To contemplate the mystery of the Eucharist (as we do in these days, in the Gospel readings from the sixth chapter of John) is to be full of wonder and gratitude for the gift of God the Father who sends His Only-Begotten Son to save the world (John 3:16), to draw us to share in the eternal life of the Trinity. Jesus gives Himself — His "flesh," His body and blood poured out for us — to nourish the new life of His people whom He unites to Himself in the Holy Spirit. Jesus in the Eucharist builds up His Mystical Body, the Church. Through His gift we encounter the singular, astonishing love that God has for us, and we are sent forth with the Risen Christ to share His mission, to witness to God's inexhaustible love, to be "instruments" of His love in the lives of those who are entrusted to us each day as we live out our vocation in this world.
This is the life of the Church for which we pray, as she is called to take a new step in her pilgrimage through history toward the fulfillment of the God's Kingdom, where God will "be all, in all" (1 Corinthians 15:28). This is the "new reality" present in the midst of the realities (and the illusions) of this age. As the Church lives these intense and decisive days, we remember that we are "members of one another" (Romans 12:5), and the Cardinals are our brothers. We express this mysterious unity in our solidarity with them in prayer. May they receive an abundant outpouring of the Holy Spirit, to fill them and sustain them in wisdom so that they might elect a Pope who will remind us that we are one in Christ — united in truth and love, in Baptism and the Eucharist, in adoration of the Lord and in gratitude for making us His sons and daughters in Jesus. We beg God our Father through Jesus Christ our Savior in the Holy Spirit to work in us and through us the "continuation" of His gift of redemption for the whole world, drawing the heart of every human person through His Church.
We are a poor Church that depends entirely on our adherence to Jesus Christ, and a grateful Church sustained by the "bread of life," by the gift of "[His] Flesh for the life of the world."
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Jesus said to the crowds: "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets: 'They shall all be taught by God.' [See e.g. Isaiah 54:13; Jeremiah 31:33-34.] Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.
"Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father.
"Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world."
~John 6:44-51
