds and hearts of believers and continually sows in them the logic of communion, of service, of sharing, in a word, the logic of the Gospel”. The Eucharist was never meant to be locked within a golden tabernacle but to be diffused instead among God’s people in order to change them into living jewels of God’s unfathomable mercy. Jesus continually gives himself to us in the consecrated bread and wine so as we, on his shining example, give ourselves to another in mutual service of solidarity and authentic caring of each other.
Modern day mentality and way of living espouses a freedom that is tragically and forcefully divorces from the happy and fruitful encounter with others. In his encyclical ‘Evangelium Vitae’, Blessed John Paul II refers to “a notion of freedom which exalts the isolated individual in an absolute way, and gives no place to solidarity, to openness to others and service of them” (§ 19). Unfortunately, the contemporary erroneous vision of freedom tries to make us believe that freedom has no limits, is absolute and knows no responsibility. Yet, the harsh reality of human suffering is urgently calling for an immediate intervention of solidarity. Only the latter can help alleviate humanity’s tremendous crave to be cared for and its God-given capacity to care for the suffering in return!
Being the sacrament of Christ’s charity for us, sinful human beings, the Eucharist teaches us the ethos of self-giving. The Eucharistic Jesus aids us to understand that real freedom occurs when we generously respond to the needs of the poor around us. The Eucharist is the sacrament through which we learn to serve and serve till the end (see John 13, 1). And the infinite blessing we get back from serving them is the joyful realisation that in attending to their needs we have loved Jesus himself who mysteriously lives in them. Now I can personally understand why in his ‘Letter to Families’, Pope John Paul II wrote that human existence is called “to serve in truth in love. [That] love causes man to find fulfillment through the sincere gift of self. [That] to love means to give and receive something which can be neither bought nor sold, but only given freely and mutually” (§ 11). The Eucharist has the power of convincing us to regard other people as our other selves. This is so because Jesus himself, the Lord and God of all, gives himself entirely to each and every communicant of his Body and Blood in order to transform him/her, including his/her own manner of thinking in his own being and thinking.
Am I ready to serve wholeheartedly the poor and the needy? Am I generous enough in offering my talents, time, financial assistance and spiritual support so as others get to know Jesus Christ, who alone is “the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 1, 14)? Do I bother to listen to the broken-hearted and, if situation calls for, refer them to people who might help them more in their respective needs? Do I consider other people as my brothers and sisters and not as sheer strangers or, much worse, my lifelong enemies?
Lord Jesus give me your mind to bring the interests of others before mine. Amen.
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap
San Gwann