Pope Francis: the Eucharist transforms our life

August 17, 2015

Reflecting on the day’s Gospel reading (Jn. 6:51-58), Pope Francis devoted his August 16 Sunday Angelus address to the Holy Eucharist.

“The Eucharist is not a private prayer or a beautiful spiritual experience, it is not a simple commemoration of what Jesus has done in the Last Supper,” he said to the crowds that had gathered in St. Peter’s Square. “The Eucharist is a ‘memorial,’ that is, an act that actualizes and makes present the event of the death and resurrection of Jesus: the bread is truly His Body given to us; the wine is truly His Blood that has been shed.”

The Pope added:

The Eucharist is Jesus who gives Himself entirely to us. By nourishing ourselves from Him and remaining in Him through the Eucharistic Communion, if we do it with faith, it transforms our life; it transforms it into a gift to God and a gift to our brothers. To nourish ourselves from that “bread of life” means being in tune with the heart of Christ, to assimilate His choices, His thoughts, His behavior. It means entering into a dynamic of sacrificial love and become a person of peace, of forgiveness, of reconciliation of sharing in solidarity. It is the same as Jesus has done.

 

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Further information:

• Angelus Domini 2015.08.16 (Vatican YouTube)
• Le parole del Papa alla recita dell’Angelus, 16.08.2015 (Holy See Press Office)
• Zenit translation
• Pope Angelus: The Eucharist is Jesus who gives himself to us (Vatican Radio)