新竹教區應主教團禮儀委員會邀請於2014年10月在泰國舉辦的亞洲禮儀論壇（ALF）中報告承辦全國聖體大會的經驗，以下分享郭世平副主教的英文報告內容。
Personal Reflection on Taiwan National Eucharist Congress: “Let All the Children Come to Me!”
By Rev. Quach The Binh, CSSp
Vicar General of Hsinchu Diocese, Taiwan (ROC)
On June 7 of 2014, Hsinchu Diocese at Tao Yuan Auditorium welcomed more than 12000 Catholics and non-Catholics from seven different Dioceses in Taiwan to participate in this faith-filled and grace-filled celebration of Jesus’ redeeming and transforming love which manifests beautifully and powerfully through the Eucharist—the source and summit of all graces.
This whole celebration was carefully planned and implemented by the Diocese of Hsinchu with the collaboration of all seven dioceses in Taiwan. The theme of the celebration was “Let All the Children Come to Me!” To allow this theme to reveal itself in all aspects of the celebration, we divided the National Eucharist Congress into three main parts: 1) the musical performances and witness-sharing; 2) the Eucharist; 3) and the Eucharist Procession.
- The Musical Performances and Witness-sharing:
This part consists of a variety of dances and choral presentations performed by children from Catholic kindergartens and students from Catholic high schools of Hsinchu Diocese. These performances were interspersed with presentations by men and women who serve in ministries in the seven dioceses. Their presentations offered them the opportunity to share with the assembly how their faith is embodied in action.
The main focus of this part of the celebration was to give witness to how we as the Church in Taiwan through various pastoral ministries let “The Children” come before God. These “Children of God” are the handicapped, marginalized, immigrants, migrants, prisoners, the members of families that are wounded by broken relationships, the disoriented youth, voiceless in their many needs, etc. Through their witness-sharing these Catholics helped us to enter into the experience of how important it is for us as the whole Church to encounter Jesus Christ, experience his transforming and redeeming love and share the joy of the experience with others.
In this way all aspects of the celebration let the flower of our theme, “Let All the Children Come to Me,” unfold. His love invites and commissions each one of us, his disciples and followers, to go out joyfully:
- to become Christ’s feet, walking toward the “children” of God to meet and serve them where they are;
- to become Christ’s arms reaching out to embrace these wounded hearts to allow them experience the comforting and transforming love of God; and
- to become Christ’s mind, heart and spirit to gently guide and assist them to find way home to God, experiencing God’s unconditional and ever-forgiving mercy.
The prayerful and joyful participation, contributions and many hours of hard work of all of these faithful volunteers were the channels of God’s grace for the entire liturgical celebration. Our hearts were drawn by the beauty of the harmony and rhythm of the entire experience. We experienced what it means to be Christ feet, arms, mind, heart and spirit in walking with God’s Children to the Lord. It was all in a “missionary key” as Pope Francis says in Evangelii gaudium. We heard our missionary call anew to become living witnesses of Christ’s transforming, healing and redeeming love for the people we encounter daily. Christ is indeed continually living on in, through and with each one of us to invite all to participate in the fullness of his redemptive Grace of Love.
2. The Eucharist:
After experiencing and being enkindled with the unconditional and welcoming love of God extending to all the “children” of God, we gathered together around the Table of the Eucharist to give thanks to God for his mercy. The Entrance Process was initiated by more than 60 aboriginal dancers from Hua Lian Diocese. Their native colorful costumes, their dances, and their singing sustained by the rhythmic beating of drums brought us into the sacred space of the Eucharist where God and Man the hearts of God and man encounter. The long procession--with the presence of more than twenty altar boys, of all Taiwan major seminarians, of more than 350 first communion children dressed in white, more than 300 priests and religious, and all the bishops of Taiwan, made us truly experienced the sense of Taiwan as the young, united Church with the promising future. It embodied what the Second Vatican Council said in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, “That by the power of the gospel [God] makes the Church grow young and leads her to perfect union with her Spouse.” (no. 4) The voice of more than 12000 Catholics synchronized with more than 600 choir members also made our hearts leap with resounding joy giving thanks for the merciful gaze of God who lifts up his people in all their brokenness, poverty and weakness to make them his children.
During the procession for the offering of the gifts, a representative of each of the seven dioceses carried a lit candle which symbolized the light of faith and pastoral witness of their diocese. These candles were placed around to invoke the Resurrected Christ, the high priest, through whom we offer all praise and thanks to the Father to continue to inspire our works of evangelization. We prayed that we will live the spirituality of communion called for by Saint John Paul II where we find our unity through cherishing each other as gifts without which none of us is complete. This is the Eucharist which is the fount and summit of all Grace and worship.
3. The Procession and Adoration of the Eucharist:
After the after communion prayer, we carried the Monstrance containing the Body of Christ in procession to four different altars located at four stations in our space of worship. At each altar, the altar boys, seminarians, priests and Bishops knelt in prayerful adoration symbolized in the rising smoke of incense. The entire procession was a symbol of the feet, hands, mind and heart of a Eucharist People moving out into the world, overcoming the immobility caused by fear and the anxiety of life to the freedom of the Children of God who can playfully adore, praise and thank God for his infinite mercy. Many were moved to tears through the experience of receiving the loving embrace of Christ. We realized that adoration of the Eucharistic Christ is profoundly personal and intensely communal. Each time we kneel before the Eucharistic Christ in our longing and brokenness we realize that we are not alone but are members of one family, the Children of God. The Eucharist embodies a Pilgrim Church on the move into the world to encounter all of God’s Children who need mercy more than judgment. The end of that pilgrimage is the Sanctuary of God.
Conclusion:
The entire celebration reflected what Pope Francis says in his Apostolic Exhortation, The Joy of the Gospel. “Let All the Children Come to Me” excludes no one and mandates us all to be involved in ways to attract people by the beauty of the Gospel by exercising pastoral outreach which is missionary. We know that we have been given the Gift of God, Donum Dei, the Holy Spirit who sets our hearts afire to share the Gift with others. “For all those led by the Spirit of God are children of God. “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, Abba. Father. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with so that we may also be glorified with him.” (Romans 8: 14-17)
