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Annex to The Chancery Notice


Some Reflections on the Active Participation of the Faithful in the Sunday Eucharist

Online Masses have been a valued service to the elderly, the sick and the disabled who are unable to go to church to take part in the Eucharist. Such broadcasts had also proved helpful when there was no possibility of community celebrations (as during the critical stages of the Covid-19 pandemic). Yet no broadcast is comparable to personal participation or can replace it. The Church has always emphasized the central rôle of the Sunday Eucharist in the Christian life. In the midst of the pandemic, Cardinal Robert SARAH, then Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, sent a Letter on 15 August 2020 to the Presidents of the Episcopal Conferences of the Catholic Church, with the theme : “Let us return to the Eucharist with joy!” On the celebration of the liturgy during and after the COVID-19 pandemic; for full text in English, visit http://catholic-dlc.org.hk/CCDDS_Prot_N_432-20_EN.pdf ). The following are the main points of that Letter:

– In order to live and to be Christians, fully realizing our humanity and the desires for good and happiness, we have to be nourished by the Word of the Lord, which in the celebration of the Eucharist becomes a living word, spoken by God for those who, then and there during the Eucharist, open their hearts to listen;

– In order to experience the Paschal Mystery by which God accomplished His Salistic plan, we have to participate in the Sacrifice of the Cross, in which the Lord Jesus gives himself unreservedly to redeem mankind.

– We cannot live without the banquet of the Eucharist. As children of God and as brothers and sisters, we are invited to the table of the Lord to receive the Risen Christ himself, present in body, blood, soul and divinity, as the Bread of heaven. This is the spiritual nourishment that sustains us on our earthly pilgrimage.

– The Church community is convoked by God as His family. We need to meet and have physical contact with our brothers and sisters who share the sonship of God. The Sunday Eucharist is one of the best opportunities for such contact.

– The Church is the house of the Lord, and as such it is also our home. It is the place where we experience the provident presence of the Lord, where we go through the most significant stages of our Christian vocation, namely, baptism, marriage, reception of holy orders, religious profession and funeral, and where we have deep faith experiences: prayers, thanksgiving, spiritual joys and sorrows.

– We cannot be without the Lord’s Day, without Sunday which gives light and meaning to the succession of days of work and to family and social responsibilities.

Broadcasts alone risk depriving us of the sense of adoration and distancing us from a personal and intimate encounter with the incarnate God who gave himself to us not in a virtual way, but really, saying: “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him”. (Jn 6.56). This physical contact with the Lord is vital, indispensable, irreplaceable.

  • By: davc
  • By: davc