Vatican City, Apr 20, 2018 / 05:01 am
During a brief day-trip to two small Italian cities, Pope Francis stressed the centrality of the Eucharist to the life and actions of the Church, saying without Christ's love and self-sacrifice, everything would be done in vanity, since everything Jesus did was for others.
"The Eucharist is not a beautiful rite, but it is the most intimate, the most concrete, the most surprising communion that one can imagine with God: a communion of love so real that it takes on the form of eating," the pope said April 20.
The Christian life begins again at each Mass, "where God satiates us with love. Without him, the bread of life, every effort of the Church is vain," he said, and, quoting deceased local Bishop Antonio Bello, said "works of charity are not enough, unless those works are done with charity."
"If love is lacking in those who do the works, if the source is lacking, if the point of departure is lacking, which is the Eucharist, then every pastoral commitment is merely a whirlwind of things," rather than an act of service.