The Eucharist is not only the center of the Church’s liturgical life, but also the source of unity among Christians and the foretaste of the Kingdom of God. This is what Pope Leo XIV recalled this Wednesday during the general audience held in St. Peter’s Square, where he continued his cycle of catecheses dedicated to the documents of the Second Vatican Council.
On this occasion, the Pontiff focused his reflection on the constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium, devoted to the sacred liturgy, dwelling especially on the eucharistic mystery. Drawing inspiration from Saint Augustine and Saint Paul, Leo XIV explained that Christians are called to become what they receive in the Eucharist: the Body of Christ.
The Pope recalled that participating in the Mass means being nourished by the Word of God and by the Body of the Lord, two inseparable realities that form a single act of worship. He also emphasized that the Eucharist teaches the faithful the lifestyle of Christ, marked by the free gift of oneself and oriented toward communion with God and with one’s brothers and sisters.
In a world marked by divisions, conflicts, and confrontations, Leo XIV highlighted that participation in the Eucharist constitutes a powerful spiritual remedy. As he explained, the eucharistic sacrifice introduces Christians into a dynamic of unity that combats the divisions present in society, in families, in communities, and even in the heart of each person.
The Pontiff also affirmed the importance of Sacred Scripture in liturgical life and recalled that one of the great contributions of the Second Vatican Council was to open the treasures of the Bible more widely to the faithful through the reform of the Lectionary, allowing a greater richness of readings in the celebration of the Mass.
Below is the full text of the Holy Father’s catechesis:
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome!
We continue with the catecheses on the documents of the Second Vatican Council, in particular on the Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium (SC) on the Liturgy.
When Saint Augustine wishes to explain to the newly baptized the mystery of the Body of Christ, he takes up the passage from Saint Paul that we have heard: “You are the body of Christ, and individually members of it” (1 Cor 12:27). And he adds: “You receive the mystery that you yourselves are. To what you are, you respond ‘Amen,’ and by responding you affirm it. You hear, therefore: ‘Body of Christ,’ and you reply: ‘Amen.’ Be a member of the Body of Christ, so that your ‘Amen’ may correspond to the truth. […] Be what you see and receive what you are” (Sermon 272).
Immediately after recalling Jesus’ Last Supper, the Constitution on the Liturgy speaks of the Eucharist with these Augustinian accents. For Christians, taking part in the Lord’s table means that “they may be instructed by the word of God, strengthened at the table of the Lord’s Body, and give thanks to God” (SC, 48). By receiving Him in His Word and in the Eucharist, we become what we receive. We become the Body whose Head is the risen Christ, seated at the right hand of the Father (cf. Col 1:18), who prepares a place for us in heaven (cf. Jn 14:3): the Eucharist is thus the sacrament of the Kingdom to come. It is the Bread of the journey, which leads us toward the heavenly homeland, until the blessed day when “God will be all in all” (1 Cor 15:28).
The liturgical assembly offers the Sacrifice “not only by the hands of the priest, but together with him” (SC, 48). In this perspective, the Eucharist is the form of the spiritual sacrifice of Christians (cf. Heb 13:16; Rom 12:1), as a path of union with God and of mutual union. By participating in it, they learn that “they may be perfected day by day through Christ the mediator in union with God and with one another, so that finally God may be all in all” (ibid.). Thus, by being incorporated into Christ, the Eucharist teaches us to adopt the lifestyle of the Lord Jesus Himself, marked by the free gift of self. This gift therefore makes us enter into the dynamic of unity, which offers a powerful antidote to the seeds of division that threaten our world, our communities, our families, and our hearts (cf. SC, 47).
Dear brothers and sisters, when we participate in the Eucharist we are invited to listen to the Word of God and to be nourished at the Lord’s table, where He Himself offers Himself to the Father. These two parts of the Mass, the Liturgy of the Word and the Eucharistic Liturgy, “are so closely connected with each other that they form but one single act of worship” (SC, 56).
With regard to the Word, it must be remembered that it is not merely a matter of acquiring intellectual knowledge of the Scriptures, but of receiving the Word “living and active” (Heb 4:12), addressed by God to all and at the same time to each one, a Word that nourishes and sustains together with the Eucharistic Bread and leads us from the decay of sin to new life in Christ. “The Eucharist helps us to understand Sacred Scripture, just as Sacred Scripture, in turn, illuminates and explains the eucharistic mystery” (Benedict XVI, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini, 55).
The Second Ecumenical Council asked: “the treasures of the Bible are to be opened up more lavishly, so that richer fare may be provided for the faithful at the table of God’s word” (SC, 51). The liturgical reform translated this request into that treasure which is the Lectionary, that is, the book that gathers all the biblical readings for liturgical celebrations. Such richness has been drawn from the purest source of living Tradition, which combines “sound tradition” with “legitimate progress” (SC, 23).
The beginning of Chapter II of the Constitution on the Liturgy is interwoven with references to the great river of Tradition, which flows from the Fathers of the Church down to us. I quote: “At the Last Supper, on the night when He was betrayed, our Savior instituted the eucharistic sacrifice of His Body and Blood. He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the centuries until He should come again, and so to entrust to His beloved spouse, the Church, a memorial of His death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a paschal banquet in which Christ is eaten, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us” (SC, 47).
Dear brothers and sisters, let us approach this source of divine life with faith and allow ourselves to be transformed by the mystery we celebrate.