The worshiper of God is no longer the slave of any one; without compassion for the wounds of the sufferer, the Eucharist cannot be truly worshipped. Pope Francis underlined this in his sermon at the closing Mass of the 27th National Eucharistic Assembly in Italy.
(Vatican News Network)Pope Francis will travel from the Vatican to the southern Italian city of Matera on Sunday, September 25, to preside over the closing mass for the 27th National Eucharistic Assembly. Faced with the approximately 12,000 faithful present, the Pope stated that “bread may not necessarily be shared on the table of the world, bread may not necessarily exude the fragrance of communion, and may not be distributed equitably”. The Pope called on everyone to be ashamed of the injustices and inequalities of daily life, of the oppression and indifference that the poor and the weak often experience.
The parable of Lazarus, the rich man and the beggar, is recorded in the Sunday Gospel of that day (cf. Luke 16:19-31). Starting from this passage of the Gospel, the Pope pointed out that the Eucharist reminds everyone “to honor God”. The Pope clarified that, in fact, the rich man in this parable does not have a relationship with God, he does not make a place for God in his life, but only cares regarding his own pleasure and worldly wealth. Such a rich man doesn’t even have a name.
“Sadly, it’s the same situation today. When we confuse what we are with what we have, when we take the wealth people have, the titles they hold, the jobs they hold, or they This is what happens when judging them by the brand of clothing they wear. It’s the materialistic and physical trope that prevails in the world today, but it ends up leaving us empty-handed.”
On the contrary, the beggar in the parable has a name: he is called Lazarus, which means “God help.” “Despite his poverty, he retains his full dignity, because he lives in a relationship with God,” the Pope said, “the indestructible hope of his life”. This is exactly the challenge that the Eucharist presents to everyone’s life: “To worship God, not ourselves; to be God-centered, not personal vanity”.
“This is because if we worship ourselves, we will die of lack of oxygen in our own insignificance; if we worship the riches of this world, we will be controlled by them and become slaves; if we worship a man who seeks appearance God, we will indulge in waste, and sooner or later our lives will pay our bills.”
And by worshipping Jesus in the Eucharist, we gain a new perspective on life. “I don’t equate what I have, what I can achieve. The value of my life is neither determined by what I look like, nor is it diminished by my setbacks and failures.”
Furthermore, the Eucharist urges us to love our brothers and sisters: a task that the rich man in the Gospel parable fails to do. The rich man did not realize Lazarus’ existence until the Lord reversed his fate with Lazarus, and the gulf between them was impossible to bridge. “In earthly life the rich man dug with his own hands the gulf between him and Lazarus, and in eternity the gulf will remain forever”. In fact, our future depends on our present life: “If we dig a gap with our brothers and sisters, we are digging graves for ourselves in the future; if we build walls now to separate us from our brothers and sisters, we will Imprisoned in loneliness and death, I will never leave.”
This gospel parable also reflects what is happening today. “Injustice, inequality, the uneven distribution of the land’s resources, the oppression of the weak by the powerful, indifference to the cry of the poor: these are the chasms we excavate every day, the exclusions we create every day, and we cannot be indifferent. And today we declare together. Recognize that the Eucharist heralds a new world in which Jesus is present and asks us to do our best to bring regarding a practical transformation: from indifference to mercy, from waste to sharing, from selfishness to love, from individualism to brotherhood Friendship.”
The Pope encouraged the Church to love the Eucharist: to bow down before the Eucharist, to adore the Lord who is present in the sacrificial bread with surprise, and at the same time to know how to show compassion for the wounds of the sufferers, to help the poor, Dry their tears and be the bread of hope and joy for all.
The Pope finally invited the faithful to come back to Jesus. When hope is extinguished, when I feel lonely and tired in my heart, when I am tormented by sin, and when I am afraid that I will not be able to overcome the difficulties in front of me, I worship Jesus once more and taste the “flavor of bread” once more: only Jesus overcomes death and always makes life look new.
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