Page 119 - spiritual_accompaniment_montreal_archdiocese

HOMILIES

We need the Eucharist. Without Jesus Christ, love cannot begin to blossom in us. It is Jesus
Christ who comes to nourish love in us. In some way, the Eucharist is participating in the
love of Jesus Christ who loves us to the end. It is to learn with Jesus Christ, by Jesus Christ, in
Jesus Christ, and to walk with him, to imitate Jesus Christ and to love to the end.

And now we see the close connection between the institution of the Eucharist and the
washing of the disciple’s feet. In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we read of the
institution of the Eucharist. But in the Gospel of John, we do not read about the institution of
the Eucharist. There is a chapter, Chapter Six, which is about the Eucharist. But in the Gospel
of John, during the last supper, what we read is about the washing of the feet, it is about
service.

By the grace of Jesus Christ, we learn to serve, to serve like Jesus. The Son of God came into
the world not to be served but to serve and to give his life.

Therefore, the question is not whether to serve or to go to Mass. It is not that serving and
loving one’s neighbour is a substitute for going to Mass. Could we honestly say to someone:
“Listen, don’t eat every day, don’t eat so that you have more time to love others, to have more
time to help others.”

No, you would end up too weak!

If we want to love each other with all our strength, this takes strength. To be strong, we need
food. If the body needs nourishment, then the soul needs nourishment, and the heart also
needs nourishment. Receiving the Eucharist, the Word of God and the Bread of Life, the
bread of the Lord as nourishment, this is to receive the love of God as nourishment.

In the gift of the Eucharist, we receive not only the love by which God loves us, but the love
through which we become capable to love. It makes us capable to love. It makes us capable to
love and to serve.

During this pandemic, in this COVID-19 situation that is immobilising the whole world,
striking our economy, striking our families, striking all activities, non-profit organisations,
striking the Church, all different denominations, all different religions. We have all been
stripped naked in the face of COVID-19.

(cont’d)

Collection of texts by the Most Rev. Christian Lépine 119