Pope Benedict XVI: The Eucharist is an antidote to today's individualistic culture
In today's individualistic culture, the Eucharist is an "antidote", which operates
in the minds and hearts of believers and continually sows in them the logic of the
communion, service, sharing, in other words, the logic of the Gospel. Those were Pope
Benedict XVI’s words speaking to the faithful in St Peter’s Square at Sunday’s Angelus.
He was referring to the feast of Corpus Christi which is celebrated in many
countries this Sunday.
“In many places today the Church celebrates the Solemnity
of the Body and Blood of Christ. May our hearts rejoice in the great gift of Jesus,
the Bread of Life, who has given himself for us and has come to nourish us.”
Without
the Eucharist, Pope Benedict said the Church does not exist because it “constitutes
the Church’s most precious treasure”.
It is he added, “like the beating heart
that gives life to the whole mystical body of the Church, a social organism based
on the spiritual but real tie to Christ.”
The Pope then recalled the way life
of the early Christians in Jerusalem which he said was the sign of a new style of
life, and always, he added, in the history of the Church, the communion with the Body
of Christ is the remedy of mind and will, to find taste for truth and the common good.
The Pope also recalled the proclamation of several new Blesseds over the weekend,
among whom were three German priests killed by the Nazis in 1943, and a nun and two
priests Beatified in Milan. Listen to Lydia O'Kane's report