Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

The upcoming Eucharistic Congress 2028 in Sydney will be a wonderful opportunity for our parish communities to be renewed by the gift of the Lord’s presence among us. At the same time, it will call us to share our communion of Eucharistic life by welcoming everyone as Christ has welcomed us (cf. Romans 15.7).

The communion we share with Christ and the welcome we offer are essential in our response to the loneliness and lack of belonging many experience in our modern world. God calls us together in Jesus to hear the Word that creates us anew and nourish us with the Bread of Life. In loving us, Jesus shows us how to share our lives generously with our families, friends and everyone in need of our help.

The Eucharist calls us to share in Christ’s communion of unity and love. This communion of life is essential to our capacity to respond to the human need for belonging and how we can serve the good of society. With our focus on the good of the people entrusted to our care we are disposed to give them respect and love as fellow children of God. Thus charity opens our hearts to live justly and compassionately care for those who are wounded by evil words and harmful deeds.

Jesus’ gift of himself for our salvation transforms our lives by his love and, as Pope Leo explains, this “gift remains present and active in the Eucharist, in which the Lord gives himself and gathers the Church together, so that his offering becomes the principle of unity and source of new life.” (Pope Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas, n.234) Living a Eucharistic spirituality transforms us into a people of communion who belong to the family of God and who imitate Jesus by giving of ourselves that others may have life.

I personally invite you to journey with me to rediscover the riches of the Eucharist and seek new opportunities for sharing our life of communion with others. To encourage such prayerful reflection, I encourage you to contemplate five Gospel passages which portray key moments of revelation about the Eucharist:

• They all ate as much as they wanted (John 6:11-12), which reveals the superabundant generosity of Jesus and the fulfilment of our hearts in his love
• I am the Bread of Life (John 6:35), which refers to Jesus as the One who leads us to the complete satisfaction of our desires in eternal life
• This is My Body, given for you (Luke 22:19), which communicates the supreme gift of the Lord’s own life to redeem us in God’s love and mercy
• You must wash each other’s feet (John 13:14), which calls us to live our Eucharistic communion in the humble service of our brothers and sisters
• They recognised him at the Breaking of the Bread (Luke 24:30-31, 35), which attunes us to the sacramental presence of the Risen Lord in the Eucharist

During the coming liturgical year these passages will be proclaimed to us. For example, at Holy Thursday, when we celebrate the institution of the Eucharist, the Church proclaims the Gospel in which Jesus washes the feet of his disciples and commands them to wash each other’s feet.

But have these Gospel scenes about the most beautiful gift of the Lord’s presence and loving action in the Eucharist become too familiar to us? Have they lost their freshness and living power to nourish our hearts and inspire us to live generously for others?

I am deeply convinced that when we take the time to read and pray these life-giving words about the Lord’s Eucharistic presence, our faith will be renewed, and we will joyfully rediscover Jesus as:

• the generous giver of God’s life,
• who satisfies our hearts with meaning and hope,
• gives himself completely for our salvation,
• humbly serves us with the deepest affection,
• and walks with us in the light of the Resurrection.

Seeing the Lord in this new light will warm our hearts and give us a revitalised confidence in bearing witness to his love and presence. Thus, our communion with the Lord will bear fruit in making the merciful face of our Saviour known to a world so much in need of a community of faith, hope and love.

May our Eucharistic relationship with our Saviour liberate us from false self-sufficiency, hardness of heart and cold isolation. May this Eucharistic Mystery of life and the richness of Christ’s self-sacrificial love, transform us into a People of Communion who serve and share with generous hearts (See Magnifica Humanitas, n.127).

Fr Bernard Gordon, PP