Acta Apostolicae Sedis - Commentarium Officiale486

elle nous appelle à nous engager avec tous nos frères pour faire face aux défis

présents et pour faire de la planète un lieu où il fait bon vivre. Pour cela, il

nous faut sans cesse lutter pour que toute personne soit respectée depuis sa

conception jusqu'à sa mort naturelle, que nos sociétés riches accueillent les

plus pauvres et leur redonnent toute leur dignité, que toute personne puisse

se nourrir et faire vivre sa famille, que la paix et la justice rayonnent dans

tous les continents. Tels sont quelques défis qui doivent mobiliser tous nos

contemporains et pour lesquels les chrétiens doivent puiser leur force dans le

mystère eucharistique.

"The Mystery of Faith": this we proclaim at every Mass. I would like

everyone to make a commitment to study this great mystery, especially by

revisiting and exploring, individually and in groups, the Council's text on the

Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, so as to bear witness courageously to the

mystery. In this way, each person will arrive at a better grasp of the meaning

of every aspect of the Eucharist, understanding its depth and living it with

greater intensity. Every sentence, every gesture has its own meaning and

conceals a mystery. I sincerely hope that this Congress will serve as an appeal

to all the faithful to make a similar commitment to a renewal of Eucharistic

catechesis, so that they themselves will gain a genuine Eucharistic awareness

and will in turn teach children and young people to recognize the central

mystery of faith and build their lives around it. I urge priests especially to

give due honour to the Eucharistic rite, and I ask all the faithful to respect

the role of each individual, both priest and lay, in the Eucharistic action. The

liturgy does not belong to us: it is the Church's treasure.

Reception of the Eucharist, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament - by this

we mean deepening our communion, preparing for it and prolonging it - is

also about allowing ourselves to enter into communion with Christ, and

through him with the whole of the Trinity, so as to become what we receive

and to live in communion with the Church. It is by receiving the Body of

Christ that we receive the strength "of unity with God and with one an-

other".2 We must never forget that the Church is built around Christ and

that, as Saint Augustine, Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Albert the Great

have all said, following Saint Paul,3 the Eucharist is the sacrament of the

Church's unity, because we all form one single body of which the Lord is the

head. We must go back again and again to the Last Supper on Holy Thurs-

2 Saint Cyril of Alexandria, In Ioannis Evangelium, 11:11; cfr Saint Augustine, Sermo 577. 3 Cfr 1 Cor 10:17.