The theme of the Eucharistic congress is "The Eucharist: Gift of God for the Life of the World." What does this mean:"gift of God"—and also, "for the life of the world"?

The gift of God is the gift that Jesus Christ, Son of God, promised at Capernaum, a promise that he later fulfilled for us at the Last Supper, the night before he died. This gift is the mysterious bread he spoke about to the multitude after satisfying their physical hunger by the multiplication of the bread. I am the living bread come down from heaven…. And the bread that I shall give is my flesh for the life of the world (Jn 6:51).

The Eucharist is this gift of God which Jesus instituted at the Last Supper when he said over the bread, this is my body and over the wine, this is my blood.

This gift of God is the food which satisfies us and sustains our lives for eternity: He who eats my body and drinks my blood has eternal life (Jn 6:54).

Before leaving his disciples, Jesus, like a father for his children, wanted to leave them a remembrance of himself. He wanted to leave them something precious. Jesus did not give them a valuable property, a rare object, a jewel, his image, his portrait, or any other precious gift. He gave them himself.

The eucharistic bread is himself, the Son of God: I am the living bread, come down from heaven (Jn 6:51).

As Pope John Paul II said with unforgettable power: "The Church received the Eucharist from Christ, her Savior, not as a gift, however precious, among the other gifts, but as the gift par excellence. For it is the gift of himself, of his person in his sacred humanity, and of his work of salvation. (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 11)

The Eucharist is the gift of God because it is Christ God who gives himself. The Eucharist is a person, not an object. It is not a dead gift. We ought not to ask ourselves, "What is the Eucharist" but "Who is the Eucharist?"

But there is still more. The Eucharist is a living person. He is the living Bread come from heaven. He is the risen Christ who will die no more. The Eucharist is not a relic, but Jesus Christ himself, living and present in his humanity and divinity.

The Eucharist is the gift of God. It is the presence of Christ-God in our midst. He is always present under this sacramental form.

Jesus wanted to live among us under the form of bread and wine to signify that he intended to become our food, the sustainer of our life and the source of our existence, an existence which opens to eternity. Analogous to the way our physical food enters into the fiber of our bodies through our digestive system thus becoming our life and our energy, Jesus himself wanted to enter into intimate communion with us: He who eats my body and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him. As I, who am sent by the living Father myself live through the Father, so whoever eats me will live through me (Jn 6:56-57).

The Eucharist is therefore the living Christ truly present among us under the form of bread and wine. It is God who gives himself. He is our Emmanuel, "God-with-us.", the bread of heaven and our food for eternal life. This gift is the presence of Christ Jesus in his divinity and humanity, a presence real and substantial, but which escapes both the experience of our senses and physical or chemical analysis.

The only way to know that the host is God is through our faith. Before the host and chalice elevated by the priest, we proclaim, "Mystery of faith." "What a tremendous mystery of faith!"

Because of our usual desire to prove everything with instruments and experiments, these Eucharistic statements of Jesus can seem hard. But faced with the firm truth of Jesus, we say with Peter, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe. We know that you are the Holy One of God (Jn 6:68).

Before a Christ-God who has given himself as gift in the Eucharist, we profess today our admiration, our wonder, our joy, and our love. Before such a great sacrament, we prostrate ourselves and adore. Then our faith becomes adoration because we find ourselves in the presence of God who has given himself as gift.

—Excerpted with permission from the transcripts of talks from the Eucharistic Congress.