Denver Catholic

4 AUGUST 2023 | DENVER CATHOLIC A CR I S I S O F FA IT H Pope Francis recently lamented that "Sadly…there are those among the Catholic faithful who believe the Eucharist is more a symbol than the realit y of the Lord's presence and love…[T]he Eucharist is God's response to the deepest hunger of the human heart, the hunger for authentic life, for in the Eucharist Christ himself is truly in our midst, to nourish, console and sustain us on our journey." 1 I am reminded of the words of Pope Benedict XVI's to the Church in Germany in 2011. He commended the Germans for being "superbly organized" and prophet- ically said, "We must honestly admit that we have more than enough by way of structure but not enough by way of Spirit. I would add: the real crisis facing the Church in the western world is a crisis of faith." 2 This crisis of faith exists today, and we are called to believe. We are called to put our faith in Jesus Christ and in his word. When Jesus, in John 6, asks the Twelve if they, too, want to leave after listening to him, Peter responds, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come know that you are the Holy One of God" (Jn 6:67- 69). How I desire for that faith, that love, that confidence to burn in the heart of every believer! L E T J E S U S B E T H E T E ACH E R In acknowledging the crisis of faith and that the crisis extends to lack of faith in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, we must ask the Lord, what must we do? In the Bread of Life discourse, Jesus says, "It is written in the Prophets, 'And they will all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me" (Jn 6:45). When we were praying and discerning Jesus' plan for the Eucharistic Revival in the Archdiocese of Denver, my attention was drawn first to the Bread of Life dis- course in John 6 and then to the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24. In my heart I heard the words, "Let Jesus be the teacher." I cannot stress enough how important it is for us during this Eucharistic Revival to have frequent recourse to these t wo passages and to approach them with the heart of a true disciple. I am convicted that Jesus desires to teach each one of us and reveal his eucharistic mystery more deeply. J O H N 6 In John 6, we encounter Jesus' direct teaching on the Eucharist. If anyone would question whether the Church 's teaching accurately represents Jesus' own teaching, look no further than this chapter where Jesus says: 1 Francis, "Greeting of his Holiness Pope Francis to the Organizing Committee of the Nation Eucharistic Congress int eh United States of America," June 19, 2023, https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2023/june/documents/20230619-comitato-congeuc-usa.html 2 Benedict XVI, "Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI," Sept. 24, 2011, https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/speeches/2011/september/ documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20110924_zdk-freiburg.html. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my f lesh…Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the f lesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my f lesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my f lesh is true food and my blood is true drink." JN 6:51, 53-56

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