Online Edition
April 2014
Vol. XX, No. 2
The Light of Faith and the Eucharist
The sacramental character of faith finds its highest expression in the Eucharist.
The Eucharist is a precious nourishment for faith: an encounter with Christ truly present in the supreme act of His love, the life-giving gift of Himself.
In the Eucharist we find the intersection of faith’s two dimensions. On the one hand, there is the dimension of history: the Eucharist is an act of remembrance,
a making present of the mystery in which the past, as an event of death and resurrection, demonstrates its ability to open up a future, to foreshadow ultimate fulfillment. The liturgy reminds us of this by its repetition of the word hodie, the “today” of the mysteries of salvation.
On the other hand, we also find the dimension which leads from the visible world to the invisible. In the Eucharist we learn to see the heights and depths of reality. The bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ, who becomes present in His passover to the Father: this movement draws us, body and soul, into the movement of all creation towards its fulfillment in God.
Pope Francis
Lumen Fidei §44
June 29, 2013
Adoremus, Society for the Renewal of the Sacred Liturgy
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