The Eucharist and Masses for the family

In his homily at the Mass preceding the Eucharistic procession for the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, on June 10, 2004, Blessed John Paul II explained the importance of the Eucharist with the subsequent words: “There is a very close relationship between ‘building the Eucharist’ and proclaiming Christ”. Speaking within the context of the Year of the Eucharist, the Vicar of Christ highlighted that the Eucharist is a splendid opportunity for Christians to deepen their prayer lives.

Every baptised person is called to interiorise the Eucharist more intensely into his/her life. Furthermore, the Pope encouraged that Christians seize every occasion to adore the Blessed Sacrament. Thanks to adoration and authentic involvement with the Eucharist, God’s children around the globe will be “proclaiming Christ”!

At a time when our families, with a long Christian tradition, are seriously threatened by the plague of divorce legislation in our country, the moment has come to counter this social and moral evil by proclaiming once more God and Christ’s logic for marriage and the family. With this purpose in their minds and hearts, our Bishops entitled their pastoral letter for this year Lent, God’s Reasoning – Christ’s Reasoning. In it they made it clear that divorce gravely offends God and the human person’s dignity simply because it goes against God’s intended happiness for the human being.

“One episode in the life of the Lord Jesus clearly demonstrates God’s plan in the context of marriage and the family (Mt 19, 3-10). When confronted by a group of Pharisees on the subject of divorce, Jesus showed them that he was disappointed and hurt. In the same way God was hurt by the choice made by Adam and Eve. The Pharisees believed that they could create a better society built on the possibility of divorce rather than on the stability which marriage provides… Do I believe and allow myself to be guided by the reasoning of God and his plan for creation when he created man and woman in complete unity as ‘one body’, or am I led by human logic which is detached from God’s plan, leading to the destruction of this unity as a result of divorce?”.

St John Vianney used to say: “All the good works in the world are not equal to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass because they are the works of men; but the Mass is the work of God. Martyrdom is nothing in comparison for it is but the sacrifice of man to God; but the Mass is the sacrifice of God for man”. Empowered as it is by the “life-giving Spirit” (1 Cor 15, 45), the source of new love, the Mass is a magnificent milieu where sound catechesis on marriage can be imparted.

The homily is the ideal part where the faithful are encouraged to view marriage as a community of love and life, deeply rooted and profoundly expressed in that lifelong commitment of mutual self-giving and total fidelity which finds its exemplar in Christ’s faithful love for his bride, the Church. From the Eucharist, especially the moment of communion, our families learn once again the vitality of the ethos of “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5, 22-23).

In his apostolic letter at the closure of the great jubilee of the year 2000, Novo Millenio Ineunte, Blessed John Paul II presented the Church with the following challenge: “To make the Church the home and the school of communion: that is the great challenge facing us in the millennium which is now beginning, if we wish to be faithful to God’s plan and respond to the world’s deepest yearnings”(§ 43).

Are we ready as pastors and teachers of Christ’s flock, to combat the relativistic vision of the marriage bond, as is fuelled by the introduction of divorce into civil legislation, by celebrating Masses for the consolidation of our families? Can we campaign for the stability and permanence of marriage and the family in, with and through Christ, as lively present in every Eucharistic celebration and adoration?