ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Dear Brothers and Sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,

It is with praise and gratitude to Almighty God that we come together to celebrate this Liturgy during the 49th International Eucharistic Congress. This week has been a time of great grace in celebration of our Eucharistic Lord, who gathers His people from the ends of the earth to be nourished by Him, to be united in Him, and to adore Him truly present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. I am greatly honored to be with you, my brother Bishops, priests, deacons, religious sisters and brothers, seminarians, and lay faithful, all fellow pilgrims, to offer this Mass in thanksgiving for the Eucharist, gift of God for the life of the world.

On behalf of all of us gathered here, I extend deep thanks to the Rector and Staff of the Basilica of Saint Anne de Beaupre for their welcome and hospitality. This year, the Shrine celebrates its 350th anniversary. Founded by the Jesuit Fathers, this Shrine is a magnificent tribute to the untiring zeal of the first missionaries in North America, an edifice built as a reminder of the enduring witness of the Catholic Church and of the sacrifice of those who worked to spread our holy Catholic Faith.

This Basilica is dedicated under the patronage of Saint Anne, the Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Grandmother of Jesus, the Word Made Flesh. Before the celebrated image of Saint Anne, we see the many tokens of gratitude for numerous miraculous healings which have been attributed to the intercession of Saint Anne. Certainly Saint Anne enjoys a privileged place in heaven, just as she had a privileged place in salvation history. As the Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Anne, along with her husband, Saint Joachim, were models of piety, devotion and fidelity. Undoubtedly, the young Virgin of Nazareth learned much from her mother and assuredly imitated her in so many ways, especially in how to be a mother. How humbled and overjoyed Saint Anne must have been when she learned that Mary was chosen to be the Mother of the Lord. What tremendous emotions must have moved her gracious and generous heart when she held within her arms her grandson, the Incarnate Son of God.

We unite ourselves now with Saint Anne in appreciation and adoration of the mystery of the Incarnation, the miracle of God become flesh. Born in time, born in a human body of the Immaculate Virgin, the Eternal Son of God delighted to live in a human family—the Holy Family—and to walk and live among the poor and lowly. We also contemplate the Paschal Mystery, the Mystery of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, through which the Redemption of the world was accomplished. In the gift of the Holy Eucharist, we celebrate and adore the Incarnation and the Paschal Mystery as Jesus, who died on the cross and rose from the dead, gives us Himself, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. In the Holy Eucharist, Jesus comes to us to nourish and sustain us on our pilgrimage through life. He sanctifies us and He unites us with Himself and with each other in a communion of charity. In this great sacrament, Jesus continues to dwell with love and delight among His people.

The Liturgy of the Word affirms our understanding of the Eucharist as the gift of God for the life of the world. In the story of Elijah, recounted in the First Book of Kings, the Prophet is fleeing the wrath of the wicked Queen Jezebel. Feeling alone, frightened and exhausted, Elijah rested under a tree in the desert and prayed for death. God, however, still had work for Elijah to accomplish and through the ministration of angels, God provided food and drink to sustain the prophet on his journey to Horeb, the Mountain of the Lord. There, God would reveal Himself to Elijah and give him another mission to anoint new kings as well as a prophet to succeed him. This Old Testament account is a foreshadowing of the wondrous food which God in His compassion and mercy would provide for His pilgrim people, the Church, as we journey through the perils of this life in fulfillment of our mission to give witness to Jesus. This wondrous food which strengthens and sustains us is Jesus Himself, who invites us to taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

Another view of the compassion of God is detailed for us in the Gospel according to Saint Luke in which the Evangelist relates the miraculous multiplication of loaves and fish. After healing many who were ill, Jesus also wants to feed the multitudes who came to Him. With only five loaves and two fish, Jesus feeds five thousand people. This, too, foreshadows the great miracle which is the Holy Eucharist. In this great sacrament, for two thousand years, Jesus has provided Himself as food for countless multitudes of believers.

Saint Paul, too, in his First Letter to the Corinthians, writes of the true nature of the Eucharist. Through the Eucharist, we participate in—we share in—the Body and Blood of Christ, and we experience the effect of unity, of communion: "we, though many, are one Body, for we all partake of the one loaf" (1 Cor 10: 17). This communion is so evident, with every Mass we celebrate, and, in a special way, is so vividly displayed during this International Eucharistic Congress. This Eucharistic Congress draws us from all over the world in a dramatic and eloquent demonstration of the catholicity—the universality—of the Church. We give a living witness to the power of the Eucharist, the sacrament which unites us from the many nations of the world, in a bond of charity, a communion of love. This is the love of Jesus Himself, which, then, we are called to imitate and to share for the transformation of the world.

Pope Benedict XVI, in his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, explains: "The union of Christ brought about by the Eucharist also brings a newness to our social relations... Indeed, ‘union with Christ is also union with all those to whom he gives himself. I cannot possess Christ just for myself; I can belong to him only in union with all those who have become, or who will become, his own’"(no. 89). Our communion in Christ sends us forth to live in charity, to be instruments of reconciliation, bearers of mercy, and proclaimers of Gospel values to a troubled world.

Like Elijah in the desert, contemporary humanity is tired and often frightened. Like the multitudes who came to Jesus in the wilderness, modern men and women — both young and old—are hungry and in need of healing. They long to hear the powerful truths proclaimed by Jesus, to witness the wonders which He works, to be healed by His transforming power, and to be nourished by the food which only He can provide. Through the preaching and sacramental ministry of the Church, men and women and children encounter Jesus, receive Jesus, and are sustained by Him in their earthly pilgrimage toward heaven. But, all along the way during their pilgrimage, they must give witness to Jesus. They must live the Gift which they receive. They must share the blessings which have been lavished upon them. Pope Benedict XVI declares: "We become witnesses when, through our actions, words and way of being, Another makes himself present. Witness could be described as the means by which the truth of God’s love comes to men and women in history, inviting them to accept freely this radical newness" (Sacramentum Caritatis, 85). Our participation in the Body and Blood of Christ, then, moves us, impels us to be renewed in Christ and to live in charity with all people.

We stand at a critical moment in history, a time when violence and terror grip a wounded world. If we, from all nations of the world can worship together our Eucharistic Lord, then what a difference we can make when we return to our homes, more deeply in love with the Eucharist and more conscious of the call to charity toward all as brothers and sisters. I implore all of you, especially the lay faithful, to help others appreciate anew the meaning of Sunday as the Lord’s Day, a day of worship, of charity, and of rest. Help others to recognize our great need for the Eucharist as the center of our lives, as the source of all the good that we do, and as the goal to which we direct all of our endeavors. Be sustained by Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament as you receive Him worthily and often. Immerse yourself in the contemplation of the Face of Jesus through Eucharistic Adoration. Be convinced that, through the Eucharist, Jesus calls you to bear His love to the world. In words borrowed from the Servant of God Pope John Paul II: "The Christian who takes part in the Eucharist learns to become a promoter of communion, peace and solidarity in every situation. More than ever, our troubled world, which began the new millennium with the specter of terrorism and the tragedy of war, demands that Christians learn to experience the Eucharist as a great school of peace, forming men and women who, at various levels of responsibility in social, cultural and political life, can become promoters of dialogue and communion" (Mane Nobiscum Domine, 27).

Through the intercession of Saint Anne, and her daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, may we always give witness to the miracle of the Word Made Flesh, and may we bear the love and peace of Jesus Christ to all people. Amen!