Theme: The Eucharist: A communion and Summit of
Love
In this liturgy of the evening mass of
the Lord’s Supper, the Holy Mother Church commemorates three principal
mysteries; the institution of the Eucharist, the institution of the priesthood
and Christ’s commandment of brotherly love. Our reflection this evening will be
based on these mysteries.
The
Institution of the Eucharist: The first reading (Exodus 12:1-8,
11-14) gives us a pre-figure of the institution of the Eucharist which is the
Christian Passover meal. In the second reading (1 Cor. 11:23-26), St. Paul
narrates the manner with which Christ instituted this great sacrament and gave
his apostles the mandate to celebrate it in his memory.
The Eucharist is a topic that can
never be exhausted because it is a theology about God which cannot be fully
comprehended. For want of time and space, we shall concentrate on the Eucharist
as a communion.
Bishop John Okoye in his Lenten pastoral letter for 2012 describes the celebration of the Eucharist as the highest expression of the identity of the Church as a communion. This is because it maintains the communion between the Church and the Triune God, the communion between the Church and the faithful and the communion between the faithful themselves.
Pope John Paul II points out that celebrating the Eucharist however, cannot be the starting point of this communion, it presupposes that communion already exists, a communion it seeks to consolidate and bring to perfection (Ecclesia de Euchariatia, no. 35).
Bishop John Okoye in his Lenten pastoral letter for 2012 describes the celebration of the Eucharist as the highest expression of the identity of the Church as a communion. This is because it maintains the communion between the Church and the Triune God, the communion between the Church and the faithful and the communion between the faithful themselves.
Pope John Paul II points out that celebrating the Eucharist however, cannot be the starting point of this communion, it presupposes that communion already exists, a communion it seeks to consolidate and bring to perfection (Ecclesia de Euchariatia, no. 35).
Beloved brothers and sisters, today we
experience rancor and discord not just among Christians but
