By Padre Mike Nsikak Umoh, CSN
At the Closing Mass of the fifth National Eucharistic Congress in Benin-City, Nigeria, held on the open field of St. Paul’s Minor Seminary, in the early hours of Sunday November 13, 2022, the Apostolic Nuncio to Nigeria, Most Rev. Antonio Guido Filipazzi, exhorted the pilgrims that the mystery of the Holy Eucharist is a living embodiment of Jesus Christ Himself and not a mere object.
In explaining this mystery in his homily, the Archbishop said that in the Eucharist, “we encounter the Lord Jesus, true God and true man, our Redeemer, in the mystery of His Death and Resurrection.”
He said, “let me reiterate: the Eucharist is not a thing, it is He! And the Eucharist is for us the commandment to put into practice. The Eucharist is for us the example to imitate. The Eucharist is, for us, the source of strength to live our whole Christian life.”
Alluding to the first reading, the Nuncio stated that “God says through the prophet Malachi that the day of divine judgement is approaching, in which the proud and unjust will be condemned, while for the righteous, the sun of righteousness will shine out.”
By application, he explained that “the divine Judge” referred to in the text by Prophet Malachi is, “in fact, compared to a shining and burning sun.” Based on this analogy, he queried thus: “Can we not see here prophesied the Lord Jesus, who in the ‘Benedictus’ sung by Zechariah, the father of St. John the Baptist, and prayed daily in the liturgy of the hours, is called “the dawn from on high?”
“In this regard, it is significant to note that monstrances for adoration and procession of the Eucharist often have rays so that the consecrated Host appears to us as the Eucharistic Sun, shining and burning. Thus, the Lord Jesus in the Eucharist is, at the same time, the Judge and the Sun: a Sun that shines with light for the righteous, while it is a fire that burns like straw for the wicked.”
The Papal Envoy further called on the faithful to, in line with the theme of the Congress, become more and more the Eucharist” by making their lives to “mirror the sacrament of the Altar to which we so often approach.”
Additionally, stressing that the Eucharist is the source of unity in the Church, he expressed that “the Eucharistic Congress, which places at the centre of prayer and reflection, the truth that we must become this Sacrament, reminds us that this entails not only attention to the “weak” but also the commitment to be one, to live unity in the Church.”
“It is one bread not in the appearances but in the fact that every host contains one and the same Christ. It causes the unity of the Church by uniting those who partake of it with Christ and in Christ,” he said.
Applying today’s life challenges to Eucharistic living, the Prelate observed that difficulties in the Church community often arise not only from external attacks, such as persecution or discrimination, but more so from the wrong attitudes of the baptized – priests, consecrated persons and laity.
He however encouraged that in spite of these differences and shortcomings, “the Church, which is born of the Eucharist and is constantly nourished by the Eucharist, must be a community in which we do not seek our interests but those of Christ and the true good of others.”
“In the Church, one must not act driven by the interests of a family, an ethnic group, an association, a religious institute, a parish, a Diocese or a political party, against and to the detriment of others, but must always seek unity in truth, humility, charity and service.”
The homilist and principal celebrant of the Mass concluded with a prayer that from the Eucharistic Congress, the Church in Nigeria, in all her components and levels, would come out with the commitment to be even more “one, so that the world may believe.”
