CNS STORY: Pope says Eucharist essential for Christians in often-hostile world

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POPE-CORPUS (UPDATED) Jun-7-2007 (570 words) With photos. xxxi

Pope says Eucharist essential for Christians in often-hostile world

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

ROME (CNS) -- Before leading a Corpus Christi procession with the Eucharist through the streets of Rome, Pope Benedict XVI said the sacrament is essential nourishment for Christians walking through an often-hostile world.

"For every Christian generation, the Eucharist is the indispensable nourishment that sustains them as they cross the desert of this world," he said in his June 7 homily for the feast of the Body and Blood of the Lord.

The world is "made arid by ideological and economic systems that do not promote life, but rather mortify it," he said during the Mass celebrated outside Rome's Basilica of St. John Lateran.

Ours is "a world where the logic of power and possessing dominates more than that of service and love; a world where often the culture of violence and death triumphs," the pope said.

"But Jesus comes to meet us and reassure us: He himself is the bread of life," Pope Benedict said.

The pope's security team and Italian police, who are responsible for papal safety outside the Vatican, were extra attentive during the Mass and the procession to the Basilica of St. Mary Major. A day earlier, a mentally disturbed man jumped a barricade in St. Peter's Square in an attempt to reach the pope as he rode through the crowd at his weekly general audience.

Security concerns did not prevent the pope from riding in the procession in the back of an open flatbed truck. The pope knelt before the Blessed Sacrament as security officers and candle-bearing altar servers, bishops and cardinals walked beside the truck.

Because the Mass was considered a Rome diocesan event, despite the thousands of foreigners present, Pope Benedict celebrated the liturgy, including the eucharistic prayer, in Italian rather than Latin.

The pope told people gathered for the Mass that they should not be surprised that many people have difficulty accepting church teaching that Jesus is truly present in Eucharist.

The real presence is a mystery, and "a God who becomes flesh and sacrifices himself for the life of the world puts human wisdom in crisis," he said.

But Catholics continue to proclaim the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and, in traditional Corpus Christi processions, they bear witness to their faith by carrying the Eucharist through their cities, the pope said.

Pope Benedict said Luke's Gospel account of the miracle of the loaves and fishes emphasizes the fact that everyone present ate and was filled.

In the same way, he said, the public procession "calls attention to the fact that Christ sacrificed himself for all humanity," the pope said. "His passage between the houses and along the streets of our city will be an offering of joy, of eternal life, peace and love to those who live there."

Pope Benedict said Luke's Gospel story also emphasizes the fact that the bread and fish multiplied by Jesus were offered by people in the crowd.

"The five loaves and two fish indicate our contribution, poor but necessary, which he transforms into a gift of love for all," the pope said.

The Eucharist, he said, calls Christians to give themselves to others "because the vocation of each of us is to be, like Christ, bread broken for the life of the world."

END

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