Vatican City, 10 July 2015 (VIS) “The
Eucharist, bread broken for the life of the world” is the theme of
the Fifth National Eucharistic Congress of Bolivia, which the Holy
Father inaugurated yesterday with the celebration of Mass in Plaza
del Cristo Redentor in Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Francis dedicated his
homily to the sharing of bread, which Jesus distributed to the
multitude with the same hands He raised to heaven to bless God,
before almost two million faithful gathered in the square and in the
adjacent streets where maxi-screens had been installed.
The readings and prayers of the
celebration were in Spanish and in indigenous languages: Guarani,
Quechua and Aimara. The passage from the Gospel of St. Mark recounted
the multiplication of the loaves and fishes.
“We have come from a variety of
places, areas and villages, to celebrate the living presence of God
among us”, said the Pope. “We have travelled from our homes and
communities to be together as God’s holy People. The cross and the
mission image remind us of all those communities which were born of
the name of Jesus in these lands. We are their heirs. The Gospel
which we just heard speaks of a situation much like our own. Like
those four thousand people who gathered to hear Jesus, we too want to
listen to His words and to receive His life. Like them, we are in the
presence of the Master, the Bread of Life.
“I am moved to see so many mothers
carrying their children on their shoulders, like so many of you here.
Carrying them, you bring your lives, the future of your people. You
bring all your joys and hopes. You bring the blessing of the earth
and all its fruits. You bring the work of your hands, hands which
work today in order to weave tomorrow’s hopes and dreams. But those
people’s shoulders were also weighed down by bitter disappointments
and sorrows, scarred by experiences of injustice and of justice
denied. They bore on their shoulders all the joy and pain of their
land. You too bear the memory of your own people. Because every
people has a memory, a memory which is passed on from generation to
generation, a memory which continues to move forward. Frequently we
tire of this journey. Frequently we lack the strength to keep hope
alive. How often have we experienced situations which dull our
memory, weaken our hope and make us lose our reason for rejoicing!
And then a kind of sadness takes over. We think only of ourselves, we
forget that we are a people which is loved, a chosen people. And the
loss of that memory disorients us, it closes our heart to others, and
especially to the poor.
“We may feel the way the disciples
did, when they saw the crowds of people gathered there. They begged
Jesus to send them away, since it was impossible to provide food for
so many people. Faced with so many kinds of hunger in our world, we
can say to ourselves: 'Things don’t add up; we will never manage,
there is nothing to be done'. And so our hearts yield to despair. A
despairing heart finds it easy to succumb to a way of thinking which
is becoming ever more widespread in our world. It is a mentality in
which everything has a price, everything can be bought, everything is
negotiable. This way of thinking has room only for a select few,
while it discards all those who are 'unproductive', unsuitable or
unworthy, since clearly those people don’t 'add up'. But Jesus once
more turns to us and says: 'They don’t need to go away; you
yourselves, give them something to eat'.
"Those words of Jesus have a
particular resonance for us today: No one needs to go away, no one
has to be discarded; you yourselves, give them something to eat.
Jesus speaks these words to us, here in this square. Yes, no one has
to be discarded; you, give them something to eat. Jesus’ way of
seeing things leaves no room for the mentality which would cut bait
on the weak and those most in need. Taking the lead, He gives us His
own example, He shows us the way forward. What He does can be summed
up in three words. He takes a little bread and some fish, He blesses
them and then gives them to His disciples to share with the crowd.
This is how the miracle takes place. It is not magic or sorcery.
With these three gestures, Jesus is able to turn a mentality which
discards others into a mindset of communion and community. I would
like briefly to look at each of these actions.
“Taking. This is the starting-point:
Jesus takes His own and their lives very seriously. He looks at them
in the eye, and He knows what they are experiencing, what they are
feeling. He sees in those eyes all that is present in the memory and
the hearts of his people. He looks at it, He ponders it. He thinks of
all the good which they can do, all the good upon which they can
build. But He is not so much concerned about material objects,
cultural treasures or lofty ideas. He is concerned with people. The
greatest wealth of a society is measured by the lives of its people,
it is gauged by its elderly, who pass on their knowledge and the
memory of their people to the young. Jesus never detracts from the
dignity of anyone, no matter how little they possess or seem capable
of contributing.
“Blessing. Jesus takes what is given
Him and blesses His heavenly Father. He knows that everything is
God’s gift. So He does not treat things as “objects”, but as
part of a life which is the fruit of God’s merciful love. He values
them. He goes beyond mere appearances, and in this gesture of
blessing and praise He asks the Father for the gift of the Holy
Spirit. Blessing has this double aspect: thanksgiving and
transformative power. t is a recognition that life is always a gift
which, when placed in the hands of God, starts to multiply. Our
Father never abandons us; he makes everything multiply.
“Giving. With Jesus, there can be no
'taking' which is not a 'blessing', and no blessing which is not also
a 'giving'. Blessing is always mission, its purpose is to share what
we ourselves have received. For it is only in giving, in sharing,
that we find the source of our joy and come to experience salvation.
Giving makes it possible to refresh the memory of God’s holy
people, called and sent forth to bring the joy of salvation to
others. The hands which Jesus lifts to bless God in heaven are the
same hands which gave bread to the hungry crowd. We can imagine how
those people passed the loaves of bread and the fish from hand to
hand, until they came to those farthest away. Jesus generated a kind
of electrical current among His followers, as they shared what they
had, made it a gift for others, and so ate their fill. Unbelievably,
there were even leftovers: enough to fill seven baskets. A memory
which is taken, blessed and given always satisfies people’s hunger.
“The Eucharist is 'bread broken for
the life of the world'. That is the theme of the Fifth Eucharistic
Congress to be held in Tarija, which today we inaugurate. The
Eucharist is a sacrament of communion, which draws us out of our
individualism in order to live together as disciples. It gives us the
certainty that all that we have, all that we are, if it is taken,
blessed and given, can, by God’s power, by the power of His love,
become bread of life for all. The Church is a community of
remembrance. Hence, in fidelity to the Lord’s command, she never
ceases to say: 'Do this in remembrance of me'. Generation after
generation, throughout the world, she celebrates the mystery of the
Bread of Life. She makes it present and she gives it to us. Jesus
asks us to share in His life, and through us He allows this gift to
multiply in our world. We are not isolated individuals, separated
from one another, but rather a people of remembrance, a remembrance
ever renewed and ever shared with others. A life of remembrance
needs others. It demands exchange, encounter and a genuine solidarity
capable of entering into the mindset of taking, blessing and giving.
It demands the logic of love.
Pope Francis concluded his homily by
recalling that Mary, like many of the mothers present, “bore in her
heart the memory of her people. She pondered the life of her Son.
She personally experienced God’s grandeur and joyfully proclaimed
that He 'fills the hungry with good things'. Today may Mary be our
model. Like her, may we trust in the goodness of the Lord, who does
great things with the lowliness of his servants”.
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