Delegations from 53 countries around the world arrived in Quito, Ecuador, to participate in the solemn Eucharistic celebration in the Bicentenario Park, which on Sunday 8 September officially opened the 53rd International Eucharistic Congresstitled “Brotherhood to Heal the World”.
The Mass was presided over by the Metropolitan Archbishop of Quito and Primate of Ecuador, Monsignor Alfredo Jose Espinoza Mateusand concelebrated by the cardinal Balthazar Porras Cardozo, Archbishop Emeritus of Caracas and Papal Legate, dozens of bishops from Ecuador and abroad, numerous priests. More than 1,600 children from the Archdiocese of Quito received their first communion, and about 25 thousand faithful they filled the esplanade of the Bicentennial Park.
On Sunday 15th, the closing mass will be presided over by Cardinal Cardozo. In between, days during which, with qualified speakers and witnesses, we will reflect on the wounds of today’s world, on the brotherhood redeemed in Christ, on the Eucharist and the transfiguration of the world, on the link between synodality and the Eucharist. Space will be given to witnesses of faith, such as Saint Oscar Arnulfo Romero and the unforgettable bishop of Riobamba Leonidas Proañowho courageously showed in Ecuador, in difficult years, the path of the option for the poorest, and in particular for the indigenous population. “Quito, the ‘Little Face of God’ as we affectionately call it, will be a meeting place for all the continents,” said Monsignor Espinoza Mateus in his homily, “gathered to reflect and live the great mystery of the Eucharist that challenges us to be true builders of fraternity to heal the wounds of the world and commits us to be authentic brothers in the midst of a world full of violence, death, wars; uA world that divides, not a world that unites; a world that turns man into an enemy and not a brother».
Addressing the children who received their First Communion, the Archbishop added: “Today is a day of celebration, a great day in your life” and reminded them of the words of Pope Francis who says: «First Communion is above all a celebration in which we celebrate that Jesus wanted to always be at our side and that he will never separate from us». The choice of Quito to host the Eucharistic Congress is due to the fact that this year marks the 150th anniversary of the consecration of the South American country to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
“Fraternity,” said Pope Francis in a video message in Spanish for the opening of the event, “is an essential condition for a new, more just, more human world. The sign of bread, the Pontiff recalls, in fact ignites in the people of God the desire for brotherhood, because “just as bread cannot be kneaded with a single grain, so too we must walk together” because we are one body and one bread. Only in this way do we grow as brothers and as a Church, united by the water of baptism and purified by the fire of the Holy Spirit. This is the way, Francis continues, to achieve a profound brotherhood with God, “which comes from letting ourselves be ground, like wheat, to become bread and the body of Christ”. Brotherhood, however, must also be “proactive”. The example that the Pope proposes is that of Angela Autsch, German nun who died in the Auschwitz concentration camp, whom she frequently urged to take communion and to pray for the Pope and the Church – which was then persecuted – and to find in the Eucharist a bond that strengthens the strength of the Church itself and of its members and with God. In this way she organized “the plot of a resistance that the enemy cannot defeat, because it does not respond to a human plan. Even before being arrested”, in fact, “when the evil that loomed over the world was already evident”, Francis reiterated, “He invited his grandchildren, who were approaching Holy Communion for the first time, he invited his relatives who had distanced themselves a little, and he also invited those who had remained devout, to rebel against that evil with simple gestures. and, in certain dangerous contexts, to get as close as possible to the Sacrament of the altar”. In other words he invited “to rebel by receiving communion”.
For if one member suffers, the whole body suffers with it, just as Christ suffered.who took upon himself the weight of the world’s pain to heal it“. By learning this lesson, Francis concludes, we can recover “this radical brotherhood with God and among men” and only in that unity can we serve the world and heal it.
