{"id":16812,"date":"2020-06-15T09:47:37","date_gmt":"2020-06-15T14:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/satodayscatholic.org\/?p=16812"},"modified":"2020-06-15T09:47:38","modified_gmt":"2020-06-15T14:47:38","slug":"pope-francis-the-eucharist-gives-us-christs-healing-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/satodayscatholic.org\/pope-francis-the-eucharist-gives-us-christs-healing-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Francis: The Eucharist gives us Christ’s healing love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Courtney Mares<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vatican City, Jun 14, 2020 \/ 04:00 am MT (CNA<\/a>).- Christ\u2019s presence in the Eucharist heals wounds and transforms bitter negativity into the joy of Lord, Pope Francis said in his homily for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Eucharist brings us the Father\u2019s faithful love, which heals our sense of being orphans. It gives us Jesus\u2019 love, which transformed a tomb from an end to a beginning, and in the same way can transform our lives. It fills our hearts with the consoling love of the Holy Spirit, who never leaves us alone and always heals our wounds,\u201d Pope Francis said June 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery time we receive him, he reminds us that we are precious, that we are guests he has invited to his banquet, friends with whom he wants to dine. And not only because he is generous, but because he is truly in love with us. He sees and loves the beauty and goodness that we are,\u201d he said in St. Peter\u2019s Basilica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pope Francis offered Mass for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, a feast established in the 13th century following a Eucharistic miracle that led a host to bleed at the words of consecration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Eucharist is not simply an act of remembrance; it is a fact: the Lord\u2019s Passover is made present once again for us. In Mass the death and resurrection of Jesus are set before us,\u201d Pope Francis said in his homily for the feast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Solemnity of Corpus Christi, meaning the \u201cBody of Christ\u201d in Latin, is traditionally celebrated on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday or, in some countries including the United States and Italy, on the Sunday following that feast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ provides an opportunity for the Church to focus on Christ\u2019s real presence in the Eucharist, which Pope Francis said satisfies the deepest desires of our hearts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Lord, offering himself to us in the simplicity of bread, also invites us not to waste our lives in chasing the myriad illusions that we think we cannot do without, yet that leave us empty within,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Eucharist satisfies our hunger for material things and kindles our desire to serve. It raises us from our comfortable and lazy lifestyle and reminds us that we are not only mouths to be fed, but also his hands, to be used to help feed others.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pope Francis said that Jesus approaches gently \u201cin the disarming simplicity of the Host.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnly love can heal fear at its root and free us from the self-centeredness that imprisons us. And that is what Jesus does.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe comes as Bread broken in order to break open the shells of our selfishness. He gives of himself in order to teach us that only by opening our hearts can we be set free from our interior barriers, from the paralysis of the heart,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many people have been hurt by lack of affection and \u201cbitter disappointments caused by those who should have given them love and instead orphaned their hearts,\u201d Francis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe would like to go back and change the past, but we cannot,\u201d he said. \u201cGod, however, can heal these wounds by placing within our memory a greater love: his own love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Lord knows that evil and sins do not define us; they are diseases, infections. And he comes to heal them with the Eucharist, which contains the antibodies to our negative memory. … We will always remember our failures, troubles, problems at home and at work, our unrealized dreams. But their weight will not crush us because Jesus is present even more deeply, encouraging us with his love,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God gave the world the gift of the Eucharist because he knows how easily people can forget him in their weakness, the pope said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n