Living the Eucharist means loving the poor – Cardinal Quevedo

CEBU CITY – How exactly does one live the Eucharist,” the mantra of Eucharistic congresses? For Orlando Cardinal Quevedo, it’s simpleand practice what you preach, and have genuine love for the poor and oppressed. Our sharing in the Eucharist the Body and Blood of Christ is also a sharing in his mission,” said the prelate. [I]n the Eucharist we are sent by the spirit of Jesus on mission – a mission to the poor, the oppressed and marginalized – to all who are needy and in need of love and service.” To be Eucharistic is to live the life of Jesus, a life of love and service. It is by living Eucharistically that we act Eucharistically … We see a host of burning issues that need Eucharistic action. We cannot be indifferent to them.”Where are the men?In the Philippines, noted the prelate, the men seem to be missing in Sunday Masses. And even if the churches are full every week, only a fifth of parishioners are able to attend. Thousands receive Holy Communion, even if only a handful go to confession.So, even if on Sundays we seem to be a nation of Saints,” social ills remain. There is massive poverty, homelessness, street children, human trafficking, the drug problem, and other forms of criminality. And media reports speak of horrendous corruption from top to bottom,” Quevedo told 51st International Eucharistic Congress delegates at the at the Waterfront Hotel. Our faith is focused on externals and rituals, processions and private devotions. Deep down, they manifest the Filipino’s authentic awareness of God’s presence in everything that is blessed or holy,” added the Archbishop of Cotabato. But the question remainsand What does the Holy Eucharist really mean? How should we participate?What does it tell us about how we should live?”‘A being for others’Quevedo, 76, the archbishop of Cotabato, recalled how as a young theology student in the 1960s he learned a classic Latin theological formula, Eucharistia facit Ecclesiam, Ecclesia facit Eucharistitam,” which means The Eucharist makes the Church the Church makes the Eucharist.”According to him, the Eucharist makes the Church because the Church was borne out of the Paschal Mystery – the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ. The Church makes the Eucharist, he explained, because in the Mass, the New Sacrifice, the Church commemorates Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross for the salvation of men.But it can also mean more, Quevedo said, because the Church is living and operating in our space and time.”He reminded IEC delegates that the Eucharist is communion, the deepest kind of union, and communion with Jesus is with his very being, a being for others.”(Felipe Francisco / CBCP News)