Jun 10 2008
God’s Gift of Life
The first International Eucharistic Congress was held in France in 1881. The 49th Congress will be held next week in Quebec City, Canada and will celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of that city and the first Catholic diocese north of Mexico City. In his Mission Intention this month Pope Benedict has asked us to pray for the upcoming Congress. Let us do so today by reflecting on part of the Introduction to the “foundational theological document” which was issued to help the Church prepare for the Congress.
The central theme of the Congress, approved by Pope Benedict XVI, is “The Eucharist, God’s gift for the life of the world.” It is particularly important today to remember God’s gift, for, in the midst of remarkable technological progress, notably in the area of communication, our world experiences a deep interior emptiness that it perceives as an absence of God. Fascinated by its own creative capacities, contemporary humanity tends to forget its Creator and set itself up as the sole master of its own destiny. …
But today human beings are constantly pushing back the limits of our mastery over the transmission and end of life. Unchecked, this power over life and death, although technologically possible, threatens humanity itself. For, in the strong words of Pope John Paul II, a “culture of death” has taken over many secularized societies. The death of God in the culture leads almost inevitably to the death of human beings. We see this, not only in currents of nihilistic thought, but above all in the conflictual and broken relationships that are multiplying at all levels of human experience, disrupting marriage and the family, multiplying ethnic and social conflicts, and increasing the gulf between the rich and the huge majority who are the poor.
Today’s Readings: 1 Kings 17:7-16; Psalm 4:2-5, 7b-8; Matthew 5:13-16
