Mass to Inaugurate the ‘Year of the Eucharist’

Celebrated by Archbishop Denis Hart
in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne,
on Thursday, 14th October, 2004, at 6.30pm

Introduction

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

A very warm welcome, as today we celebrate our faith and devotion in the living Christ and our joy in his presence among us.

After listening to his Word our gifts of bread and wine will be transformed into the Living Presence of his Body and Blood, whom we will receive in Holy Communion as food, medicine and comfort and who will remain with us for the Hour of Adoration.

As we call to mind our sins, may Jesus burn out the cancer of sin and fill us with his light to be apostles of his truth.

Homily

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In the Eucharist we come “to the source and summit of the life and mission of the Church”. Pope John Paul has invited us to focus on the presence and activity of Our Lord in the Eucharist so that we will be more truly his people and show the wonder of his love to the world.

Here in the eucharistic celebration we are in the presence of a person who is God, whose Word we have heard and who is among us in a way which surpasses all others, when by his words, “This is my Body”, “This is my Blood”, given for us, our gifts of bread and wine are changed into his Body and Blood.

Tonight, as whenever we offer Mass, Christ’s presence is personal and real and remains as long as the Eucharistic species remain. The same Lord, who offered himself on the cross to save us from sin, continues his two-fold action of perfect praise to the Father and saving his people. We become brothers and sisters because we are offered salvation in Christ and are invited by our faith in him.

As we go through our life, the Eucharist is a straining towards the goal, a foretaste of the fullness of joy promised by Christ, and in some way the anticipation of heaven “the pledge of future glory”.

The Year of the Eucharist follows on from what Pope Paul VI wrote in 1965 in his letter on the Eucharist, “The Mystery of Faith”. The work of the Council in providing for the renewal of the Mass and of worship of the Eucharist outside of Mass, as well as the more recent Letters of Pope John Paul II, “Dominicae Cenae” 1980 and “Ecclesia de Eucharistia” 2003.

The Church draws life from the Eucharist. It is a constant fulfilment of Jesus’ own promise, “Lo, I am with you always until the close of the age.” ( Matthew 28.20 ) We know that through his own flesh Jesus offers life to people and as we gaze at Our Lord present in the sacrament of the altar we discover the fullness of his boundless love.

Pope John Paul reminded us, “The encouragement and deepening of eucharistic worship are proofs of the authentic renewal, which the Vatican Council set itself …… the Church and the world have great need of eucharistic worship. Jesus waits for us in the Sacrament of Love. Let us be generous with him in going to meet him in adoration and in contemplation that is full of faith and ready to make a reparation for the great faults and crimes of the world.” ( John Paul II: “Dominicae Cenae” 3 )

Throughout this year we emphasise the presence of Christ under the transformed bread and wine in the Mass, the importance of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, the special power of Eucharistic Adoration and of Holy Hours, made to be with the Lord, as the apostles watched at the Last Supper; and of the reverence that must accompany the carrying of the Blessed Sacrament to the sick.

Our churches are to be places of prayer and of God, set apart that we may be nourished by the constant, loving presence of the Lord.

At the beginning of the new millennium Pope John Paul invited us in Novo Millennio Ineunte, “to start afresh from Christ”. ( No. 29 ) He asserted that by contemplating with greater perseverance the face of Christ, truly present in the Sacrament, we will “train ourselves in the art of prayer” ( No. 32 ) and undertake “that high standard of Christian living” ( No. 31 ), which is an indispensable condition for effectively developing the new evangelisation.

Why the Pope and I are stressing the importance of the full understanding of the Eucharist, in the celebration and in prayer before the Eucharist, is so that we will gradually allow the magnetism of Christ to touch our hearts and to fire us with generosity for the Gospel.

Already on many Thursdays in this Cathedral at this time young people have been touched by the constant love of Christ in the Eucharist and have received his forgiveness and encouragement in the beautiful Sacrament of Reconciliation.

I want tonight to be a real milestone in the life of our Archdiocese. As you return to your parishes and communities remember the power and importance of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. Ask your priests and leaders to pray with you in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, so that throughout the Diocese Holy Hours, times of prayer, will grow and will provide the spiritual refreshment which only the Lord can give. So often we say that we are too tired and yet we find when we come before the Lord in persevering prayer, that he will touch and transform us.

It is our faithfulness to the Great Mystery shown by our observing what the Church asks of us in celebration and adoration that we will find a deeper faith and a surer hope.

“No one is permitted to undervalue the Mystery entrusted to our hands: It is too great for anyone to feel free to treat it lightly and with disregard for its sacredness and its universality.” ( John Paul II, “Ecclesia de Eucharistia”, No. 52 )

Then we may pray with the Church:-

“Come then, Good Shepherd, bread divine,
Still show to us thy mercy sign;
O, feed us, still keep us thine;
So we may see thy glory shine
In fields of immortality.
O thou, the wisest, mightiest, best,
Our present food, our future rest,
Come, make us each thy chosen guest,
Co-heirs of thine, and comrades blest
With saints whose dwelling is with thee.”

+ Denis J. Hart,
Archbishop of Melbourne.