Bishops of Asia: in the Eucharist the hope for the transformation of our continent
Manila (AsiaNews) - " We cannot celebrate the Eucharist and at the same time maintain, practice or tolerate discrimination based on religion or race, culture or language, caste or class. If we are grafted into the Eucharistic Lord, we will reach out and become bridge-builders in a world that is becoming increasingly divisive,” the Federations of Asian Bishops’ Conference (FABC), said in a final massage, at the end of their IX Plenary Assembly August 16 in Manila.
After seven days of work, focusing on the theme "Living the Eucharist in Asia", the representatives of 23 countries of the continent have extended an invitation to priests and lay people to respond to the call that through the sacrament of communion, Christ makes today to faithful continent’s faithful: "call to unity", "to hear the word of God, to “faith and hope", to "mission" .
Catholics in Asia account for only 3% of the over 3 billion 700 thousand inhabitants that populate the continent. The bishops have reminded them that the Eucharist is "the most effective missionary act" that the ecclesial community can make. For believers, the places of prayer are increasingly becoming "points of encounter with Jesus that leads to communion" and priests must help to promote through them “unity in diversity ".
"Celebrating the Eucharist - say the bishops of Asia - we live in a faith rooted, cultivated and nurtured in the Word of God that we must contemplate and reverberate." Therefore they ask priests and religious to increase their educational initiatives to help the faithful to rediscover the centrality of the Eucharistic celebration. It “has the strength to make the Christian communities of Asia, powerful witnesses of Jesus, bearers of his presence, his love and his divine power".
The FABC urges Catholics "to have heart" and reaffirm the value of the Word of God and the Eucharist "as a response to deep uncertainty and anxiety to the suffering that plagues the world". For the bishops, a deep understanding of the meaning of these two "gifts" is also the path towards true dialogue with Asian societies that are characterized by cultural and religious pluralism.
Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, secretary of the FABC, tells Asia News: "Our way of living the Eucharist and our life as believers can make a difference in society, on issues such as justice, peace, violence and the ecology”. Inter-faith dialogue has its true foundation in the Eucharist. Catholics find in it the strength to be "true witnesses of Christ" and enter into a dialogue of life "with believers of other religions”.
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