VATICAN : POPE : EUCHARIST - AN EXTRAORDINARY EXPERIENCE OF PRAYER

VIS REPORT: THE PRAYER OF JESUS AT THE LAST SUPPER

VATICAN  CITY, 11 JAN 2012 (VIS) - Jesus' prayer during the Last Supper was the theme  of Benedict XVI's catechesis during his general audience, which was held this  morning in the Paul VI Hall in the presence of 4,000 faithful. (IMAGE SOURCE: RADIO VATICANA)

   The Pope explained how the emotional backdrop to the Last Supper, in which  Jesus bade farewell to His friends, was the immanence of His approaching  death. Moreover, in the days in which He was preparing to leave His  disciples, the life of the Jewish people was marked by the approaching Passover,  the commemoration of the liberation of Israel from Egypt.

   "It was in this context that the Last Supper took place", the Holy  Father said, "but with an important novelty". Jesus "wanted  the Supper with His disciples to be something special, different from other  gatherings. It was His Supper, in which He gave something completely new:  Himself. Thus Jesus celebrated the Passover as an anticipation of His Cross  and Resurrection".

   The essence of the Last Supper lay in "the gestures of breaking and distributing  the bread, and sharing the cup of wine, with the words that accompanied them  and the context of prayer in which they took place. This was the institution  of the Eucharist: the great prayer of Jesus and the Church". The words  the Evangelists use to describe that moment "recall the Jewish  'berakha'; that is, the great prayer of thanksgiving and blessing which, in  the tradition of Israel, is used to inaugurate important ceremonies. ... That  prayer of praise and thanks rises up to God and returns as a blessing. ...  The words of the institution of the Eucharist were pronounced in this context  of prayer. The praise and thanksgiving of the 'berakha' became blessing and  transformed the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus".

   Jesus' gestures were the traditional gestures of hospitality which a host  would extend to his guests, but in the Last Supper they acquired a more  profound significance, Pope Benedict explained. Christ provided "a  visible sign of welcome to the table upon which God gives Himself. In the  bread and the wine, Jesus offered and communicated His own Self". Aware  of His approaching death, "He offered in advance the life that would  shortly be taken from Him, thus transforming His violent death into a free  act of the giving of Self, for others and to others. The violence He suffered  became an active, free and redemptive sacrifice".

   "In contemplating Jesus' words and gestures that night, we can clearly  see that it was in His intimate and constant relationship with the Father  that He accomplished the gesture of leaving to His followers, and to all of  us, the Sacrament of love", said the Pope. During the Last Supper Jesus  also prayed for His disciples, who likewise had to suffer harsh trials. With  that prayer "He supported them in their weakness, their difficulty in  understanding that the way of God had to pass through the Paschal mystery of  death and resurrection, which was anticipated in the offer of bread and wine.  The Eucharist is the food of pilgrims, a source of strength also for those  who are tired, weary and disoriented".

   Benedict XVI went on: "By participating in the Eucharist we have an  extraordinary experience of the prayer which Jesus made, and continues to  make for us all, that the evil we encounter in our lives may not triumph, and  that the transforming power of Christ's death and resurrection may act within  each of us. In the Eucharist the Church responds to Jesus' command to 'do  this in remembrance of me', she repeats the prayer of thanksgiving and  blessing and, therewith, the words of transubstantiation of the bread and  wine into the Body and Blood of the Lord. Our Eucharistic celebrations draw  us into that moment of prayer, uniting us ever and anew to the prayer of  Jesus".

   "Let us ask the Lord that, after due preparation also with the Sacrament  of Penance, our participation in the Eucharist, which is indispensable for  Christian life, may always remain the apex of all our prayers", the Pope  concluded. "Let us ask that, profoundly united in His offering to the  Father, we too can transform our crosses into a free and responsible  sacrifice of love, for God and for our fellows".

   At the end of his catechesis the Holy Father delivered greetings in a number  of languages to the pilgrims present in the Paul VI Hall, inviting them to  participate with "faith and devotion" in the Eucharist which, he  said, is indispensable for Christian life as well as being the school and  culmination of prayer. Addressing young people, the sick and newlyweds, he  pointed our that last Sunday's Solemnity of the Baptism of the Lord is an  occasion to reflect upon our own Baptism. "Dear young people", the  Pope exclaimed, "live your membership of the Church, the family of  Christ, joyfully. Dear sick people, may the grace of Baptism ease your  sufferings and encourage you to offer them to Christ for the salvation of  humanity. And you, dear newlyweds, ... base your marriage on the faith which  you received as a gift on the day of your Baptism".
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CUBAN CROCODILE AT THE HOLY FATHER'S GENERAL AUDIENCE

VATICAN  CITY, 11 JAN 2012 (VIS) - Among those attending this morning's general  audience with the Holy Father were staff of the zoological park in Rome (the  "Bioparco"), which is currently celebrating its centenary. They  brought with them a rare live specimen of the Cuban crocodile, to represent  the 1,200 animals which live in the park and as a sign of the environmental  protection and education work the structure carries out.

   The Cuban crocodile, which is classified as an endangered species, has seen  its numbers fall by 80 per cent in recent years, and it currently survives  only in a small area of the island. The young specimen shown to the Pope is  being kept in the zoological park for a period of recovery. In March,  coinciding with Benedict XVI's apostolic trip to Cuba, it will be returned to  its country of origin. In a statement Paolo Giuntarelli, president of the  "Bioparco Foundation" said that, "the meeting with the Pope is  the most prestigious seal of approval for our first hundred years, and the  best possible beginning to a new century of history".
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AUDIENCES

VATICAN  CITY, 11 JAN 2012 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in audience Bishop  Gerhard Ludwig Muller of Regensburg, Germany.

   Yesterday afternoon he received in audience Cardinal Joachim Meisner,  archbishop of Cologne, Germany.
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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN  CITY, 11 JAN 2012 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Archbishop Lorenzo  Baldisseri, apostolic nuncio to Brazil, as secretary of the Congregation for  Bishops.

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