Pope Francis explained that just as Jesus “did not keep his life for himself, but gave it to us,” so too are Christians called to make their lives a gift for others.
Quoting Saint Leo the Great, he said: “‘Our participation in the Body and Blood of Christ has no other end than to make us become that which we eat.’”
Pope Francis added that “to become what we eat, to become ‘eucharistic,’” means to become “people who no longer live for themselves, in the logic of possession and consumption, but who know how to make their lives a gift for others.”
“Let us understand, then, that celebrating the Eucharist and eating this Bread, as we do especially on Sundays, is not an act of worship detached from life or a mere moment of personal consolation; we must always remember that Jesus took the bread, broke it and gave it to them and, therefore, communion with Him makes us capable of also becoming bread broken for others, of sharing what we are and what we have,” he said.
After giving a blessing to the crowd, Pope Francis asked people to continue to pray for those who are suffering in Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, and Myanmar, appealing to leaders to “stop the escalation and to make every effort for dialogue and negotiation.”
The pope also asked for prayers for the African country of Sudan, where a civil war has displaced millions of people since the conflict broke out last year.
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