Brothers and sisters
May the Lord give you peace!
Coming to Larnaca is always a great joy for me, I truly feel welcomed and loved by each and every one of you.And I love you too. And today I celebrate two years of my appointment as Patriarchal Vicar for Cyprus. And I have given myself this gift: to celebrate here in Larnaca. Now as a bishop, as the pastor of this our Church of Cyprus. Some feel difficulty and do not know how to call me, because I came to Cyprus as a priest, a friar. And they ask me should we call you: Monsignor, Excellency? Then let’s do this, call me: Father Bishop…. Truly I am more of a father now than before. The bishop is the father of the community…
In this Sunday’s liturgy, we continue with the reflection of the Gospel of St. John, in the discourse in which Jesus promised the gift of himself in the Eucharist. And he told us: “I am the bread that came down from heaven. I am in the bread of life. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” Yes, brothers and sisters for the life of the world… That is: also for us here…
And Jesus will repeat in the discourse of the Last Supper: “Remain in me and I in you, like branches united to the vine. If anyone remains in me and I in him, he bears much fruit. Because without me you can do nothing.” I don’t think it’s a generic expression, but I think that Jesus tells us this to make us understand what love he loves us with and what strength he wants to fill us with… Yes, “Without Him (The Lord Jesus) we can do nothing.”
We are living in difficult times. In the world, in the Church, in families… wars, divisions, family crises… and we spontaneously ask ourselves: What does the world need? Is the world okay like this? What does society need?What do our families need? What does the Church need? What does the Church of Cyprus need? What do I need, what do you need? Brothers and sisters, we do not only need pastoral plans, projects, novelties… We do not only need material food, security…
We need the love of God… we need the Bread of life, the Eucharist…. Which is the love of a God who loved us to the point of death on the cross. And if we surrender to this love everything changes. Only love saves and gives life”. It gives us true peace! Yes, Jesus can heal us, indeed He wants to heal us. The great Father of the Church “Origen” said: The church is a school of prayer, and it is also a spiritual clinic…. And I ask myself: why is the Clinic of Jesus so little frequented? And the answer is easy: because it is free, it is free.
Brothers and sisters, what Jesus asks of us today is to believe in Him as the only true food, and to let ourselves be transformed.
Concretely it means: abandoning the old man, renewing the spirit of our mind and dressing ourselves with the new man created by God in justice and holiness…
And here I would like to ask ourselves a very provocative question: We have the Eucharist… and let’s be careful. The Eucharist does not represent Jesus. The Eucharist is Jesus. One represents someone who is not present. Here is the difference between the theology of the pre-existing Catholic theology. Jesus is here. And in the Holy Mass we eat the bread of heaven. We eat the body of Christ. The body of Christ takes up residence in us. And the question: what changes in our life? Are we bread, the body of Christ in our families, for our friends, in our work? At home are you the body of Christ for your wife? Are you the body of Christ for your husband? For your children?
And I would like to conclude with a very ancient but very beautiful prayer, which is said as thanksgiving for the Eucharist:
Soul of Christ, sanctify me. Body of Christ, save me. Blood of Christ, inebriate me. Water from the side of Christ, wash me. Passion of Christ, comfort me. O good Jesus, hear me. Hide me in your wounds. Do not allow me to separate from you. Protect me from the evil enemy. At the hour of my death call me.