CATHOLIC CIIUKCH. K)PE, I963-

(PAULUS, VI), ADDRESS ON THE

HOLY EUCHARIST.

V/f ToT^es

of

on

June 10, 1965



1965

National Catholic Welfare Conference

1312 Massachusetts Avenue, N. W. Washington 5, D. C.



Address given by Pope Paul VI

at the Italian JSational Eucharistic Congress

at Pisa^ Italy

June 10, 1965

M[y lord cardinals, among them our cardinal legate, the archbishop

of Florence; venerable brothers, among them the revered and

beloved archbishop of this ancient and illustrious Pisan See; ec-

clesiastic, civil, academic and military authorities, among them my

lord the president of the council of ministers of Italy and those who

represent here the Italian government as well as the town of Pisa;

all the faithful of Pisa, Rome and Italy who have gathered here for

the celebration of this 17th National Eucharistic Congress, we greet

you all and we bless you with gratitude, knowing that you have

come here to join your homage to ours to the august mystery of

Christ present in the Eucharist, we greet you in the joy of being

able to meet you, to pray with you, to prophesy new spiritual for-

tunes for this privileged land where history, art and culture have

merged with faith for centuries and have expressed themselves in

monuments of incomparable beauty and wisdom.

We owe a special greeting to all the beloved priests who have

come here. The congress reserves this day for them in a particular

way. We have come here to share with you, brothers in the voca-
tion which Christ gave us all, in the totality of His love and dedi-

cation to His ministry.

Beloved and venerated priests, let us be aware of the twofold

representation which is attributed to us—that of being God’s
representatives among men and that of being men’s representatives

to God. Let us exult and tremble at being made, if not worthy.

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suitable to work at that twofold task “in the person of Christ” by

His power as agents of the great Eucharistic mystery. Christ, who

is present in us with His divine and human power, makes Himself

present in His sacramental reality through our humble and sub-

lime ministry. We are the operators, the ministers, the distributors
of the Eucharist. Let us not forget it because of the holiness we

owe to Christ and to God. Let us not forget it because of the

charity we owe our brethren.

A greeting and a blessing to which we will not now add more,
in order to confine the present brief homily to a consideration of

the lofty religious theme we are celebrating and for which we re-

serve the fullness of our sentiment, translating both the greeting

and the blessing into the piety and charity of the sacred liturgical

rite.

Brothers and beloved sons, we have come to this congress to

make our own the testimony which the congress has made its

program: “God with us! for Christ is with us!” For the sacrosanct

signs of the Eucharist are not only symbols and figures of Christ

or modes indicating an affection or an action of His toward the

guests at His supper. They contain Christ living and true. They

show Him present as He is in eternal glory, but represented here

in the act of His sacrifice, to demonstrate that the Eucharistic

sacrifice reflects in an unbloody way the bloody immolation of

Christ on the Cross and makes those participate in the benefits of

redemption who worthily nourish themselves with the Body and

the Blood of Christ clothed in those signs of bread and wine. So

it is, so it is.

Oh, we know that by pronouncing such a reality we are pro-

nouncing a mystery. Indeed, we see that by affirming the truth

which the Catholic Church professes regarding the Eucharist we

also pronounce an extremely involved—and extremely wonderful
—complex of other truths essentially linked with the Eucharistic
mystery, equally mysterious but equally founded on reality. Suffice

it to recall first of all the priesthood, with its prodigious powers of

realizing by divine power the mysterious presence of Christ in the

Eucharist and the essential relationship of the Eucharist with the

Mystical Body of Christ, ^ that is to say with the Church which has

in the Eucharist the sign—now for us the supreme sign—of its
^ cfr. St. Th. Ill, 73, 3

2



unity and the most effective principle, Christ Himself in an act of

extreme charity, of its composition and of its sanctification.

Moreover, this real and hidden presence, veiled in signs as

devoid of their real nature—bread and wine—as they are full of
the specific spiritual significance of the Eucharist, the spiritual

food of the wayfarer on the road to eternal life, carries with it such

depths of theological implications as to constitute the heart of the

Church. Think of the analogy between the word and its identical

and multiplied resonance in those who listen to it; of evangelical

references—think of the speeches of Chirst at Capharnaum and at
the Last Supper; of liturgical derivation—the Mass first of all; of
devotional applications—think of the silent and wonderful mystery
of the innumerable tabernacles which spangle the face of the earth

with lights visible only to angels, saints and believers; of spiritual

fruitfulness—think of the liturgical fullness of the assemblies of the
faithful around the altar, and of the personal conversations which

individual souls, nourished by Christ or enraptured by faith or

charity, in adoration and prayer entertain with the Divine

Presence. It carries with it, as we said, such religious, spiritual,

moral and ritual implications as to constitute the heart of the

Church. It is Jesus who speaks: I am in the midst of them.^

So it is. We repeat: we know that we speak of a mystery.
But so it is. This is our testimony, which coincides with that of

this congress, and we give it the full confirmation which our

apostolic ministry authorizes and indeed obliges us to profess. So

it is. Christ is really present in the Eucharistic sacrament. We say
this in order to rejoice with you, faithful sons, who make of the

Eucharist your spiritual nourishment, and to strengthen your piety

in that true worship, nourished on the Gospel and on theological

doctrine, toward which the recent Council decree on the Sacred

Liturgy exhorts us and for which it paves the way.

We say this also in order to dispel some uncertainties which
have arisen during these past few years from an attempt to give

elusive interpretations to the traditional and authoritative doctrine

of the Church in a matter of such importance. And we say it in

order to ask you all, men of our century, to center your attention

on this ancient and ever new message, which the Church still re-

- Matt. 18 , 20

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peats: Christ, living and hidden in the sacramental sign which

offers Him to us, is really present. This is no vain word, no super-

stitious delusion or mythical fantasy; it is the truth no less real,

though on a different plane, than those which all of us who are

schooled by modern culture, seek to explore, conquer and affirm

regarding the things which surround us and which, once known,

give the sense of certain, positive truths, and, what is more, useful

scientific truths.

Men, brothers and sons of our time, we believe we under-

stand the perplexity and also the opposition which some of you

feel at the proclamation of the Eucharistic mystery, which the

Church continues to proclaim, and which we ourselves, taking ad-

vantage of such a propitious and solemn occasion, here confirm.

How can it be, how can it be—we seem to hear some of you
whisper—a thing so foreign to ordinary experience, to all usual
knowledge of the physical world, to all possibility of proof by the

senses? The mental training of our time accustoms the mind to

certainties that are concrete, within the grasp of its power to

know.

The art of doubt then, and of a negative criticism, the

accommodation of the mind to agnosticism and scepticism, the

facility for speculative as well as for practical negation regarding

religion, perhaps even a certain secret sloth deep in the souls of

many men once endowed with proper religious information and

some happy experiences of who Christ is and of what His word is

worth, a sloth which paralyzes at a given moment an act of honest

and courageous meditation—all these characteristics of modern
mentality and culture at times cause the man of the world to bring

himself to a standstill before the proclamation which we here re-

peat: “Christ is with us.” Once more they place on his lips the

negative comments of the hearers of Christ’s great Eucharistic

speech at Capharnaum: “This is a hard saying. Who can listen

to it?”^

Well, then, men of our time, whom we believe also to be sons

of the Church and our brothers, because you were christened and

therefore eligible for the ineffable communion, we cannot illustrate

to you now the reasons which render acceptable the great Eucha-

ristic truth. We prefer to restrict ourselves to saying to you what
•'* John 6

,
60

4



we say to ourselves: It is a mystery, that is to say a truth of an-

other order than that of ordinary logic and of the knowledge

gained from the experience of the senses.

But it is a truth guaranteed by the word of the Master, Jesus

Christ, a word which sets in motion in our mind a particular form

of knowing and adhering to a truth beyond the grasp of its normal

intelligence. It is a particular form of accepting and living a word

which contains its own justification and, even though sustained by

many plausible arguments, has within itself a secret reassuring

attraction. It is a particular form of pledging our being to welcome

a truth which affirms itself to be the equivalent of life, that par-

ticular form which is called—you have guessed it—faith.

The Eucharist is the mystery of faith. The brightest, the

sweetest, the surest light for those who believe; a dull rite for

those who do not believe.

Oh how decisive the Eucharistic theme is when brought to

this discriminating point! Those who welcome it make a choice.

They choose with the vigorous conclusion of Peter: “Lord, to

whom shall we go? Thou hast words of everlasting life!”^

Most beloved brothers and sons, this is perhaps the propitious

moment for everyone to renew the choice which Christ puts be-

fore us, not only regarding this salient dogma of the Eucharistic

mystery, but regrading His whole evangelical message, which the

Church, guided by the Holy Ghost and after a long vigil of medi-

tation, puts before us. In the solemn hour of the ecumenical Coun-

cil, while a new day for the life of the world dawns in the ambit

of history, our faith plays a role of great importance. Everyone

knows how widely and deeply the need is felt for a transcendent

truth, profoundly capable of illuminating humanity’s path: The

Catholic faith once more presents to the world its impressive offer.

Observe: It is a free offer to free men and, as you will see if

you meditate on it properly, a liberating one. The Lord said it: The

truth. His truth shall make you free.® It is a free and disinterested

offer, which draws its beginning, and its end from an infinite love.

It is an offer which does not humiliate the mind of man, but lifts it

to higher visions. It is an offer which does not interfere with the ex-

* John 6
,
68

" John 8
,
32

5



ercise of human thought, nor does it impede labor in its natural

and upright toil, nor yet does it bring to a standstill the pursuit of

civil achievements. Instead it illumines and comforts the man who

fills his daily life with worthy works. It is an offer—everyone
knows it—which does not slow down social development, does not
estrange man from his legitimate vital aspirations, but brings with

it the eternal and joyous message of the Gospel, of comfort and

hope for every human sorrow, and a stimulus for all due justice.

It is an offer which is linked to responsibility before God for the

destiny of individual life—remember: he who believes shall be
saved ^—and before history for the fate of peace in the world.
It is therefore a grave and a great offer. If accepted, it pledges

one’s life to a sincerely magnanimous program, but always filled

with Christian simplicity, good and pious. Faith is life, faith is

salvation.

If our voice can have the force of expansion and penetration,

it is you, people of Pisa, that we wish to reach first; to reach your

hearts. This is the hour of faith. We will repeat the apostolic

exhortation: “Be steadfast in the faith.” ' Be steadfast in the faith

which has fashioned your history and made your glory. Let this

be the day when you regain full and willing awareness of it and

make it into a reason for faithfulness in the future. Paternally, we

dare to advance, with a friendly heart and with esteem, our appeal

for a new consideration of the faith of Christ on the very threshold

of your famous university, which we know and venerate and of

which a distant predecessor of ours, Clement VI (1343) laid the

foundations centuries ago, as well as on the no less esteemed

threshold of your higher normal school. It is well worth while for

ardent and thoughtful minds, such as gather in these august abodes

of study and knowledge, to think over the gravity and to recognize

the goodness of this appeal.

To the people of Tuscany, who are today receiving our visit,

we repeat: Sons of Tuscany, love the Christian faith of this

privileged and blessed land, the faith of your saints, the faith of

the magnanimous souls whose immortal memory is celebrated

«MRMC. 16, 16
" I Peter 5, 8

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yesterday and today as in the past—Galileo, Michelangelo and
Dante, love the faith of your fathers. Today, let it still be your

frank and lively faith, and, tomorrow, the faith of your sons.

And we would wish our cry for constancy in the faith to

reach across the Tyrrhenian Sea to the beloved and hard-working

island of Sardinia with which Pisa has for centuries had spiritual

and civil exchanges. We wish our cry to reach the whole of Italy,

which finds here the magnificent expression of its spiritual unity,

the stupendous token of its Christian prosperity.

This is the message which the Pope has come to give per-

sonally to the National Eucharistic Congress at glorious Pisa.

Hs * * *

(Translation provided by NCWC News Service)

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in 2016

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