"The Bread of Life to Eat" (Part 2)
Pope Paul VI spoke via satellite TV link to conclude the 41st International Eucharistic Congress on August 8, 1976, in Philadelphia, PA.
To all of you in Philadelphia,
To you, Americans; to you, men and women from all parts of the World, assembled for the International Eucharistic Congress.
It is the Bishop of Rome who speaks to you, the Successor of the Apostle Peter, the Pope of the Catholic Church, the Vicar of Christ on earth.
He speaks to greet you, to assure you of his prayers, to have you hear in his voice the echo of Christ's word, and thus, to some extent, to open up to you the deep meaning of the mystery that you are celebrating.
We ask you to be silent, to be silent now and to try to listen within yourselves to an inner proclamation!
The Lord is saying: "Be assured, I am with you" [Mt 28:20].
I am here, he is saying: because this is my Body!
This is the cup of my Blood!
The "mystery of his presence" is thus enacted and celebrated: the mystery of his sacramental, but real and living presence.
Jesus, the Teacher of humanity, is here; he is calling for you [Jn 11:28].
Yes, he is calling you, each one by name! The mystery of the Eucharist is, above all, a personal mystery: personal, because of his divine presence-the presence of Christ, the Word of God made man; personal, because the Eucharist is meant for each of us: for this reason Christ has become living bread, and is multiplied in the sacrament, in order to be accessible to every human being who receives him worthily, and who opens to him the door of faith and love.
The Eucharist is a "mystery of life!" Christ says: "He who eats this bread shall live!" [Jn 6:51].
The Eucharist is a mystery of suffering, yes; and a mystery of death! A mystery of redemptive passion; a "mystery of sacrifice," consummated by Christ for our salvation.
It is the mystery of the Cross, reflected and commemorated in the sacrament which makes us share in the Lord's immolation, in order to associate us in his Resurrection. Today, in time, the Eucharist is the food for our earthly pilgrimage; tomorrow, in the life to come, it will be our everlasting happiness.
The Eucharist is, therefore, a "mystery of love."
It makes all of us who eat the same bread into a single body [I Cor 10:17], living by means of one Spirit. It makes us one family: brothers and sisters united in solidarity with one another [Eph 4:16], and all of us dedicated to giving witness, in mutual love, to the fact that we really are the followers of Christ [Jn 13:35].
May it always be this way, beloved Brethren, and sons and daughters!
With our Apostolic Blessing: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen!
A hymn writing competition was sponsored by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in connection with this Eucharistic Congress in 1976.
The winning entry was the emminently popular, Gift of Finest Wheat, with music by Robert Kreutz [tune name: Bicentennial] and words by Omer Westendorf.
Robert Kreutz (1922-1996) studied composition at the American Conservatory in Chicago, at UCLA, and at the University of Denver.
The Mass of the Compassionate Samaritan (1965) was the first of many liturgical works to come from the pastoral pen of this master.
He served as choir director at the Church of Saint Bernadette in Lakewood, Colorado, for thirty years.
Omer Westndorf (1916-1997) founded the World Library of Sacred Music, which in 1964 published the first English-language collection of liturgical hymns and texts, the People's Mass Book.
WLSM became World Library Publications and was eventually sold to the J.S. Paluch Company.
Mr. Westendorf held a master's degree from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he specialized in the Gregorian chant.
For many years, he served as organist and choir director for the Saint Bonaventure Church Choir in South Fairmount, Ohio.
Pope John Paul II writes eloquently on the Eucharist in his encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia:
Allow me, dear brothers and sisters, to share with deep emotion, as a means of accompanying and strengthening your faith, my own testimony of faith in the Most Holy Eucharist.
Ave verum corpus natum de Maria Virgine, vere passum, immolatum, in cruce pro homine!
Here is the Church's treasure, the heart of the world, the pledge of the fulfilment for which each man and woman, even unconsciously, yearns.
A great and transcendent mystery, indeed, and one that taxes our mind's ability to pass beyond appearances.
Here our senses fail us: visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur, in the words of the hymn Adoro te devote; yet faith alone, rooted in the word of Christ handed down to us by the Apostles, is sufficient for us.
Let us make our own the words of Saint Thomas Aquinas, an eminent theologian and an impassioned poet of Christ in the Eucharist, and turn in hope to the contemplation of that goal to which our hearts aspire in their thirst for joy and peace:
Bone pastor, panis vere,
Iesu, nostri miserere...
Good Shepherd, true bread divine,
Now show to us thy mercy sign;
As when the shepherd calls his sheep,
They know and heed his voice;
So when you call your fam'ly, Lord,
We follow and rejoice.
- Omer Westendorf
Attention!
Another hymn writing contest for a Eucharistic Congress is currently proceeding.
Sponsored by the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious in the United States of America (CMSWR), the congress will be held in Washington DC, September 24-25, 2004, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
Hymn contest deadline is April 19.
Details may be found here.
See also CNP's Index of music on the Eucharist
and New hymns
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