Angelo Scola - eng vers » eucharist

Pictures from the Redeemer’s celebration in Venice

ufficiostampa — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:03:46 +0000

Let us taste and adore Christ present here and now: the inexhaustible fascination of Venice is marked by this new and eternal covenant with God

ufficiostampa — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 07:53:07 +0000

“On the stump of the ancient memorial Jesus grafts the radical novelty of his redemptive sacrifice: “This is my body… This is my blood” (Mk 14, 22 and 24). In the semitic language “Take, this is my body” (Mk 14,22) simply and paradoxically means “This is myself.” By operating the substantial transformation of the bread and the wine into his body made into a gift and his blood poured out, Jesus anticipates the glorious passion on Golgotha.

In the Eucharistic supper his disciples participate in it beforehand. but we also, two thousand years afterwards, have the immense gift of joining it. Let us taste and adore Christ present here and now, winner over time and space, master of the cosmos. The blood of the Redeemer circulates through the Eucharist as a vital lymph in the Church…”

Homely given by H.E. Angelo Card. Scola, Patriarch of Venice for the Corpus Domini Sunday.

Ex 24,3-8; Ps 115; Heb 9,11-15; Mk 14,12-16.22-26

1. After rising early in the morning, Moses builds an altar and, aided by “young men of the children of Israel” (Ex 24,5), draws from the sacrificial oxen the blood which, after having been poured into basins, he is going to sprinkle half on the altar and half on the people. The people, summoned for this purpose, listens to Moses reading the Book of the covenant. Above all, the people consents to it by shouting in one voice “All the commandments that the Lord has given, we will obey” (Ex 24,3).
Let us, in this moment, pull ourselves away from any possible distraction in order to immerse ourselves into this sacred scene. What does it express?
In the Old Testament blood is life and belongs to God. It signifies that, because of the covenant, from now on the same life is participated by God and by His “firstborn” Israel. God and his people belong to each other because, in a sense, what is created between them is a blood relation. Thus, we understand the concluding act of that most ancient liturgical action, which Moses brings to a close with a sober but solemn statement: “Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you based on all these words” (Ex 24,8).

2. “Not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood” (Heb 9,12) Jesus places himself as “the mediator of the new covenant” (Heb 9,15). The life that springs from His blood is eternal life. The blood of Christ has the disarming power of reality. In order to expiate for man’s sin, for our sin, Christ offers His own life. This is why Christ’s redemption, unlike the ancient liberation, is not transitory and does not need to be continuously renewed, but rather is unique and definitive (“an eternal redemption” Heb 9,12). “This is thus the man who in himself alone offered all that he knew was necessary for the fulfillment of our redemption, he who is at the same time priest, sacrifice, God and temple: priest, through whom we are reconciled, sacrifice, which reconciles us, God, to whom we are reconciled, temple in which we are reconciled” (St. Fulgentius of Ruspe. from the treaty: On the faith in Peter).

3. The sublime prayer pronounced by Jesus when he institutes the Holy Eucharist reveals forcefully that his Covenant brings us the gift of unending life.
On the stump of the ancient memorial Jesus grafts the radical novelty of his redemptive sacrifice: “This is my body… This is my blood” (Mk 14, 22 and 24). In the semitic language “Take, this is my body” (Mk 14,22) simply and paradoxically means “This is myself.” By operating the substantial transformation of the bread and the wine into his body made into a gift and his blood poured out, Jesus anticipates the glorious passion on Golgotha. In the Eucharistic supper his disciples participate in it beforehand. but we also, two thousand years afterwards, have the immense gift of joining it. Let us taste and adore Christ present here and now, winner over time and space, master of the cosmos. The blood of the Redeemer circulates through the Eucharist as a vital lymph in the Church and gives us a foretaste of an intimacy with God without any shadows and any boundaries.
And we, through our full, aware and active participation in the Holy Mass, are progressively educated to that “worship fit for a human being” (“spiritual worship” Rm 12,1) which is the offering of our whole life. Thus, nothing of what we live is banal if we receive it from His hands, but everything – every circumstance and every relationship – is taken over by the same sacramental power as the Eucharistic act.

4. Let us ask ourselves with a contrite heart: are we worthy of such a great gift? Do we really desire above everything else that our life take this Eucharistic shape? (Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, 70). Our way of participating in the Eucharist opens us up to share with our fellow human beings every aspect of life starting from the liberation that was inaugurated by the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let us begin by not forgetting the still enormous mass of people who do not have bread to eat.
In this solemn vesper, may these questions reach the heart of all the Christians of Venice, who by now have been engaged for five years in the Pastoral Visitation: let the Holy Eucharist make us rediscover the sweet Christ among us and in us.

5. Shortly we will carry in procession the sacramental Jesus in the heart of our city. We will do this so that His presence may bless our Venice, and Venetians and guests may adore God truly present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. With this gesture we want to remind visually Venetians and guests that the inexhaustible fascination of Venice is indelibly marked by this new and eternal covenant with God that lives and pulsates in the Eucharistic reality.
Venice, never forget your Lord, the Nicopeia Virgin, your saints!
Humbly proud of belonging to the new people of God that travels across history, we shall walk behind the white host certain that Jesus present and alive is the power that gives new strength to every human being. We too, the so-called post-secular and post-modern people, are pilgrims, more than ever. Why should we then forgo the Panis Angelorum, factus cibus viatorum? Amen.

English translation by Carlo Lanellotti

“Truth is not a doctrine, is this Man”. The Palm Sunday’s homily in Sain Mark

ufficiostampa — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 17:23:33 +0000

“The passion of Our Lord is not a myth, but it consumes itself «under Pontius Pilate» and standing on the solid base of history. However, in the same time, the manifestation of what sorrowfully accompanies the whole history of humanity from the beginning to the end: God is beaten and held in contempt while He humbles himself to the extreme level for us and to take over himself our sins (kenosis is the total emptying of oneself).
Let us therefore com-move ourselves and get involved in the life of this Man. Truth is not a doctrine, but it is first of all this Man, the Man of sorrows who for love experiences suffering….

The Palm Sunday’s homily of the Patriarch His Eminence cardinal Angelo Scola given in the Basilica of Saint Mark.

1. As we have often mentioned, Holy Week, starting with this solemn celebration, is the typical week: the events that our Mother the Church makes us live on today and during the Easter Triduum give sense to time and history, enlightening the existence of each one of us and of all men of every time.
The passion of Our Lord is not a myth, but it consumes itself «under Pontius Pilate» and standing on the solid base of history. However, in the same time, the manifestation of what sorrowfully accompanies the whole history of humanity from the beginning to the end: God is beaten and held in contempt while He humbles himself to the extreme level for us and to take over himself our sins (kenosis is the total emptying of oneself).
Let us therefore com-move ourselves and get involved in the life of this Man. Truth is not a doctrine, but it is first of all this Man, the Man of sorrows who for love experiences suffering.

2. The account of the Passion according to Mark is a kind of a transcript of the events. The evangelist offers us facts, an objective narration, highly dramatic, without any reference to feelings. Through violent actions and pressing dialogues is described the fight between good – yet this Man «did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave, and became as men are, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross» (Phil 2: 6-8) – and evil without excluding the tremendous blows.

3. Mark is not afraid of scandalizing us with his strong expressions. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus is afraid («and a sudden fear came over him, and great distress» Mk 14: 33), he stagers exhausted («threw himself on the ground» Vs. 35). In the account of the arrest and in the pressing events one perceives the violent fury overwhelming over him: «Even while he was still speaking, Judas one of the Twelve, came up with a number of men armed with swords and clubs, sent by the chief priests and the scribes and the elders» (Vs. 43). In Mark’s narration, unlike that of the other synoptic Gospels, Jesus does not say anything to the traitor nor to the disciple hitting the servant of the high priest.
His silence impresses in front of the deafening clamour of evil («Several, indeed, brought false evidence against him» (Vs. 57); «And they all gave their verdict: he deserved to die. Some of »hem started spitting at him and, blindfolding him, began hitting him with their fists and shouting, “Play the prophet!” And the attendants rained blows on him» Vs. 64-65). Peter, after having followed him from a distance, terrified he persists in his betrayal («but he denied it saying: I do not know, I do not understand , what you are talking about» (Vs. 71). At the end of the scene Jesus is abandoned by all.

4. After the supplication of the Son of God crucified «My God, my God , why have you abandoned me?» (Mk 15:34), «But Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last» (Vs. 37): the life of the Saviour of the world ends with an appalling cry giving voice to the inconceivable and unspeakable injustice. Yet, it does not manage to detach Him from the relationship that connects him with the Father. Suffering, even dreadfully, which without Him is an inescapable principle of suspicion leading to hostility and separation, while with Jesus man recoups the possibility to open himself and to abandon himself totally. This firm certainty of God’s love is witnessed in the passage of Isaiah which we have just listened in the First Reading. The servant of Yahweh, prophecy of Christ the Lord – the Passion according to Mark is full of scripture quotations – is he who receives everything from the Father:- «The Lord has given me a disciple’s tongue. Each morning he wakes me to hear, to listen like a disciple. The Lord has opened my ear. For my part, I made no resistance, neither did I turn away… The Lord comes to my help» (Is 50; 4-7).

5. “Waste” is the measure of love. The whole Passion is under the sign of “auto-waste” of God’s love for man.
The woman anointing Jesus’ head is not called by her name. She does not pronounce one word. Her gesture speaks for her. And it was so loud that Jesus himself declares: «Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached all over the world, what she has done will be told in memory of her» (Vs. 9).The expression «in memory of he» recalls the words pronounced in the Eucharistic Supper «Do this in memory of me» and seals the forever an essential component of love.

6. «The centurion, who was standing in front of him, had seen how he had died and he said: “In truth this man was a son of God”» (Mk 15:39).
In this moment of pitch dark Jesus’ mystery is fully revealed. The witness is he who has limpid eyes and a simple heart to recognize Him and proclaim Him to all.
We beseech the Holy Virgin to accompany us in following Jesus our beloved Saviour, in this Holy Week. Amen!