By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The celebration and reception of the Eucharist can transform individuals, the church and the world, said members of the world Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist.

"When the church recalls the moral obligation to participate in the Sunday Eucharist, it wants to underline its vital importance because (celebrating) the Eucharist is the most important action for Christians and the entire church community," said Bishop Ricardo Blazquez Perez of Bilbao, president of the Spanish bishops' conference.

The bishop was one of 13 synod members who made formal speeches during the Oct. 5 evening session of the Oct. 2-23 synod, according to information released by the Vatican.

Bishop Blazquez said the fact that Christ instituted the Eucharist on the eve of his death was a clear demonstration that even when the church and individuals are facing great difficulties the Eucharist will give strength and life.

Celebrating Christ's death and resurrection with the Eucharist, he said, "We pass from slavery to freedom, from darkness to light, from death to life, from fear to hope."

The Eucharist brings the grace to overcome indifference by standing with the poor and helpless, he said. It moves people "from violence to peace, from confusion to clarity, from worry to serenity."

Archbishop Juan Sarasti Jaramillo of Cali, Colombia, said the Eucharist is the church's response to "the culture of death, which traffics it with weapons, builds systems of mass destruction, legitimizes abortion (and) authorizes research using human embryos."

In a culture of "hatred and terrorism," he said, "the Eucharist offers the permanent possibility of reconciling ourselves with God and our brothers and sisters."

"In the face of the solitude and desperation which besieged people today, the Eucharist offers us -- like the disciples on the road to Emmaus -- profound accompaniment and a promise of eternal life, which fills us with true hope," the archbishop said.

Melkite Patriarch Gregoire III Laham of Damascus, Syria, said the transformation experienced in the Eucharist must "become the elements of Christian life in the world," particularly making Christians and the church a force for hope, charity, justice and salvation.

The patriarch asked that when the synod members begin drafting their message to the church they offer special words of encouragement to Christians living in predominantly Muslim countries, especially in the Middle East.

Archbishop Yannis Spiteris of Corfu, Zakinthos and Cephalonia, Greece, said he thought the synod's preparatory documents reflected a common weakness in understanding the Eucharist by focusing more on individual piety than on the communal implications of celebrating the sacrament.

"The Eucharist allows the church to exist and live in a sacramental and experiential way as the true body of Christ," he said. "The communal and ecclesial dimension of the Eucharist, therefore, is its quintessential dimension, yet I have the impression that this eucharistic reality is the most ignored and least understood by our faithful, at least in practice."

The Eucharist, he said, is not primarily an individual act or an act of personal piety.

"Every eucharistic celebration must dynamically and increasingly transform believers into a living church community," he said.

Addressing the synod Oct. 4, Indian Archbishop Maria Soosa Pakiam of Trivandrum said he learned the real meaning of the Eucharist from seeing how it transformed the largely poor and illiterate members of his archdiocese's fishing communities.

Many of the fishermen visit the Eucharist before setting out to sea and upon returning, he said.

St. Francis Xavier and later missionaries to the area taught the people, who were "oppressed, exploited and marginalized under the heavy yoke of the caste system," that in the Eucharist the basic dignity of every person is recognized, he said.

"In the deprivation of their dignity, it was the Christian message of love, unity and equality realized in the Eucharist that gave them courage to embrace the faith," he said.

The people, though poor, have understood that Christ's sacrifice in the Eucharist calls for a "self-emptying" on their parts as well, so they "share with others whatever they have," the archbishop said.

Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops