Quito, Ecuador, Sep 13, 2024 / 15:15 pm
One of Spain’s most prominent prelates, Bishop José Ignacio Munilla, delivered a powerful summons at the International Eucharistic Congress taking place in Quito, Ecuador, this week.
During an address to the congress, which wraps up Sept. 15, Munilla encouraged everyone in attendance to turn their eyes upon Jesus: “We need Christ to love. Without Jesus Christ, we don’t know how to love.”
The revered Spanish theologian and bishop of Orihuela-Alicante emphasized the importance of divine grace to be able to live the commandment to love. In an emphatic tone, he asked the thousands of attendees: “Could we fulfill the commandment to love one another as Jesus has loved us, or even the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself, without the grace of Jesus Christ? Impossible.”
During a presentation titled “The Sacred Heart of Jesus, Demand for Fraternity,” Munilla recalled that human beings “are weakened by sin” and therefore have a diminished capacity to love.
“We need the heart of Jesus as a school of love. Without the infinite love of God, which establishes Gospel fraternity, there is no such hope,” he explained on the fourth day of the global event attended by delegations from 54 countries.
In his remarks, Munilla directed special attention to those who suffer emotional and affective wounds in any of their forms, reaffirming that “without the grace of Christ, it is impossible to heal them.”
“For example, narcissism. How much does narcissism make us suffer? Pansexualism. How much does sex divorced from love make us suffer? Distrust. How much does that distance between us make us suffer? We don’t trust each other because we have failed each other many times. All these emotional wounds need to be healed by the heart of Christ,” he pointed out.
The renowned prelate emphasized that through the Sacred Heart of Jesus revealed in the Gospels — and to which he has special devotion — it is possible not only to trust but also to “live in purity, forget ourselves, and give of ourselves generously.”
At the beginning of his presentation, Munilla noted that this International Eucharistic Congress is taking place in Ecuador, the first nation to consecrate itself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus 150 years ago and also the first to organize a National Eucharistic Congress, 10 years after that consecration.
He compared this dedication to the image of the heart of Jesus on the Cerro de los Ángeles in Spain, which bears the inscription “I will reign in Spain,” suggesting that in Ecuador, in the center of the world, one could also say “I will reign in the world.”
“May Christ reign, may Christ reign, may the reign of Christ come true. We proclaim this from here, from the center of the world,” he said.
‘We exist because we are loved’
The bishop of Orihuela-Alicante also observed that this year marks the 350th anniversary of the revelation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, who received a crucial message: “Behold this heart that has loved men so much.” However, immediately afterward she received the message that this love has often been reciprocated with ingratitude.
“It is a drama that God is not reciprocated, that God is telling you ‘I love you,’ ‘I love you,’ and that we sometimes respond with indifference,” he reflected.
Despite man’s rejection, the Spanish bishop recalled that the heart of Jesus is “a great sign” that emphasizes “the declaration of love that God has made to humanity.”
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“The sign of the heart of Jesus is: We exist because we are loved … If I had not been loved by a very free decision of God, who decided to bring me into the world out of love, I would not exist,” he reminded the audience.
‘If God loves me… I have no right to despise myself’
Munilla explained that many people suffer from low self-esteem, feeling devalued when faced with criticism or lack of acceptance. However, in the face of this situation, he stated that it is crucial to understand that “God loves me, God loves me.”
“If God loves me and wants me, and this is what the heart of Christ has revealed, I have no right to despise myself or think that this life has no meaning,” he exhorted with hope.
Munilla explained that we call God “Father,” first of all, because he has created us all, and “he has created the world and has thought about the good of all his children.”
“God the Father wants everyone to know Jesus Christ … God the Father sent his Son to the world to redeem us from sin. Jesus rescued us at the price of his shed blood to obtain forgiveness of sins, and our faith confesses that his redemption was not limited to forgiving us but, in the height of his mercy, he elevated us to the status of children, in a sense much higher than the one we had at creation,” he explained.
In that sense, he recalled that God the Father “makes us participants in the divine filiation of Jesus Christ.”
“We are sons and daughters in the Son. That’s incredible. It is as if we have been grafted into the father-son relationship that exists between Jesus and the Father. And the grace of Christ introduces us into that relationship,” he said with emotion.
Munilla highlighted to the audience that “in Jesus Christ we are introduced into the bosom of the Holy Trinity.” However, unlike what happens in the rest of creation, “this supernatural filiation has to be freely accepted by faith” and by each of us through the sacrament of baptism.
The bishop was also clear in pointing out that “there is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved.”
“It is Jesus who saves us, it says in Acts of the Apostles, chapter 4, verse 12: ‘There is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved.’”
‘The heart of Jesus is a school of love… and it gives me the grace to love’
Munilla explained that sharing the “wonderful fatherhood of God” brings with it many consequences for man, mainly that we are called to discover a relationship of intimate “brotherhood” with the Lord; and consequently, the heart of Jesus is the key to achieving this, since it is the “school of love” that allows this bond.
The Spanish prelate summarized it in the following way: “Allow me this expression: The heart of Jesus is the human school of divine love and it is the divine school of human love. I say that it is the human school of divine love because, with human language, Jesus, who is the revealer of the Father, tells us that God is love. Not only does he teach me to love, he not only tells me that God is love, but he enables me to love, he gives me the grace to love.”
Munilla highlighted that original sin and its consequences “have greatly weakened the human being’s capacity to love” but that Christ himself provided human beings with the way to sanctify themselves through the Eucharist, which “configures us with the heart of Jesus.”
Near the end of his presentation, Munilla stressed the deep connection between the image of the heart of Jesus and the Eucharist. He recalled that at the Last Supper, during which the Eucharist was instituted, the beloved disciple, John, reclined his head on Christ’s chest. “This is a symbol that the heart of Jesus gives us the Eucharist. Do you remember? ‘I have longed to eat this Passover with you before I suffer’ (Lk 22:15).”
Therefore, he pointed out: “The heart of Jesus gives us the Eucharist, but, at the same time, the Eucharist configures us with the heart of Jesus. They are two simultaneous and rotating movements: from the heart of Jesus the Eucharist springs, and from the Eucharist springs this transformation of my heart of stone into a heart similar to that of Jesus.”
Munilla highlighted that, upon understanding that the great miracle of the transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus occurs in the Eucharist, “frequent Communion well carried out and Eucharistic adoration will be keys to the miracle of interior transformation.”
“You, by receiving Jesus Christ, are also transformed, you learn to love. If you learn to love, change your family; there is a transubstantiation, too. And change your job, because before you worked bitterly, but now you work vocationally.”
“It changes your life, it changes your work, it changes your life in the parish,” Munilla underscored.
Finally, Munilla highlighted to the audience the importance of “being in love with the Eucharist, because the Eucharist will be responsible for Christifying us. We Eucharistize ourselves to Christify ourselves.”
“I end by turning to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, so that she too may teach us to love … Let us look at Mary: There has never been an undivided human heart like hers in history. And for this reason, we invoke with faith: ‘Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in you; sweet heart of Mary, be my salvation,’” he concluded.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
