November 11, 2025 // Diocese

The Joy of Being a Eucharistic People

Todays Catholic

The following homily was delivered by Franciscans of Mary Father Osman Ramos, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua in Angola, on Friday, November 7, during a Mass marking the opening of the parish’s Oratory of St. Carlo Acutis. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Before he died, Pope Francis gave a beautiful gift to all of us. He wrote a beautiful and profound encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus called Delixit Nos (“He Loved Us”). In that encyclical the pope said, “It is essential to realize that our relationship to the Person of Jesus Christ is one of friendship and adoration, drawn by the love represented under the image of His heart” (No. 49). “In contemplating the heart of Jesus, we encounter not just a symbol but a relationship, one that calls us to trust, dialogue, and friendship” (No. 51).

Notice that for Pope Francis it is essential to establish a strong relationship with the Lord, which should be the foundation of Christian life. …

Before going to His death, Jesus instituted the Holy Eucharist, which is the sweetest proof of His love for mankind: “Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my body. … Take this, all of you, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my blood.” He didn’t give us something; He gave Himself to all of us.

The same Lord that was present in the creation with the Father, the same Lord who was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and died on the cross – it is the same Lord who we receive at each Communion. The Eucharist is the fulfillment of one of His promises: “I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Mt 28:20).

Today, in the official opening of the Oratory of St. Carlo Acutis, we celebrate that Jesus is alive and that He is present in our midst.

He and only He is the source of all the strength, hope, and joy that we need in our parish to bring to fulfillment our mission statement which is: “We spread faithfully the word of God as a spiritual family, joining together to live a sacramental life centered on the holy Eucharist and loving one another as Jesus loves us.”

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Eucharist is the center and the summit of our Christian life. The first martyrs of the Church persecuted by the Roman Empire used to say, “We cannot – and we don’t want to – live without the Eucharist; we prefer to die for Jesus.” And, actually, they did. 

Speaking about the holy Eucharist, Pope Leo said: “Jesus proclaims that He will save everyone from death. In doing so, He established the foundation of the mystery of faith, which we celebrate in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.”

Our Mission at St. Anthony is to live like the first apostolic community – united and very close to Jesus, and to bring more people to Him, to the true and real Jesus.

We have to constantly remember that in order to fulfill this huge mission, we must put the holy Eucharist in center of our parish life always. Only in that way, Jesus and His teachings will become the foundation of our personal lives, and then we will be able to be the light and the salt of the Earth, as Jesus commended us to be. 

St. Carlo Acutis, the patron saint of our oratory, spent a lot of time praying before the tabernacle. His passion in life was only one thing: the holy Eucharist. He attended Mass daily because he knew that the secret to reaching holiness faster is by being very close to the Blessed Sacrament, that is why he came to say: “By standing before the Eucharist, we become holy.” And also, he said, “I don’t need to go the Holy Land, because I have it here at the tabernacle.”

By having our oratory always available, we will have the opportunity to spend time in front of the tabernacle whenever we want. Now there will be no more excuses not to build up that strong intimacy with Jesus that is required for all Catholics.

Attending Mass or spending time in front of Jesus abandoned in the tabernacle, as St. Manuel González used to say, is more than just an obligation for Catholics; it is, above all, an act of love for the Lord of love, but it is also good for our own salvation.

When the priest celebrates Mass, he says, “It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God.”

Loving Jesus is our duty because He loved us first, and that is why He deserves to be loved above all things. And also, it is our salvation because, in our worship, we find the only and true Savior who exists. As Pope Leo said recently, “Only Jesus can save us, because only He has that power.”

On the other hand, in the Eucharist, Jesus shows us His tenderness and charity, and this is exactly what He is wanting from us. If He gave us His whole life, He is waiting for us to give Him our whole life in intimacy and adoration. Pope Benedict XVI said, “Everything depends on the intimate friendship with Jesus.”

This day reminds us that Jesus is still thirsty, and His heart is beating out love for us. Let us not forget that the dynamic of love is a dynamic of reciprocity: He loves us, but also, He wants to be loved by us. … He is the vine, and we are the branches, if we remain in Him and He in us, we will find meaning in our life and we are going to be able to experience eternal life and happiness because the Eucharist is heaven on earth.

In other words, we are called to become living Eucharists. As St. Paul says to the Romans,

“Present your bodies as a living sacrifice” (Rom 12:1). Each Communion that we receive nourishes us to become more like Jesus, who is pure, joyful, holy, innocent, generous, immortal – and that is only possible by living a holy life in Him, for Him, and through Him, deeply rooted in the holy Eucharist.

The one who doesn’t strive to become like Jesus will become like the things of this world – empty, evil, without meaning, fleeting, sad, without a vocation and mission, lost.

On the contrary, the consequence of being a Eucharistic person is happiness – a happiness that nobody has the power to take away from us, as St. Manuel Gonzalez said: “Whenever you pass by the tabernacle, stop for a moment and say very quietly, but with all your heart, “Heart of my Jesus, let me realize that you are truly present in there!”

I assure you that, on the day you finally realize this, no one will surpass you in joy and happiness.”