Pope Francis: The Eucharist gives us Christ’s healing love

Pope Francis said that only love can heal fear at its root and free us from the self-
centeredness that imprisons us. And that is what Jesus does. He comes as Bread broken in
order to break open the shells of our selfishness. He gives of himself in order to teach us that
only by opening our hearts can we be set free from our interior barriers, from the paralysis of
the heart. Many people have been hurt by lack of affection and bitter disappointments caused
by those who should have given them love and instead orphaned their hearts. We would like to
go back and change the past, but we cannot. God, however, can heal these wounds by placing
within our memory a greater love: His own love. The Lord knows that evil and sins do not
define us; they are diseases, infections. And He comes to heal them with the Eucharist, which
contains the antibodies to our negative memory. We will always remember our failures,
troubles, problems at home and at work, our unrealized dreams. But their weight will not crush
us because Jesus is present even more deeply, encouraging us with His love. God gave the
world the gift of the Eucharist because He knows how easily people can forget Him in their
weakness, the pope said. God knows how difficult it is, He knows how weak our memory is. He
did not just leave us words, for it is easy to forget what we hear. He did not just leave us the
Scriptures, for it is easy to forget what we read. He did not just leave us signs, for we can
forget even what we see. He gave us Food, for it is not easy to forget something we have
actually tasted. He left us Bread in which He is truly present, alive and true, with all the flavor
of His love.