[2011-06-26] Pontiff Proposes Cure for Selfishness
Says Eucharist Is Able to Bring the World to God
VATICAN CITY, JUNE 26, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI says the Eucharist is the antidote to the individualism in which the West is immersed and which is spreading throughout the globe.
"The Eucharist is like the beating heart that gives life to the whole mystical body of the Church: a social organism entirely founded on the spiritual but concrete link with Christ," the Pope said today before reciting the midday Angelus with those gathered in St. Peter's Square.
"Without the Eucharist the Church simply would not exist," he affirmed.
The Holy Father explained how it is the Sacrament that makes a human community into "a mystery of communion, able to bring God to the world and the world to God."
The transforming action of the Holy Spirit, which makes the bread and wine into Christ's body and blood "also transforms into members of the Body of Christ those who receive it with faith, so that the Church is truly the sacrament of the unity of men with God and of men with each other," he added.
"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 Pontiff said.
He noted how the Church has reflected this Eucharistic influence since the beginning, and "through the centuries, the Church, despite human limits and errors, continued to be a force for communion in the world."
Concluding with a reference to Mary as Blessed John Paul II referred to her -- a Eucharistic woman -- Benedict XVI said: "In her school our life too becomes fully 'Eucharistic,' open to God and to others, able to transform evil into good by the power of love, which fosters unity, communion, fraternity."
Says Eucharist Is Able to Bring the World to God
VATICAN CITY, JUNE 26, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI says the Eucharist is the antidote to the individualism in which the West is immersed and which is spreading throughout the globe.
"The Eucharist is like the beating heart that gives life to the whole mystical body of the Church: a social organism entirely founded on the spiritual but concrete link with Christ," the Pope said today before reciting the midday Angelus with those gathered in St. Peter's Square.
"Without the Eucharist the Church simply would not exist," he affirmed.
The Holy Father explained how it is the Sacrament that makes a human community into "a mystery of communion, able to bring God to the world and the world to God."
The transforming action of the Holy Spirit, which makes the bread and wine into Christ's body and blood "also transforms into members of the Body of Christ those who receive it with faith, so that the Church is truly the sacrament of the unity of men with God and of men with each other," he added.
"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 Pontiff said.
He noted how the Church has reflected this Eucharistic influence since the beginning, and "through the centuries, the Church, despite human limits and errors, continued to be a force for communion in the world."
Concluding with a reference to Mary as Blessed John Paul II referred to her -- a Eucharistic woman -- Benedict XVI said: "In her school our life too becomes fully 'Eucharistic,' open to God and to others, able to transform evil into good by the power of love, which fosters unity, communion, fraternity."
