Lima, Peru, Nov 8, 2004 / 22:00 pm
The Archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, called on all Peruvians this week to learn to draw close to the mystery of the Eucharist, to prepare themselves to receive Christ and to live in true communion.
In his weekly radio reflection, Cardinal Cipriani spoke of the Year of the Eucharist and warned that the world has little to offer for building up communion. The things of this world “have no soul,” he said, and cannot become “acts of communion” because “they lack the true presence of faith.”
In this sense, he acknowledged that, because God became man and continues to be present in this world in the consecrated Host, the mystery of the Eucharist has so much light and wisdom that there is a risk it may not be understood by some.
Thus he emphasized the importance of learning to draw close to the mystery: “If I do not prepare myself, the mystery is too brilliant, it blinds me and I end up saying: God does not exist, the Eucharist is a fantasy. I think we need to educate ourselves in order to respectfully approach this great mystery of love,” he added.
Cardinal Cipriani underscored that preparation begins be recovering the value of silence, “which facilitates entering into that world of the mystery.” “As long as we do not learn to mediate, to try to have that relationship with God who is the mystery, it will be very difficult for that living presence of Christ to break through the tremendous noise that covers this earth from one end to the other.”
According to the Cardinal, silence, as well has his ability to see others with the eyes of unity and fraternity, has made Pope John Paul II a great leader and made people listen to him. “He is a man who with that sharp glance can discover the mystery of the presence of Christ in the problems of violence and injustice, peace, the economy, sports; with his sharp vision of faith,” he underscored.
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