Editorial - September 2011 - N°357

We will concentrate this year on the theme: “You are the Body of Christ” (1 Cor. 12, 27), the second image of the MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH in continuation of the first “I saw a huge crowd” and awaiting the third and last: “The Church: temple of the Holy Spirit”.

The Eucharist is an experience during which we become together the “Body of Christ”. This concerns each one of us, but also the whole of humanity as “the social Body”. The members of the body live united, linked to each other, dependent on each other and together participate in the life of the body. Despite their number, the members of the body – the huge crowd – form only one body. All the members need one another. None can pretend not to need others. Even the weakest are necessary. The members must care for one another for the suffering of one member cannot leave others indifferent. The Eucharist does not resolve conflicts miraculously. It is words of fraternity on the horizon of our existence.

In the Eucharist we fully possess God who fully gives himself to us and we give ourselves totally to Him who thus takes total possession of us. Joy of communion: where God comes to lose Himself in us so that we may lose ourselves totally in Him.

I wish that all the teams of the world will live a beautiful and fruitful year with their chaplains and by inviting people who are distant from the Church to take place on the neighbour’s chair.

May their rallying cry be a call to join the small domestic churches that are our homes, where none must feel troubled by their poverty or their wealth.

May Mary accompany us in our apostolate of proximity so that each month of this year each one of us may affirm more loudly: “it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me”