Pope says Jesus draws people close to him through the Eucharist

Published: 2006-06-16

ROME (CNS) -- Jesus calls out and urges people to draw close to him through the Eucharist so he can transform them as he transformed simple bread and wine into his own body and blood, Pope Benedict XVI said. Christ's guidance and nourishment are urgently needed, the pope said, since so many people in the world are lost, confused or tormented by physical or spiritual hunger. The pope celebrated the feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ June 15 during an evening Mass outside Rome's Basilica of St. John Lateran. Afterward he led a eucharistic procession through the streets of Rome from St. John's to the Basilica of St. Mary Major while kneeling before the Eucharist in the back of a modified flatbed truck. Speaking to some 50,000 faithful gathered outside St. John's, the pope said in his homily that the Eucharist is truly "bread from the heavens" that not only provides spiritual nourishment, but is the way in which God gives himself to his people.

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