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EUCHARIST
FOR LIFE
A Reflection
Guide for Individuals or Communities
To be worked through
according to the need and creativity of each group, adapting it to the reality
of ages, culture, times, possibilities...
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TOPICS |
PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS |
TEXTS |
NOTES |
| 1 |
Eucharist,
a Free Gift,
Life Surrendered
till Death
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- A
disinterested gift: Jesus’ life is a demonstration of the great love God has
for us and being faithful to the Spirit (to tell the truth, to denounce
injustice, to make an option for the most despised, to put the person above
law...) causes his death, to gift us with his own life.
- Community act of
thanksgiving |
Mt 9,13
Ho 6,6
Rm 12,1-2
Jn 15,12
Is
1,13-18
Am
5,21-24
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Have
you seen “The Passion”? Do you believe that God, who is a kind Father,
needed the blood of Jesus to pardon our sins? Would it not be that Jesus
goes so far as to shed his blood as a demonstration of his love for us? Do
you know similar cases of this kind of generous surrender? To thank the
Father... there’s nothing better that to offer Him his own SON... and
nothing better to unite us as brothers, so it wouldn’t be a lie... and to
call him with the Spirit within us: “Dad”! |
| 2 |
Eucharist,
a Real Commitment To
Justice
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- This is more
important than to carry out worship very well. It cannot be converted into
an empty rite of love for others, of the struggle against injustice and
discrimination.
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Justice and peace go together, they cannot be separated: if we want peace,
it is necessary to fight for justice, because injustice brings violence.
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Lk 10,
25-31
Jm
1,26-27
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If someone invites you
to their home, could you ill-treat one of their children? God himself
rejects our worship, if we do not attend to the needs of others. Why should
we go to his house to offend Him, since HE IS THE JUST ONE? How do we
discriminate when we celebrate the Eucharist? The commitment to justice
brings complications. The Eucharist is nourishment to strengthen our
dedication without fear, because it is a gift of love. Perhaps we suffer
violence, like Jesus, but we want to be builders of peace. Initiatives that
we in order to continue building a life of more justice and peace.
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| 3 |
Eucharist, Sacrament
of Solidarity |
Jesus distributes the
bread and distributes his body… He doesn’t want anyone to suffer hunger or
need. It isn’t possible to go out from the celebration without the firm
decision of greater solidarity with the needy. This solidarity is not only
the giving of something - it is to commit ourselves to others in a common
cause. |
Lk 24
Ac
2,42-47
1 Co
11,17-22
Mt 25,40
Jm
2,14-17
1 Jn 3,17
Ac 10,38
Mt 14,16
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-
What examples of people of solidarity can we give? When did we live this
ourselves? What things contradict solidarity?
- Do
cases exist when we have to oppose someone for the sake of solidarity?
When? What consequences does this have? How does one react who doesn’t
want to commit him / herself? We say, “leave the body”... and Jesus gives
us his body! |
| 4 |
Eucharist, Source of
Communion
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Jesus gathers us
together so we may live united to Him and among ourselves. Without
divisions or inequalities, although we may be different. No one is
excluded from the table of the Lord, open to all of us who are his beloved
children. We must give witness to this every day: may we know how to create
communion. This can only be achieved by pardon and reconciliation. |
1 Co 10,17
Is 1,11-18
1 Co 11,18; 11,28-29
Mt 5,23-24
Jn 17,21
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Situations of division
and of exclusion that we see every day. Small and important cases… Analyze
them. What are their causes? What does it mean to accept and respect
people, to love them like Jesus? See examples in the Gospel. What examples
can you give of experiences in family, groups, institutions, where they live
in an atmosphere of unity, although they be different people. What examples
of reconciliation and pardon can you cite? When have we pardoned or been
pardoned?… What have we felt afterwards? Why is a meal a form of
celebration?… |
| 5 |
Eucharist,
Source of Hope |
Jesus’ announcement of
a world according to the God’s plan, which is already present among us,
fills us with hope. It makes us remember (commemorate) his promise which
does not fail and to wait, with dynamism and without being crushed, his
second coming... although we may have many difficulties in this actual hard
life. |
Jn13,30
Rv 21,1
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Recall
situations that make us want to ‘throw in the towel’, to abandon what we do,
because we don’t succeed. Let us look at persons who continue fighting
without losing heart. Let us ask ourselves why. Is the person who deceives
you with false hopes a friend? When can you believe someone who encourages
you? |
| 6 |
The Eucharist gives dignity to all creation
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Bread and wine are part of out material world, the entire creation that
awaits the resurrection. Jesus blesses the fruit of our earth and remains
really present giving new energy to the totality of our universe.
The work we do to
improve human life is a way of uniting ourselves to the Creator.
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Rm
8,22-24 |
Speak
of the dangers to life that there are in our world. Go to your
surroundings, to nature as a whole. Collect forms of expressing to God his
lordship over all the world which we see in our traditional religious
experiences. Continue seeing other material symbols we use... And to see
what ‘bread and wine’ mean to us, although in many places they are not
used... We unite ourselves to the way of celebrating in a special evening
meal that Jesus had with his disciples. |
| 7 |
Eucharistic Church,
Presence of God for Humanity
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When we live and meet
as sisters and brothers who love and serve one another, the Lord Jesus is in
our midst and the world can recognize the presence of God who is love. His
presence is not magic within an object. Nor sermons either. His presence
is a reality lived by his disciples, like the Master, listening to his
demanding Word. |
Mk 9,35
Jn
13,1-20
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Make a
list of attitudes that are our witness to the Eucharist in the world... And
another list of our ‘counter-witnesses’. How can we help one another to
live ‘like Jesus’? It remains to be seen what each one of us can do, what
we can do together… Who else could help us? And how can we help? Whom can
we help? Let us see service differently from being servile. To be useful
for others… What does it mean? How do we understand that authority is
service? Analyze this at home, at work, in the groups, in the posts we
occupy. The Word and the life of Jesus, how can we share it more and more?
And how we put new life into our celebrations and make them more authentic?
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