Introducing Christians into the Third Millennium of their history as it does, the Jubilee of the Year 2000 inspires us to contemplate with ever-new eyes the mystery of the Incarnation of God. In Jesus of Nazareth, God became a human being in order to reveal the Trinitarian mystery of the divine love and to save humanity. The mystery extends through history, and human beings in every age have asked themselves how it is possible for God to love so intensely as to give over the divinity in the supreme act of death on the cross. This event does not regard only a fact of the past; but, through the mediation of the Eucharist, is activated every day to the end of time. Indeed, it attests that Jesus is with us forever and loves us, offering the forgiveness of reconciliation, and offering us communion of life with God.
It is, therefore, quite meaningful that Pope John Paul II has called for the celebration of a Eucharistic Congress this week in Rome.
And, so we are celebrating our congress in union with the international Eucharistic Congress in Rome. Today, Fall River is Rome. St. Anne's Shrine is St. Peter's Basilica; and Kennedy Park is Piazza San Pietro of Vatican City. Actually, the chalice we are using for this Mass was a gift from John Paul II and bears his coat of arms.
The Russian Nobel Prize Winner, Alexander Solzenitsyn, says he recalls three episodes from his boyhood that are seared into his memory. One was being taunted by other boys as he walked with this mother to the town's only remaining church. Another was having someone tear away the cross hanging from his neck. The third was hearing old people say: "Men have forgotten God, that's why all this has happened. All of the oppression, the hopelessness, the Gulag, the torture chamber, the despair."
Forgetting God is very dangerous. We are here today because 2000 years ago God said to us, "Do this in memory of me. Never forget my love "“ I am with you always, if only you will recognize me in the breaking of the bread."
Our spiritual amnesia leads to so much heartbreak. Cervantes, in Don Quixote, gave the world a striking metaphor. Don Quixote is insane but he is more sane than all the sane people because he sees the really real, what is good, noble, what is important. If you come to the Catholic Memorial Home, and visit the Considine Unit, you will see the Alzheimer's patients wandering about. On each of their doors is a glass box with photos of their families to remind the staff that these people are persons just like us. How important it is to remember that in giving care to them with love, with concern, and to know they are in God's hands.
Sometimes I think the Alzheimer patients are a new metaphor. The world is being run by people with a spiritual amnesia "“ they have forgotten about God. And when we forget about God, we forget who we are, who people are.
[Part 1 of 7]
