Rome, February 1st, 2019.
Participation in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the most important act of our day
Constitutions, 137
Dear Fathers, Brothers, Seminarians and Novices,
From the beginning of our Constitutions, and after having affirmed that “In order to achieve greater perfection in our service to God and His people,”0F we profess the religious vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, we firmly and forcefully declare: “We want to always be rooted in Jesus Christ… We want to love and serve Jesus Christ… and to help others love and serve Him.”1F And Jesus Christ – as you all know – is truly, really and substantially present in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. This is why the Constitutions say that we have to love and serve, and help others love and serve, the physical Body of Christ in the Eucharist.2F
Truly our identity as religious, the meaning and strength of our religious vocation, our mission and the very means for an effective evangelization, is found in Christ, sacramentally present in the Eucharist. That is why the Spiritual Father of our Religious Family said, “The Eucharist is at the center of the consecrated life, both for individuals and for communities. It is the daily viaticum and source of the spiritual life for the individual and for the Institute.”3F
From this we can gather that the centrality of the Holy Mass in our life as consecrated persons is emphasized throughout our entire proper law. Because in the Eucharist, that is to say, in the Eucharistic Sacrifice and Communion, “the affective and dynamic center of our consecrated life and of all our communities”4F is truly found.
The same was recalled in the General Chapters. To cite only the most recent examples, I mention here what was said in the General Chapter of 2007: “We have to be characterized by the importance given to the celebration of the Holy Mass, as well as by the reverent way we celebrate it.”5F “Likewise, one of our characteristics is marked Eucharistic devotion.”6F Also, in the 2016 Chapter, the Chapter Fathers held that: “The Eucharist is the origin and summit of the life of the Church. […] This is why living it, celebrating it worthily, teaching Christians to participate fruitfully in it, adoring it with devotion, going more deeply into its mystery… must always be the object of our efforts.”7F And they affirmed again what had already been expressed in the 2007 Chapter, which recognized the worthy celebration of the Holy Mass as a non-negotiable element of the charism.8F Because “In the Eucharist, the logic of the Incarnation reaches its extreme consequences.”9F
1. Religious Life centered on the Eucharist
“The Eucharist [is] source of all vocations and ministries in the Church,”10F said our beloved Saint John Paul II.
Indeed, how many of us can say that it was through meeting Christ in the Eucharist that we discovered our vocation to be ministers of the altar! For others it was in contemplating the beauty and depth of this mystery; for others, in channeling the force of their love for the Eucharistic Jesus in serving others. Simply because it is Jesus immolated on the altar, who, with irresistible love, moves men to limitless generosity, to dedicate themselves to Him without reservations, and to do it all for love of Him.
In the same way, it is in daily, intimate and profound contact with Christ, hidden under the sacramental veils, that one receives the necessary graces to lovingly embrace the duties of our vocation as religious of the “Incarnate Word,” which is none other than to be “other Christs.”11F This is so much so that this transformation of ourselves in Christ is expressed by our proper law with beautiful Eucharistic imagery: “We want to be chalices full of Christ.”12F
Each of us is called to a profound and mystical intimacy with Christ. To assure this familiar relationship with the Incarnate Word, our proper law paternally exhorts us “to have exposition and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament for an hour each day, if possible, as well as Perpetual Adoration in each Province (through turns in each house).”13F Because our religious life should be a prefiguration, from this present world, of that glorious future condition which will consist in the perennial and unfailing act of praise and adoration of God, contemplated without veils and tasted in the infinite sweetness of His love.14F From this comes our responsibility to ever more intensely and fervently nourish our spiritual life from the springs of Eucharistic piety. Let us keep this ever in mind: the Eucharist is source and summit of our whole spiritual life, as well as of the whole life of the Church.15F
The Magisterium of the Church also teaches it this way: “By professing the evangelical counsels, consecrated persons not only make Christ the whole meaning of their lives but strive to reproduce in themselves, as far as possible, ‘that form of life which he, as the Son of God, accepted in entering this world,’16F”17F and of which the Eucharist is a memorial.
This is why Saint Peter Julian Eymard said to some religious, “Therefore the religious should take the Sacramental Lord as a model. There is where one has to study Jesus Christ. Because what is a religious if not a man who offers and immolates himself to God by means of poverty, chastity and obedience, the observance of which he obligates himself forever?”18F
Notice that this is so much so, that our religious life ought to be a sign of the sacrificial and expiatory sacrifice that Christ makes of Himself to the Father for the salvation of the world in the Eucharistic Sacrifice. This is the great charism of religious life: generous love, which expresses itself in service and sacrifice.
So, we must be poor like the Eucharistic Christ, which “implies a life poor both in act and in spirit, […] eagerly restrained and detached from earthly riches, and as such, it implies dependency and a limitation on the use and disposal of goods.”19F
“Look upon Our Lord in His Sacrament, and compare your poverty with His. What does He possess? Of what does He make use exteriorly? […] If poverty sometimes costs, raise your eyes, and look upon Jesus in the Eucharist. He is still poorer than you, He has much less than you. […] When religious bodies have become wealthy, they have perished. The day on which the religious says, ‘I am rich, I have need of nothing,’ on that day he ceases to be a religious, and the wrath of God will fall upon the foundations of the Order that uses such language. […] This does not mean that a Society may not possess anything. It belongs to the Rule to provide for it,” said the holy French Founder.20F
We must be chaste like Jesus Christ in the immaculate Host, who immolates Himself out of love for men in each Holy Mass. We always have to bear in mind that, when we professed the vow of chastity, whereby we renounced the greatest bodily pleasures,21F we were “marked out for sacrifice.”22F Christ’s oblation in the Eucharistic Sacrifice also teaches this: “Love is crucifying. It immolates.”23F
We must be obedient like Christ in the Holy Sacrifice. “Adore now the obedience of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. What promptitude! What passive, blind, absolute submission, without condition or reserve! The priest is His master, whom He always obeys, whether he be holy, fervent, or not. He obeys all the Faithful who oblige Him to come to them by Communion, when and as often as they present themselves. His obedience is lasting, constant, ever ready!”24F Our obedience should be modelled upon Christ’s obedience: “without diminution or retraction, without reserve or condition, without subterfuge or delay, without retreating or even slowness.”25F
Therefore, not only must we celebrate or participate in the Holy Mass, but we must also live it in our condition as religious.
If what has been said here applies to every religious, what should we say about us, who are also priests?
Our proper law reminds us that the celebration of the Sacrifice of the Mass is the sacrament of Holy Orders’ principal and central reason for being.26F “For this sacrament we have been ordained.”27F
We have often heard that, without the priest, the Eucharist could not exist; but we also must admit that we as priests could not exist without the Eucharist, or, in any case, the specific gift God has given us would be thwarted in its root. This is why the daily celebration of the Mass is earnestly recommended.28F Though sometimes celebrated without the participation of the faithful, it is an act of Christ Himself and of the Church.29F
It seems that we can never insist enough on the fact that it is our responsibility “to be masters of the ars celebrandi, and our major seminarians, our brothers, etc., must strive, on their side, to live the ars participandi most perfectly.”30F
Added to this, we have often and in different ways been taught that, as priests, we can never truly be fulfilled if the Eucharist is not the center and root of our life,31F in such a way that our activity is essentially an irradiation of the Eucharist.
“Eucharistic love,” taught Saint John Paul II, “is what daily renews and makes the priest’s spiritual paternity fruitful, assimilating him more and more to Christ-Victim and so making him, like Himself, ‘bread’ for souls, while he is voluntarily consumed by them in a love that communicates the grace of salvation to them. And in this expropriation of himself, the priest finds his true greatness and the attraction that he can inspire in souls, inciting them to imitate the offering that the Lamb of God makes of Himself to the Father for the redemption of the world.”32F
“On the other hand, we must keep in mind that the celebration of the Mass is a thermometer of the priestly life,”33F to such a degree that one can say that “a priest is worth as much as his Eucharistic life is worth, especially his Mass. A Mass without love, a sterile priest; a fervent Mass, a priest who conquers souls. Neglected and loveless Eucharistic devotion, a lax priest – more, a priest in danger.”34F
From this it follows that it is crucial for us priests and religious to cultivate a profound personal love for the Eucharist so that this sacrament is, and always remains, the essential point of reference for our growing union with the Incarnate Word, union which perfects itself little by little. “The Eucharist”, Saint Leonardo Murialdo recalled, “is not a rite to be performed but a mystery to be lived.”35F
Therefore, to say that the Eucharist is the center of our lives also means to put in the center of our thoughts and prospects, not ourselves, our human projects and plans, but Him, the life of our life. If not, we run the risk of being a dried-up vine branch or a clashing cymbal.36F
2. In the Eucharist, we will always find the deepest foundation of our unity37F
“A religious community is never more united than when they meet around the altar for the Sacrifice of the Eucharist, sign of unity.”38F
This because the Eucharist, memorial of Love, bond of charity,39F is at the same time the sign that produces the union and the community. Jesus Himself said: where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.40F Therefore, when we receive the Body of Christ, we unite ourselves more intimately with Him, and through it, Christ Himself unites us all in one Body, the Church.41F In fact, the ultimate effect of the Eucharist is precisely the unity of the Church: The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf. 42F
Consequently, our proper law reminds us that “the irreplaceable and life-giving center… of each religious community”43F must be Jesus in the Eucharist, since “it is around the Eucharist, celebrated or adored, that the communion of spirits is built up, a prerequisite for all growth in fraternity. ‘From this, therefore, all education to the spirit of community must take its origin.’44F”45F
You know well that the Eucharist, and therefore the daily Mass, is one of the great loves of all the Institute’s members “since it is the undeniable sign of God’s immeasurable love for men, it is the sign of a God who wants to remain among men and who gives Himself up to man totally.”46F So the Eucharist is for us “the school of active love for neighbor”47F where we are educated in and impelled to exercise charity towards all. This is why those who celebrate the Eucharist without taking into account the demands of charity and of communion deny its profound meaning. “A Eucharist which does not pass over into the concrete practice of love is intrinsically fragmented,”48F declared Pope Benedict XVI.
Notice how insistently our proper law, in various Directories, prescribes that we not only celebrate the Holy Mass daily, but also, pastoral commitments permitting, that we try to concelebrate as often as possible,49F and to find a moment in the day for Eucharistic Adoration in community.50F
In the prayer of adoration par excellence that is the Holy Mass, the union of our hearts is engendered, we find support in fraternal life’s common every-day difficulties and we strengthen each other in the faith.
In the Holy Mass we should make ourselves particularly sensitive to all human suffering and misery, and pray for each other, “as the order of charity demands, according to which we have to love more – affectively and effectively – those who are closer to us.”51F Therefore, we also have to sensitize ourselves to all injustice and offence, and look for a way to effectively repair them, learning to see the Incarnate Word’s presence in every soul.
If we are to be “other Christs,”52F it is in the Holy Mass that we ought to open our souls to the Lord, in order to be totally permeated by Him and configured to Him, with the charity poured out on the Cross by the Good Shepherd, who gave His Blood for us when He laid down his own life.
3. The Seminary is the Mass53F
Consequently, from the Novitiate we were encouraged to learn as soon as possible how to pray well,54F a great love for the Holy Mass was instilled in us,55F and – for the majority – we were introduced to the practice of the heroic night of adoration.56F
What is more, active participation in daily Mass and sacramental Communion were emphatically recommended.57F
The celebration of the Eucharist and active participation in it are fundamental pillars in the formation of all our members. Our proper law clearly expresses this: “the celebration of the Eucharist has an ‘essential importance’ in the spiritual formation of seminarians,58F and ought to be the ‘essential moment of their day,’ participating actively and ‘daily.’59F”60F
Therefore, “The eucharistic celebration is to be the center of the entire life of a seminary in such a way that, sharing in the very love of Christ, the students daily draw strength of spirit for apostolic work and for their spiritual life especially from this richest of sources.”61F So “participation in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the most important act of our day.”62F Or, as it was beautifully said in another part of our proper law, “in all the houses of the Institute, the Holy Mass is the center of life, the sun that illuminates our interior life, apostolate, work and every activity.”63F
All other activities in our formation houses – study, sport, eutrapelia, apostolate, song, etc. – should spring from the Mass and be oriented to the Mass. That is to say, to prepare in the best possible way the person who will one day approach the alter to offer the Sacrifice and preach the Word.64F
Therefore, “to enhance this consciousness and prompt a more active participation, ‘the Eucharistic Sacrifice and all the Sacred Liturgy must be given a prominent place’”65F in the Major and Minor Seminaries, as well as in the Novitiate. For this it is recommended, among other things, that the celebration of the Mass be the first activity of the day, and that, because of its fuller symbolism, Communion be daily distributed under both species.66F
From what has been said up to here, we can infer that the main idea is that “participation in the Eucharistic Sacrifice must be made life,”67F and I would like to emphasize it. Because “from Christ’s redemptive mystery, renewed in the Eucharist, the meaning of mission and ardent love for men are also nourished. From the Eucharist we also understand that all participation in Christ’s priesthood has a universal dimension. With this perspective, educating the heart is essential, so that we may live the drama of the peoples and multitudes who do not yet know Christ, and always be ready to go to any part of the world, to announce Him to all peoples.”68F
4. The Holy Mass is the center of parish life69F
Since we are also to be “essentially missionaries”70F we have “to be ready to go anywhere on earth where the preaching of the Gospel and the celebration of the Eucharist is necessary.”71F
All of this has as its goal to propose and promote, in all spheres – families, lay associations, parishes, and above all, in centers of education (especially seminaries and universities) and of scientific research, and in social media – an authentic pastoral work on holiness that underlines the primacy of grace and that has its center in the Sunday Eucharist.72F
It is clear that our style of apostolate is markedly Eucharistic and that the Eucharistic dimension occupies a primary and fundamental place in all that we do.
Therefore, all our members, especially those in charge of parishes, must “see to it that the Most Holy Eucharist is the center of the parish assembly of the faithful.”73F To do this, they must industriously strive so that the souls entrusted to them – when possible and always more numerously – be nourished through the devout celebration of the sacraments, especially through the frequent reception of the Most Holy Eucharist, and furthermore, work to promote Eucharistic worship through Eucharistic exposition for Adoration by the faithful.74F
“The Holy Mass is the center of parish life,”75F especially Sunday Mass, celebrated in such a way that the parishioners participate in it more and more consciously, actively and fruitfully.76F This ought to be a distinctive sign of all our parishes.
On this matter, our proper law points out that “our liturgical celebrations should be exemplary: ‘for the rites, for the spiritual and pastoral tone, and for the faithfulness due as much to the prescriptions and texts of the liturgical books, as to the norms given by the Holy See and the Episcopal Conferences.’”77F Therefore, all the priests of the Institute must strive to make the liturgy of our Masses cathedral without formalisms, beautiful without affectations, solemn without being pompous, austere but full, faithful to the rubrics but creative, with maximum participation and developing all the possibilities that the liturgy gives, especially in sacred music and song.
And though you already know this and practice it, I would like to highlight that our “style of liturgical celebrations, as part of our charism, [consist in] celebrations in which the Word is incarnated and in which He appears – sacramentally – Incarnate, in which the principal presence and action of the principal Priest always stands out,78F in which we perceive that the essential attitude of the secondary priest is a prayerful attitude – characteristic of the one who knows himself to be a mere instrument, and a deficient instrument at that, subordinated to the principal cause and subject to His ends –, in which all the visible elements contribute to splendid consciousness of the Invisible.79F
The Eucharistic celebration is also “the place where the parish’s life of faith is manifested.”80F
In short: for us the Eucharist is not only a source of charity, but also, in some way, the objective of all apostolate. Therefore, all our apostolic activities – camps, oratories, education, pilgrimages, youth groups, popular missions, etc. – must have marked Eucharistic devotion as an essential component, or at least be conducive to it. “Were we to disregard the Eucharist, how could we overcome our own deficiency?”81F
“Jesus lives in the Tabernacle in order to live in hearts.”82F
5. The primacy of a conscientious relationship with the Sacramental Lord83F
We must always remember that we became religious in this Religious Family to imitate the Incarnate Word. And our imitation of Christ – as you well know – is particularly illustrated by the mystery of the Transfiguration, which calls us to unceasing prayer and adoration.84F Likewise, it asks from us “a great faithfulness to personal and liturgical prayer, to the time set aside for mental prayer and contemplation, [and] to Eucharistic Adoration.”85F
We have the immense grace to be able to adore the Most Blessed Sacrament everyday for an hour. This is a commitment that we must not neglect, since all graces for evangelization flow from the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. And “a pause for true worship has greater value and spiritual fruit than the most intense activity, were it apostolic activity itself.”86F
“A missionary who […] hurries through the Mass, who has little familiarity with the Blessed Sacrament […] who, on the pretext of many works and projects taking up his time, gives little attention to meditation and other acts of piety, such a missionary is a poor illusion: his work is in vain and without
any true consistency, and his projects, even if he has many of them, are nothing more than simple chatter, often expressions of a vain and frivolous spirit.”87F
New initiatives of charity arise from celebrating and fully participating in the Eucharist and from spending a good while in “silent love”88F with God. This is where Christ Himself instills irrepressible and inexhaustible apostolic zeal in us, which leads us to an attitude of constant service towards all and drives us to take on missionary and evangelizing initiatives that are ever new and ever bolder. It is also there that our apostolic tribulations are assuaged and courage springs up “to work in the most difficult places – those where no one else wants to go – and when it is impossible to continue working there, we should spend a night in prayer before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and then ask the Bishop to send us somewhere even worse.”89F
Saint Manuel González, the great apostle of the Eucharist, masterfully wrote, “My brother, saddened by so many disappointments and injuries, look there, at that little golden door, at the Tabernacle! Listen, more than with the ear, with the heart! Do you hear what He says from within? … Behold, I am with you…. Yes, He is there. You already know who it is. It is Jesus Christ, the Son of God and of Mary, living, real, as He is in Heaven, with eyes that look at you and smile at you; with a mouth that, without moving, speaks to you; with hands that raise to bless you and lower to rest on your tired head; with arms that open to embrace you; and, above all, with a Heart pierced with thorns of forgetfulness, ingratitude, sacrileges… and flames of love… untiring, eternal….
“Well, all this Jesus Christ with His greatness as God and His eyes and His mouth and His hands and His Heart as man, with His virtues as the Holy One, with His merits as Redeemer, with His promises as Father, with His blood as Victim, He is yours! Just like that, without hyperboles, without exaggerations, He is yours!
“And this means that when you feel weak under the pressure of your enemies, you have the right to count on His omnipotence. That when man’s ingratitude or your own sins make you weep, you have the right to prostrate yourself before Him and embrace His knees and ask Him that, placing His blessed hand on your head, He may pardon you and them. It means that, when you meet a cold heart, hard as marble, that does not want to be converted, you have the right to take a little of His Heart’s fire and melt that stone. It means that, when you sow and do not harvest, when you preach and they do not listen, when you bless and they curse you, you have the right to ask Him for miracles of patience, humility, charity, [and] zeal…; in short, it means that when you are drowned in bitterness and your hand cannot lift itself to bless such ingratitude, and the tears dry in your eyes and your strength fails, and no part of your body is left sound after so many blows, nor heartstring left alive after so much suffering, you have the right to ask Him to take you… and transplant you into heaven to live with Him forever, forever…. Tell me, my brother, whoever you may be and whatever you may suffer, can you dare to say that you are alone?”90F
Saint John Paul II said to priests, “you are never so strong as when you lift your hands to heaven in the Eucharistic celebration. In this moment you have God’s omnipotence on your side.”91F
This brings us again to the foundation of our consecration, which we spoke about in the beginning: “For us, Jesus is everything, and Jesus is in the Blessed Sacrament.… Let us remain close to the Eucharistic heart of Jesus and this immense source of love will sanctify our poor hearts and ignite them with so much ardent zeal that souls without number will be attracted to us. Thus we will have reached the goal of our life, which is sanctification, and the goal of our divine vocation, which is the salvation of the souls entrusted to us.”92F
*****
Tomorrow, feast of Jesus’ Presentation in the Temple, we traditionally celebrate the day of the religious of the Incarnate Word, which coincides with the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life.
Our being consecrated means, at the same time, making the commitment to conform ourselves to Christ, learning in the school of Mary, “woman of the Eucharist”, and letting ourselves be accompanied by Her.
Each Mass that we celebrate or in which we participate associates us more intimately with Christ, and jointly, with the Virgin Mary, because the Body and Blood that are immolated are those that the Eternal Father formed by the power of the Holy Spirit in her purest womb.93F So we have to see the presence of the Mother in the Sacrifice of the Altar. The Virgin made what we are about to eat in the Pascual Banquet bear fruit, and what we are about to drink, sprout.94F As John Paul the Great said: Mary and the Eucharist are inseparably united.95F
The Eucharist has been given to us so that our life as consecrated persons, like that of Mary, may become completely a Magnificat!96F May the Most Holy Virgin grant us this grace.
I send you all a big hug and thank you from the heart for all that you do for the Church, the Institute, and your particular apostolates.
In the Incarnate Word,
Fr. Gustavo Nieto, IVE
General Superior
