Christ’s presence in the Eucharist: An embodiment of creative patience

Catechetical talk delivered by Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, SDB, Archbishop of Yangon and president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences ( FABC)

Introduction:

In the name of Jesus, I greet you all, the graceful people of Hungary and fellow pilgrims from various parts of the world. The great  people of Hungary, our graceful hosts from Budapest, our brothers and sisters from all over the  world.

I am grateful to the organizing committee, the Church in Hungary, all the bishops, religious, the people of God. Of course, my presence here was due specially to my dear friend, His Eminence Peter Cardinal Erdo, Archbishop of Esztergom, Budapest, Primate of Hungary, whose warmth and insistence made me to come here despite all travel challenges. Thanks to Your Eminence.

This is like the Pentecostal moment. God’s all springs flow like a mystical river here.

We as  people of all races, all languages and all cultures could come together as the body of Christ and celebrate our oneness. May these graced moments bring health to the world, peace and prosperity to every soul. God we extol: all my springs are in you.

The Eucharistic congress is really a Catholic “Universal gathering” commemorating the first soaking of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. (Acts 2). The strong wind of the Holy Spirit is flowing across this stadium, the Spirit falling as tongues of fire. Our languages may be different. But we are united in the  message of the Lord Jesus.

Let us celebrate this moment of Grace. 

I was chosen as the papal legate for the previous Congress in Cebu, the Philippines. Thousands of participants from 71 different countries  attended the week-long event. It was an experience of the outpouring of the spirit. The Philippines remains one of the very largest and very active Catholic country. Millions attended daily masses and adorations and theological reflections. Amidst all those celebrations I had the joy of meeting your delegation there who graciously invited me to be part of this wonderful gathering of faith. Of course, my dear friend and your esteemed Cardinal Peter Cardinal Erdo was there. I am so glad that His Eminence’s efforts resulted in this visit.

So, it gladdens my heart to attend yet another event of Grace. I am glad that I am invited to speak on the birthday of Our Lady. May her intercession in these challenging times, bring healing and peace to all. You are great Hungary! Blessed among all nations on the globe.

The Church in Hungary: A Church formed through patience and forbearance.

My  great admiration goes to the Catholic Church in Hungary. The Church in Hungary has a long history of giving witness to the gospel, of facing suppression and suffering; a nation of people of different ethnic, linguistic and liturgical traditions living together. I remember with great joy, the history of this gallant Catholic Church, evangelized by the saintly Stephen of Hungary: the first King of Hungary in 1001. His hard work saw the establishment of so many dioceses, conversion of this nation. I am sure his virtuous  spirit hovers over this Conference.

The Church in your country has given so many saints and martyrs, missionary men and women to the Universal Church. We thank God for them all. Through the ups and downs of history you have kept the faith, suffered, and struggled; but you have been a faithful witness to the gospel. The beautiful churches and monasteries are the monuments of that great faith. But above all, this Eucharistic Congress is a powerful testimony to that faith which is very much alive and vibrant. May God continue to bless your land with peace, and may he fill us with his love as we gather in his name. 

I am very glad to hear, Hungary, which was once highly threatened by the pandemic virus has managed to control it and we can come together as the Universal Family to celebrate the victory of patience. May the Eucharistic Lord, who multiplied five loaves and distributed to five thousand people, break his bread of healing in our gathering and to the world. Let our prayers rise up and knock at the heavenly doors to bring peace. Faith of a mustard seed can move mountains. Let our prayers knock down the mountain of  this pandemic. That is possible. Hungary has proved it is possible.

Hungary! You are Blessed among the Nations. Love Christ, you will see wonders.

Myanmar Church: A Church tested through its patience

I come from a faraway land, a small country in the vast continent of Asia, Myanmar. My country, formerly known as Burma, is in Southeast Asia with a population of 55 million. It is rich in cultures with more than 135 ethnic groups living together, often called a “Rainbow nation.” The Church is young, but vibrant and growing. Majority of the people in Myanmar are Buddhists. Like in most Asian countries, Christianity is a minority religion in Myanmar too. However, we have a very vibrant and young Christian community which continues to grow in number. Myanmar is blessed with many vocations to priesthood and religious life. 

Our people are graceful people, lovers of art and culture and very religious. God was good to them. He has kept so many resources above the ground and below the ground. But our people face seven decades of great challenges. Last six months, our simple people have faced multi-layered  challenges: conflict, COVID, collapse of the economy and climate disasters. Catholics have suffered a lot; our churches have been attacked. Many of our people are refugees in our own land

Pope Francis has a special love for this land. In 2017, to the surprise of the world, he chose our country, a country of just 700,000 Catholics for his papal pilgrimage of peace. He is the prophet of the margin; he came to see the people in the margin. After the recent political turmoil Pope Francis has spoken seven times supporting our suffering people, said a special mass for Myanmar in the Vatican. I am too glad he will be here for the closing ceremony.  

I am glad to be here; despite all the difficulties and the transit challenges. I am here to be part of the Hungary church’s effort to bring the universal church for this great Eucharistic conference. I also seek your intense prayers for my people. They need you, your prayers.

Let me start my talk on Patience: the Divine Patience in the Eucharist. Let me illustrate that with a devotion made popular by our Pope Francis.  

Mary of Knots: A good example of patience

Let me start with a story about the great painting of Our Lady of Un-doer of Knots. When Pope Francis was a student in Germany, he came across the devotion to the Mary of Knots un tier.( Maria Knotenlöserin“.)  The devotion to Mary, Un-doer (or Un-tier) of Knots is about 300 years old, but became more widely known as Pope Francis spoke about and promoted it throughout his papacy, and while he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In the painting, Mary unties the knots. One angel gives her the knotted ribbon, while the other holds the unknotted side and presents it to us. The theology is that the knots  brought in by our first parents through their disobedience is slowly untied by the patient obedience of our Lady who said Yes to the call of Angel Gabriel.

What is the relevance of this story to our topic? Patience. Disobedience entered when our first parents could not exercise patience and listened to evil advice. Redemption, according to this story, comes through the patience of Mary.

But there is another interesting side to this story. When a group of pilgrims visited this shrine in Germany, an impulsive tourist told the parish priest, ”Father, Mother Mary should have used the knife to cut the knots faster.” He was not aware cutting the knots in haste would destroy the whole rope. The modern generation seeks quick fix solutions.

Patience is untying the knots in our lives. We all have knots in our lives, many knotted by others, but many are knotted by our own selves: the psychological knots, the spiritual knots and even physical knots. Human beings are good in knotting themselves into difficult situations and those who are desperate they knot the knots and stay trapped. Untying life’s knots need patience.

Pope Francis said: “Through Mary all the knots of our heart, every knot of our conscience can be undone. Nothing is impossible for God’s mercy! Even the most tangled knots are loosened by his grace.” I do pray that Mother Mary help the world to untie all the self-inflicted knots.

Lesson For Our Lives

Encouraged by the Pope, let us start with the prayer that  the same patience that animated our Mother Mary may animate all of us gathered here, to understand the  mental, physical and  spiritual knots that  are impediments to us. We pray to the Lord Jesus, whose presence in the Eucharist, as an embodiment of his Creative Patience, give us the grace of undoing all the difficult knots in our lives with patience and with endurance like Mary so that we may see  all the blessings in our life, for our family, our nations.

Patience: A Patient Understanding.

What is Patience?

I do hope we can patiently understand what is patience. I am giving an hour to talk to you on this topic. I am sure you will show patience as we go through this very important grace, gift of the holy Spirit which is not only spiritually filling but also very useful  to our lives.

Socrates would appreciate patience as the master virtue: the man who is master of patience is the master of everything. Patience is waiting with hope. Others would define: Patience is not the ability to wait, but to have good attitudes while waiting. Patience is defined as: 

• The state of remaining tranquil while awaiting an outcome, patience, steadfastness, endurance;
• a state of being able to bear up under provocation, forbearance, patience toward others; of human beings; ability to understand God’s ways
• St Paul calls it the gift of the Holy Spirit; the door that opens to Love, Love is Kind. If we substitute the word Love with Patience in his great lyrical praise of Love  : 1 Cor 13 we could understand the meaning of patience. 

Mother Teresa is known for her patient and humble service to poor. She used to say, “Without patience, we will learn less in life. We will see less. We will feel less. We will hear less. She was steeped in patience as she did what she had to do day after day, year after year, decade after decade despite the realization that change would come slow if ever to the plight of the poor and downtrodden around the world.

Lesson from Mother Teresa

Our sure path to holiness and Heaven is patience and meekness under adversity, done for the motive of loving God and neighbor. And forgiving enemies. The meek will inherit the Kingdom. We need patience to understand God’s action in us. (Mother Teresa). Life is not a fast-food restaurant. It is a patient pilgrimage. Fast internet may connect Smart phones. Only patience connects hearts .

COVID: Our Irritating Teacher of Patience.

Even those who never thought about patience, they have known it, challenged by it during this pandemic. COVID has taught us this virtue in the most painful way. This topic of patience is painfully relevant today. COVID has closed our churches, making  the celebration of the Eucharist a very big challenge. Our human sensibilities are wounded by this virus. Our patience is challenged:

• Lack of human contact: Our communion as human beings is curtailed through social distancing. We are afraid of each other. We cannot even say proper farewell to our dear ones when they die. We cannot even bring them to the church, have the last eucharistic  celebration.
• Robbed of Smile: Our faces are hidden from our dear ones with the Masks. The greatest gift, the apostolate of smiling is robbed off by this virus. We are hidden from our dear ones.
• Livelihood loss and prospects of starvation in countries like Myanmar.
• Anxiety: We are forced to doubt ourselves, washing our hands umpteenth times.
• Wounds: The mental wound is staggering: so many people are pushed into living alone, in existential anxiety. ”Most reviewed studies reported negative psychological effects including post-traumatic stress symptoms, confusion, and anger. Stressors included longer quarantine duration, infection fears, frustration, boredom, inadequate supplies, inadequate information, financial loss, and stigma.”
• Great challenges to Spiritual life: Spiritual values are “creative and constructive mechanisms working to stabilize the society, to prevent its destruction, this is their regularity.” Compassion, kindness, sympathy, and caring are some of those spiritual values that are threatened by the virus.  Being human is part of divine. That vocation remains greatly challenged.

Patience helps us to salvage our humanity in this pandemic

Despite our great challenges, we are winning on the Spiritual sphere. This came through our patience, which St Paul calls it the gift of the Holy Spirit. COVID-19 pushes us hard to rekindle our faith to see God’s intervention in overpowering the disastrous effect of coronavirus (Psalm 91). The COVID forced us to be patient:  patience taught the following spiritual  benefits.

• Non ordained Ministries : A call to pray from home transfers greater responsibility to non-ordained members. Praying from home will bring in a faithful realization that all can have access to God through Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:18), So far this was done by the ordained ministers. Laity rises up now.  Instead of breaking bread in the altar in the church, we break the bread of healing, bread of fellowship, bread of consolation, the bread of mutual support, the bread of Word. The whole world has become the altar. The universal priesthood (1 Peter 2) of everyone is given an opportunity. A new kind of Cosmic Eucharist as dreamt by the great Mystic Teilhard de Chardin is enacted in our lives.
• Household churches: All have the priestly responsibility of interceding for other people to God (1 Peter 2:9). It will be a time for understanding that, similar to fellowships in physical Church buildings, family members praying together in their homes is also the real Church (Body of Christ) in a spiritual sense.  (1 Cor 12:27).
• Greater Awareness of God’ presence: The call to pray from home equally assures God’s presence in line with what Jesus said in the gospel of Matthew 18:20: ‘For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them’. Such a divine responsibility needs to be handled with faith.
• A great teacher: According to Pope Francis the patient waiting during the pandemic taught all of us a great lesson : The pandemic shed light on the risks and consequences inherent in a way of life dominated by selfishness and a culture of waste, and it set before us a choice: either to continue on the road we have followed until now, or to set out on a new path,”

What did COVID: Lessons in Patience, a  hopeful waiting.

COVID robbed us of our Sunday Communion, Eucharist, the source and summit of our Spiritual Life. It did bring spiritual and emotional challenges. But through this darkness, the Lord has worked to rebuilt us: to have patience amidst this existential threat. We have understood the gift of one another, the gift of life, the gift of faith. We are born again into a new reality of Gratitude. We have learnt that life is so precious, each one of us is so precious. We are the image of God.

How does our faith tradition understand patience?

Patience is one of the great virtues of Christian tradition. Majority in this nation, profess this faith. This faith teaches us simple things: Love one another. Be patient as your  Heavenly Father is patient.

There are two Greek words translated as “patience” in the New Testament. Both have great relevance to the modern-day Christian and the Christian families.

Hupomonē means “a remaining under,” as when one bears up under a burden. It refers to steadfastness in difficult circumstances.

This Greek term is equivalent to the Old Testament ‘EREK ‘APPIM (‘slow to anger’). HYPOMONE is the most common New Testament synonym, pointing to “bearing up under” All of us are called upon to ‘bear under’ patiently our lives burdens.

This word teaches us  a certain attitude toward both people and circumstances. It expresses the attitude to people which never loses patience with them, however unreasonable they may be, and which never loses hope for them, however unlovely and unteachable they may be. It tells us : Handle with Care : Human beings.

It teaches us  the attitude to events which never admits defeat, and which never loses its hope and its faith, however dark the situation may be, and however incomprehensible events may be, and however sore the chastening of God may be.

Makrothumia, which is used in Galatians 5:22, is a compound formed by makros (“long”) and thumos (“passion” or “temper”).

“Patience” in Galatians 5:22 literally means “long temper,” in the sense of “the ability to hold one’s temper for a long time.” Some authors  translate it “longsuffering.”   A patient person is able to endure much pain and suffering without complaining.   

A patient person is slow to anger as he waits for God to provide comfort and punish wrongdoing.

Since it is a fruit of the Spirit, we can only possess makrothumia through the power and work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  This grace we ask for ourselves and our families today.

What do we learn from the  Biblical idea  of  Patience?

Patience is an angelic virtue.  It makes us deeply human and deeply divine. (St Irenaeus). It helps us to navigate the life’s stormy seas, built fortitude, believe in a living God, make  our humanity  shine during the darkest nights.  It makes love of others and God ultimate goal of life.

Our God is Love; Our God’s infinite  Patience

Clearly, the patience of God towards us is absolutely amazing. 

We see God’s patience in dealing with Adam and Eve as they fall into sin and as he gives them the promise of his covenant of grace. Even when the first son, Cain kills his brother, God is infinitely patient and protects him.

We see the patience of God in Noah and the arc, waiting for the flood to recede. 

We see God’s patience being played out in the long journey of the Israelites, even with their grumbling in the wilderness.

We see his patience throughout the Gospels as Jesus, the Son of God, is being rejected and forsaken.

And we see his patience with the Church, in the ebb and flow of the history of the church to this day. Even when we his people fail, God does not give up on us.

Those whom God called for greater things proved their worth through Patience

• Abraham : Abraham is called as the father of three great faiths of this world. But this simple man was tested all through his life: his wife could not bear a child, had to wait patiently till she was very old, even that son was asked to be sacrificed, which  Abraham with patience obeyed, he was asked to go to a new land, leaving the security of his old place. God gave so many promises but not when Abraham expected. Abraham obtained the promises. He did not see them happen completely during his life (Hebrews 11:13). But he saw the beginning of them. Abraham  is a great figure in the Bible, because he trusted patiently God’s promises. 
• Moses: The Bible sketches an ambitious list of leadership traits ascribed to Moses, including humility, empathy and heroism, but also patience, self-reflection, charisma and wisdom, among others. Although few can emulate all of these traits, patience is one that stands out. Moses pleaded with God for patience, when God punished Moses, he patiently accepted it.
• Job: But our all-time favorite hero of patience is Job. There is a powerful message in the life and testimony of Job who is the best biblical epitome of patience. His wife and friends tell him to curse God and die. But even when he lost his family and wealth, and is afflicted with painful sickness, he refuses to curse God. He knows he is nothing in front of the mighty God.

Mission of God shapes us through patience.

When God calls the prophets in the Old Testament, it is a call to obedience, call to perseverance and importantly for patience. The Old Testament prophets ceaselessly spoke God’s Word to unheeding and abusive audiences. The suffered patiently, but stood witness to the power of Yahweh :

• Jeremiah was thrown into a cistern (Jeremiah 38:1-16),
• Elijah was so worn out from his fight with Jezebel that he wanted to die (1 Kings 19:1-8), and Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den—by a king who was his friend (Daniel 6:16-28).
• While God delayed judgment, Noah prophesied of the coming destruction, and in 120 years did not have a single convert (2 Peter 2:5).

Lessons  on patience from the Call of prophets in the Old Testament

Our life is full of challenges and opportunities. Every challenge is an opportunity. Those with patience turn every challenge into an opportunity and grows in life.  Abraham,  Moses and Job show us the way. All challenges turned into life changing opportunities.   Those who are impatient, they turn opportunities into challenge and curse. Adam and Eve, Cain no patience. God is immensely patient with human beings but God is not a fast-food vendor. We need to wait for HIS time; life will be blessed. 

Patience as the life force

Patience in the creation  Look at the universe, the sun and the moon and the stars. The revolution of the earth, the change of day and night, the seasons, the whole of nature.  In their unending motion, they persevere in patience.

Our own birth  Let’s look at ourselves: we are formed in our mother’s wombs; each one of us have gone through a process of development from an embryo to a child, and a fully grown human being. A woman waits patiently. We were born of her great sacrifice of patience. It is not a sudden, startling, and dramatic appearance. Psalm 139 beautifully sums up this. “Lord, you have knit me together in my mother’s womb.” It is God’s patient work to knit me, to put me together, to make me the person that I am.

Jesus’ parables of Sowing: Like a farmer who waits for the spring and summer rains, we must be patient until the coming of the Lord (James 5:7-8). Jesus often talks of the seed that ‘dies and gives  hundred-fold’. That seed is the patience.  The seed lies down in the bosom of the earth, in patience, in silence.  Then out of this patience a plant grows, then the tree.  A tree is a great example of patience.

What do we learn from Patience as the Life Force?

The whole creation sings the glory of the creative patience. God’s patience brought about the glory of the universe, a mother’s patient nine months waiting brings the miracle of  life to each one of us. The patient waiting of a seed in the ground brings the life-giving grains. These grains wait to become the bread, the bread becoming the bread of the Eucharist, proclaiming everlasting life. Patience is God’s handmaid.

The Eucharist as the Divine Patience – Life Implications

Vatican II says: Eucharist is the source and the summit of our spiritual life. God is really present and waiting with patience. The Church father, Tertullian wrote: For where God is, there too is his foster-child, namely Patience. Whence God’s Spirit descends, then Patience accompanies him indivisibly.” EUCHARIST IS THE SACRAMENT OF DIVINE PATIENCE.

What is the message of the Divine Patience in the Eucharist?

Jesus waits for us. He was destined to wait for us before the creation of the world. (Colossians 1:15-15). He is waiting for us before our mother knew us. (Jer : 1:5).

The Eucharistic Jesus waits for  us to become like him. We gradually  become more like him—more open, more generous, more caring and compassionate. We become more giving, even to the point of sacrificing ourselves for others. And all the while, Jesus waits. He waits until the moment we have the same attitude he has for us. And when we do, in that moment, he reveals himself to us. Our eyes are opened and our life becomes an Emmaus journey with the Lord.

We are not around the tabernacle now: we are on the way to Emmaus. In the streets for the last two years. And it is meaningful.  This  journey can be only achieved through patience.

Our lives become the new Communion –  when we share patiently with  others

The priest does two major acts on the altar : breaking the Word and breaking the bread. The Eucharist is the summit of our spiritual  grace. Sadly 16 months have passed since people  could access this spiritual spring. I am glad Hungary could gather together for the communion meal. In many places closure of church and suspension of Masses have caused huge mental and spiritual agony.

In these dark times, we are reminded the Eucharist has a deeper meaning than not just Sunday gathering. Jesus had his eucharistic celebration amidst his condemnation to death. The first Eucharist was said by a condemned prisoner. A prisoner for love.  

But Jesus is the  priest forever. Even before this meal, he was exercising his priesthood, he was breaking different kind of  bread. He broke the bread of healing, the bread of feeding the hungry, the bread of consoling, the bread of reconciling, the bread of justice. The altar was the streets of Jerusalem

That is the Eucharist we are looking for. The global Eucharist. A world where God’s justice prevails. The Global Eucharist of sharing the resources. The Global Eucharist of a world without wars. A Global Eucharist where the world will not invest in arms when millions are starving. A global eucharist of economic and environmental justice. Eucharist is sharing. The Pope pointed out the injustice in sharing even the  vaccine. I wish to repeat the clarion cry I raised in the last Eucharistic Congress. Eucharist is  a prophetic cry from the millions of altars: a cry for Justice. A cry for a Third World War :  against poverty, against hunger, against oppression of  the vulnerable.

Time is not a commodity: It is a communion of hearts – Jesus waits patiently in the Eucharist

Look at our world and our lives. The modern man lives in a feverish pitch. He is in a tearing hurry. He is rushing all the time. He is restless; he wants to acquire more, consume more. He is not content. He abhors silence. He cannot wait. Speed is number one value today. Being slow is considered a vice, a waste of time.

But Jesus waits. He came to us  because: God so loved the world he gave his only Son.

We who hurry because our affairs are “Very  Important,” may be less in need of the vacation that reinforces our pride than of noticing that Jesus stands among those who have no  choice but to wait: the hungry, the ill, the  imprisoned, those who mourn, those who hunger and thirst for justice.”  

The Eucharist  teaches us to be patient : Patience makes us to be holy, to be present to others like Jesus. These are moments of loneliness, anxiety for many – our presence is the presence of Jesus. “ I was lonely, you gave me your presence” (Mt 25 paraphrased)

Eucharistic Patience as the bread daily life.

True Love Starts with Patience: Patience is indeed a critical virtue in Christian life. St. Paul speaking of the many characteristics of love mentions patience as the first thing followed by kindness. “Love is patient, and kind (1. Cor. 13:4). We all need to ask God to give us the grace to be patient and kind. The practice of patience is a simple yet profound way to grow in holiness. Growth in holiness means growth in the love of God and neighbor.

Adversity strengthens Patience: We grow in our spiritual life and holiness when we exercise patience under adversity for the love of God. We may be tempted to become impatient and angry; we may feel like giving up when we are tested by the people and circumstances of our day-to-day life. But our model and inspiration is the cross.

Patience is a power: The impatient man is a weak man. “Patience, says St. Thomas Aquinas, “is a virtue attached to the virtue of fortitude, which hinders a person from departing from right reason.” St. Augustine says patience makes a person bear the evils of life with equanimity of soul without allowing himself to be troubled by vexations. The virtue of patience is a powerful weapon against the devil. 

Patience & Perseverance as Eucharistic Grace

• In Summary, we understand patience as a much-desired virtue. It demands self-control but even long suffering. Psychology will call this delayed gratification – the ability to wait.  Long suffering is necessary for real living. The race does not always go to the swift; often it belongs to the patient, persistent and persevering.
• Patience is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22) and perseverance is listed among the “Christian graces” (2 Pet. 1:6). Let us seek to understand these blessed words and apply them to our lives. A true Christian is not afraid of the ‘cross’ of patience.
• Patience gently  led us to metanoia – a conversion of heart. God does not wish that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9).
• Patience, a steadfast race towards the destination is the foundation of our Salvation. (2 Pet. 3:15). Paul considered himself a beneficiary of God’s long suffering (1 Tim. 1:15-16).
• Patience  is a key ingredient of forgiveness (Col. 3:12-13). This quality, coupled with gentleness and forbearance, is necessary if we are to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph. 4:1-3).
• We are admonished to be patient with everyone (1 Thess. 5:14).  We should be patient with others even though they may at times be unreasonable.

TEN COMMANDMENTS OF PATIENCE

I wish to close this wonderful interaction with you by summarizing patience into Ten Commandments. Moses stood on the mount Sion to give ten commandments. In a lighter vein let me also give Ten commandments of Patience to our  all of you attending this  international  conference.

Moses first met Yahweh as the bush was burning. God also defines himself as a God of patience and compassion, He tells Moses once: “I am the Lord God, full of compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness.”

Today too we have many problems, like the burning bush. But the Lord says to us:  I know your suffering; I am with you always. Yes. Patience in personal life, in our relationships and in the world will bring God’s peace to all of us.

Let me enumerate those ten commandments of Patience.

Patience has the power for peace, when the leader has the power of patience. Pope Francis  advised  all “ The real power is in service.” Jesus faced two arrogant powers: Herod and Pilate. They have become footnotes of history. The humble, gentle, patient service of Jesus has been the guiding light of humanity in history.

Conclusion :

Thank you all for your wonderful patience through this talk.

This wonderful gathering from all over the world, proves our global fellowship. Starting from the Paschal meal of liberation in the Old Testament, Jesus initiated the Eucharist through his last supper and in faith we wait patiently for the Eschatological meal in the fellowship with the communion of saints.   

Life in the Spirit is “waiting patiently, God  waiting for Adams and Eves of every age, God waiting for his chosen people. The people waiting for  the Messiah. Patience plays a great role in our faith journey. We have contemplated this angelic virtue in the backdrop of the Eucharist. We understand that  this period of pandemic is a period of waiting, for a new world of graces.

I am deeply touched by this gathering, your love. We had very tough times in the last seven months. We journeyed with our people, in their tears and  brokenness, in their multi layered challenges. Our nation needs healing. I am energized by this participation, the experience of the Pentecostal atmosphere. May the tongues of fire of the Holy Spirit fall on each one of us, fortifying us in our faith, giving us all graces. Let His mighty presence heal us all.

I strongly feel this Eucharistic Congress is the starting point of Global healing. God, who is the eternal healer, touch all of us and bring us to the awareness that his grace is  always there for  us.

Thank you very much Hungary, the graceful Church of Hungary, my dear friend His Eminence Peter Cardinal Erdo, our friends all over the Globe. May all blessings be on  each one of you.