Pope: Ecumenism, a "fundamental commitment", which "calls for concrete gestures"
Bari (AsiaNews) Benedict XVI has once again reaffirmed his priority for a commitment to ecumenism which, he has repeated once again, calls for "not only words but concrete gestures". In Bari, celebrating Mass to close the 24th Eucharistic Congress before 200,000 faithful, the Pope defined Sunday as a necessary instrument to leave the desert of "frenetic consumerism, religious indifference and secularism which is closed to transcendence".
Here is the text of the homily which Benedict XVI gave to the faithful during the Eucharistic Celebration:
"Glorify the Lord, Jerusalem, Zion, your God" (Resp.Psalm). The Psalmist's invitation, which is echoed in the Sequence, expresses the sense of this Eucharistic Celebration very well: we are gathered here to praise and bless the Lord. This is the reason which has prompted the Italian church to meet again here, in Bari, for the National Eucharistic Congress. I too wanted to join you today to celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ with particular significance, thus rendering homage to Christ in the Sacrament of his love, and at the same time to reinforce the bonds of communion which tie me to the Church in Italy and its Pastors. My venerated Predecessor, Pope John Paul II, should have been present too at this important ecclesial appointment. We feel He is near to us and that with us He is glorifying Christ, the good Shepherd, who He may now contemplate directly.
I greet with affection all of you participating in this solemn liturgy: Cardinal Camillo Ruini and other Cardinals present, the Archbishop of Bari, Mgr Francesco Cacucci, the Bishops of Puglia and all who have come from every corner of Italy: priests, religious and lay people; in particular, those who have contributed in one way or another to organising the Congress. Greetings also to the authorities; their welcome presence shows that Eucharistic Congresses are part of the history and culture of the Italian people.
This Eucharistic Congress, which concludes today, intended to present Sunday as the "weekly Easter", an expression of the identity of the Christian community and centre of its life and mission. The theme chosen "Without Sunday, we cannot live" takes us back to the year 304, when the Emperor Diocletian prohibited Christians, on pain of death, from possessing the Scriptures, from coming together on Sunday to celebrate the Eucharist and from building places for their meetings. In Abitene, a small place in present-day Tunisia, 49 Christians were surprised one Sunday as they were celebrating the Eucharist in the home of one Ottavio Felice, in defiance of imperial orders. Arrested, they were taken to Carthage to be interrogated by the Proconsul Anulino. The reply which Emerito gave to the Proconsul is significant; on being asked why they had disobeyed the order of the emperor, he said: "Without Sunday, we are not able". Without coming together on Sunday to celebrate the Eucharist, we cannot live. There would be no strength to face daily difficulties without succumbing. After atrocious tortures, the 49 martyrs of Abitene were killed. Thus they confirmed their faith through shedding their blood. They died, but they won: we now recall them in the glory of the risen Christ.
The experience of the Abitene martyrs is one we should reflect on as Christians of the 21st century. For us too, it is not easy to live as Christians. From a spiritual point of view, the world in which we live, often marked by frenetic consumerism, religious indifference and secularism closed to transcendence, may seem like a desert no less bitter than that "great and fearful" one (Dt 8:15) which the first reading, taken from the Book of Deuteronomy, talks to us about. God came to the aid of the Jewish people in difficulty with manna, to make them understand that "man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God" (Dt 8:3). In today's Gospel, Jesus explains to us which bread God wanted to prepare the people of the New Covenant for, through the gift of manna. Alluding to the Eucharist, he said: "This is the Bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. The one who eats of this bread will live forever" (Jn 6:58). The Son of God, having made himself flesh, wanted to become Bread, to be food thus for his people on their journey towards the promised land of Heaven.
We need this Bread to face the cares and fatigues of the journey. Sunday, the Day of the Lord, is the appropriate occasion to draw strength from Him, who is the Lord of life. The festival writ is therefore not simply as duty imposed from outside. Participating in the Sunday Eucharist and partaking of the Eucharistic Bread is a need for the Christian, this is how he can find the necessary energy for the journey ahead he must do. A journey, however, which is not arbitrary; the path indicated by God through his Law goes in the direction which is inscribed in the very being of mankind. For man, following it means self-realisation; going astray means straying from oneself.
The Lord does not leave us alone on this journey. He is with us; in fact, He wants to share our fate to the point of empathising with us. In the conversation which the Gospel refers us to, He said: "Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them" (Jn 6:56). How can one not rejoice at such a promise? However, we have heard how on hearing this first declaration, people started to debate and protest instead of rejoicing: "How can he give us his flesh to eat?" (Jn 6:52). In truth, this attitude would repeat itself several times during the course of history. It is said that, in reality, people do not want to have God so close, so much at hand, so involved in their affairs. They want him to be great and, finally, quite far away. So then problems arise to show that, ultimately, such closeness is impossible. But the words of Jesus pronounced exactly on this occasion, remain with their clear precision: "In truth, in truth I tell you: unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you" (Jn 6:53). Faced with a murmur of protest, Jesus could have fallen back on reassuring words: "Friends, he could have said, don't worry! I talked about flesh, but it's only a symbol. What I wanted was only a profound communion of feelings." But Jesus did not resort to such pacifications. He stood firm in his assertion, even in the face of the defection of many of his disciples (cfr Jn 6:66). In fact, He seemed ready to accept even the defection of his very apostles, rather than bring to nothing the concreteness of his words: "Do you also wish to go away?" (Jn 6:67) he asked. Thank God, Peter gave the answer that today we too make ours in full awareness: "Lord, where would we go? Only you have the words of eternal life." (Jn 6:68)
In the Eucharist, Christ is truly present among us. His is not a static presence. It is a dynamic presence, which takes hold of us to make us his, to assimilate us in him. Augustine understood this well; coming from a platonic formation, he had great difficulties to accept the "incarnate" dimension of Christianity. In particular, he reacted to the prospect of the "Eucharistic meal", which seemed to him unworthy of God: in common meals, in fact, man turns out as the stronger, in that it is he who assimilates the food, making it an element of his own body. It was only a second time that Augustine understood how things were exactly the opposite in the Eucharist: the centre is Christ who draws us to him, who causes us to come out of ourselves to make of us one thing with him" (cfr Confess., VII,10,16). In this way, He also includes us in the community of brethren.
This brings us to another dimension of the Eucharist, which I would like to raise before concluding. The Christ we meet in the Sacrament is the same here in Bari as in Rome, here in Europe as in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. He is the one and same Christ who is present in the Eucharistic Bread of every corner of the earth. This means that we can meet him only together with all the others. We can receive him only in unity. Is this not what the apostle Paul told us in the reading we heard a short while ago? Writing to the Corinthians, he said: "Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body for we all partake of the one bread" (1 Corinthians 10:17). The consequence is clear: we cannot communicate with the Lord if we do not communicate among ourselves. If we want to come before Him, we must also move to meet others. For this, we need to learn the great lesson of forgiveness: not to allow the worm of resentment to work in us, but to open our heart to the nobility of listening to the other, of comprehension in his regard, of gradual acceptance of his excuses, of the generous giving of self.
The Eucharist let us repeat it is a sacrament of unity. But alas Christians are divided precisely in the sacrament of unity. This is all the more reason why we should sustained by the Eucharist feel motivated to strive with all our might for that full unity which Christ ardently hoped for in the Cenacle. Right here in Bari, the city which guards the bones of St Nicholas, the place of meeting and dialogue with Christian brothers of the East, I want to reiterate my willingness to take on the fundamental commitment working with all my energies towards the rebuilding of full and visible unity among all the followers of Christ. I am aware that for this, expressions of good sentiments are not enough. Concrete gestures are called for, which will enter souls and stir consciences, stimulating each to that interior conversion which is the prerequisite of any progress along the path of ecumenism (cfr To the representatives of Churches and Christian communities and other non-Christian religions, 25 April 2005). I ask you all to do down the road of this spiritual ecumenism with decision, which in prayer will open the doors to the Holy Spirit, who alone can create unity.
Dear friends come to Bari from different parts of Italy to celebrate this Eucharistic Congress, we must rediscover the joy of the Christian Sunday. We must rediscover with pride the privilege of being able to participate in the Eucharist, which is the sacrament of the renewed world. The resurrection of Christ happened on the first day of the week, which for the Jews was the day of the creation of the world. Precisely because of this, Sunday was considered by the primitive Christian community as the day when the new world started, that in which new creation started with the victory of Christ over death. Coming together at the Eucharist meal, the community came to cast itself as the new people of God. St Ignatius of Antioch qualified Christians as "those who have come to new hope", and he presented them as people "living according to Sunday" ("iuxta dominicam viventes"). In this perspective, the Bishop of Antioch asked himself: "How can we live without Him, who even the prophets were expecting?" (Ep. ad Magnesios, 9,1-2).
"How can we live without Him?" We hear echoed in these words of St Ignatius the affirmation of the Abitene martyrs: ""Sine dominico non possumus". Right from this flows our prayer: that even today's Christians may rediscover the awareness of the decisive importance of the Sunday celebration and that they may know how to draw from participation in the Eucharist the necessary momentum for a new commitment to announcing Christ "our peace" (Eph 2:14) to the world. Amen!
.png)
