he celebration of Christmas this year and the New Year's day 2005
falls within the celebration of the Year of the Eucharist which runs
from October 2004 till October 2005.
he mystery we celebrate every year at Christmas is what St. John the Evangelist proclaims in his Gospel: "And the WORD became flesh and
dwelt among us." ( 1: 14 )
nother mode of his dwelling among us, is the Eucharist which is the
sacrifice of Christ made present among us. The WORD of God took flesh
in the virginal womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary who conceived by the
power of the Holy Spirit. At his birth Jesus became visible in his
physical body. When he instituted the Eucharist, He wanted to remain
present among us under the consecrated species of bread and wine
within and outside the Mass, the Blessed Virgin Mary being the first
tabernacle during the months she carried Jesus in her womb.
his is what the Holy Father Pope John Paul II wrote in his Apostolic
letter for the Year of the Eucharist: "At the start of this Year of
the Eucharist, I repeat the words which I wrote in my Apostolic
letter: "At the coming of the third Millennium: The Year 2000 will
be intensely Eucharistic; in the Sacrament of the Eucharist the
Saviour who took flesh in Mary's womb twenty centuries ago, continues
to offer himself to humanity as the source of divine life. "
hroughout the Christmas Season (from Christmas night until the Epiphany), every year we contemplate the mystery of Christ's birth,
the Son of God who became also the Son of Mary. As the great legacy
of the great Jubilee Year 2000 celebrations, the Pope exhorts us to
contemplate the face of Christ for a greater pastoral engagement of
the Church. Coupled with this, the Pope continues, a commitment to
the cultivation of Eucharistic life is needed. One way of contemplating the face of Christ is through a Marian perspective, that is
we contemplate the face of Christ like the Blessed Virgin Mary did,
aimed at evoking within our hearts the same love that Mary bore for
her Son.
he Year of the Eucharist takes place against a background enriched
by the passage of years, while remaining ever rooted in the theme of
Christ and the contemplation of his face. Here again the Blessed
Virgin Mary "Woman of the Eucharist" is presented as the model for
a Eucharistic spirituality.
he Rosary, this traditional prayer, when it is profoundly understood
in the biblical and christocentric form, focusing on the name and the
face of Jesus as contemplated in his mysteries, will prove a particularly fitting introduction to Eucharistic contemplation, a
contemplation carried out with Mary as our companion and guide.
"
e hail the true body born of the Virgin Mary."These are the opening
words of a hymn on the theme of the Eucharist. These words, I
consider, sum up the message I want to bring to our Catholic faithful
for this Christmas season. As we fix our gaze on the Infant Jesus,
born of the Virgin Mary,our faith tells us that He is the WORD of God
became flesh in a human person and as we contemplate the consecrated
species of bread and wine, our faith tells us that this is the real
body and blood of Christ.
esus could be seen in his human body by his contemporaries in the
Holy Land. His was a real physical presence, whereas our faith tells
us that He is also really present in the Eucharist, a sacramental
presence of his.
he exhortations of the Holy Father should be given serious consideration. First, to contemplate the face of Christ from the time of his
birth until his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven, and secondly,
to rediscover the real presence of Jesus in the Most Blessed
Sacrament. The Pope stresses the fact that, faced with the great
challenges of our time, we need to remind ourselves that we shall be
saved only by Christ and by the assurance which He gives us: "I am
with you always, yes to the close of age." (Mt. 28:20) And this is
the Church's programme for the third Millennium: "Jesus Christ to be
made known, loved and imitated so that with Him we may transform
history until its fulfillment in the heavenly Jerusalem." This is a
programme which does not change with shifts of times and cultures
for 'CHRIST IS THE SAME YESTERDAY, TODAY AND FOREVER' (Heb. 13:8).
KUWAIT, 25 DECEMBER 2004
