By Sebastian Condon
“All things work to the good, for those who love God.” (Romans 8:28)
I have just returned from Rome, where I happily spent time engaging with ecclesial and other bureaucrats, in order to ensure that preparations for Eucharist28 are progressing as they ought.
Our very able Ambassador to the Holy See, the Hon Keith Pitt, helped me appreciate the nuances of Church diplomacy and he assures me that he is working hard to secure our desired papal itinerary for 2028.
My time in the eternal city also allowed me to gauge the broader reception to the recent Pastoral Letter on the Eucharist of Archbishop Fisher OP.
One of the academics I spoke with drew an explicit link between the words of the Archbishop and a previously unpublished phrase of Pope Pius XII.
Due to the recent opening of various Vatican archives, manuscript drafts of Pius XII’s radio broadcasts are now able to be read for the first time in 70 years.
The Pope who led the Church throughout the Second World War and during the early stages of the Cold War, wrote this:
“Facts have shown that the more man believed he had found full and secure freedom by placing his trust in the fleeting appearances of created things, the more he felt in his soul the bitterness of that emptiness which only Jesus can fill.”
It was a phrase that could have been written yesterday, and one which finds its echo in our most recent podcast on the connection between the Eucharist and Eternal Life.
Our desires for freedom and happiness are fulfilled in Jesus alone, the one through whom we are able to embrace with joy the “liberty and glory of the children of God.” (Romans 8:21)
Sometimes that liberty enables us to fly to Rome for engaging academic and (less engaging) bureaucratic discussions.
Conversely, that liberty may also require us to submit our bodies to long trans-continental flights with all the airport-associated indignities that are often entailed.
“This is My Body, Given for You”, the theme of Eucharist28, serves as a call not simply to adoration, but to imitation.
Whatever the situation, every moment of each passing day offers us the opportunity to choose to cooperate with Divine Grace – to grow in our likeness to Christ and offer our lives to God and to others in imitation of His sacrifice – or not to do so.
How will you imitate our Eucharistic Lord today?
Sebastian Condon is the Deputy Chief Operating Officer for Eucharist28.