Focolare Movement

Eucharist for the World

Jun 18, 2017

Sunday, June 18th is the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, a feast instituted by Pope Urban IV in 1264 which celebrates the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. We offer some thoughts of theologian, philosopher and once bishop of Aachen, Germany, Klaus Hemmerle (1929-1994).

20170618-01“A piece of bread, transformed by Jesus to satisfy the hunger of every heart: this is Jesus’s story reduced to the bare bones. It’s ours: the little path for his love, love strong in weakness.” (From an article, May 1980) “Every time we celebrate the Eucharist, what takes place is not only a pleasant communion with others in the spirit of Jesus as a mere idea or feeling. No, every time we celebrate the Eucharist the most radical wall of existence is brought down, the wall of death; what happens to us is pure gift, gift that is truly conferred to us. It’s proximity, proximity within which the mutual distances – both interior and exterior – are obliterated. In the Eucharist, not only do we become one body with each other, but we become His body for the world. For anybody who is truly permeated by the Eucharist this world and this society can no longer remain indifferent. They now have this dynamic in them, dynamics of God who offers himself, who gives himself, who carries with humanity as something of his very own and intimate to him, all that humanity carries, all that it does.” (Conference, August 31, 1977) “What’s important is not only that we have the Eucharist here in our community. We retain the spirit of Jesus only if and when we concretely love the other’s community as our own, if and when our communities open beyond the barriers that separate them and if in the midst of the communities lives the Lord.” (From an article, May 1979) Source:  La luce dentro le coseKlaus Hemmerle (Rome: Città Nuova, 1998), 190, 186, 187, 192.

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