Blázquez noted that “Christians, from when they first began to celebrate the Eucharist, had these words of the Lord in their minds and hearts. And that is why the rite of peace has been present since very ancient times in the Eucharistic celebration.”
Consequently, the sign of peace is not a simple polite gesture or a gesture of human love, but rather it expresses “the sincere desire to be reconciled among ourselves, to overcome all divisions between us, to be instruments of peace, to be truly members, one of another, of the one body of Christ.”
The video posted by the San Dámaso Ecclesiastical University is part of a series titled “The Eucharist. Learn More” in which several teachers from the institution explain various aspects of the sacrament.
Abuses of the rite
In 2014, while Cardenal Antonio Cañizares was prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, a letter on the subject titled “The Ritual Meaning of the Gift of Peace in the Mass” was approved and confirmed by Pope Francis.
The letter addresses problems arising from some “exaggerated expressions” of the rite of peace, which led Pope Benedict XVI to consult the bishops’ conferences on the possibility of the rite being modified or eliminated from the Roman Missal.
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