Stating that it was necessary to “re-launch mission”, Episcopal Vicar for Evangelisation, Fr Urban Hudlin, said that gathered around the table of the Eucharist, the Church understood better its mandate to continue the mission of Christ (Jn 20: 21).

Fr Hudlin made the remark while delivering a presentation entitled “Eucharist as Mission ” on the second and final day of the Archdiocesan Eucharistic Symposium held at the JFK Lecture Hall, University of the West Indies , St Augustine , on Saturday, June 4, 2005 . The first session was held on May 28.

“If our celebration (of Eucharist) is authentic,” he said, “it must make us grow in the awareness of human dignity. It's quite shocking when there seems to be no grounding between that which we receive and that which we live.”

He said a person who received the Eucharist sometimes used the same tongue to offend another or to renege on some commitment. But the Eucharist was a sacrament of transformation, Fr Hudlin said, which must lead us to the transformation of the human heart, the environment in which we find ourselves, and the world.

He said that no Christian community could be built up unless it had its basis and centre in Eucharistic celebration, and added that when the celebrant says, “go, the Mass is ended”, all the people are being sent out to transform the world.

In fact, Fr Hudlin said we should see our Eucharistic celebration as a great gift for this missionary thrust. Whoever receives Christ in the Eucharist can then proclaim, through his or her life, the merciful love of the relationship with God. The missionary thrust of the Church has its source in Eucharistic life, he said.

The Eucharist shows us what value each person has in the eyes of God. Jesus shares himself equally with each one of us in the form of bread and wine; that is exactly what Eucharist teaches us, one's value in the eyes of God, he said.

“Because the mission of the Church is continuity of the mission of Christ, the Church draws its spiritual energy from communion with His body and His blood.” In this way, Fr Hudlin said, Eucharist and Mission were inseparable.

“The goal of Eucharist, therefore, is precisely communion of humankind with Christ and in Him, with the Father and the Spirit. When we take part in Eucharist we understand more profoundly the universality of redemption and, as a consequence, the urgency of the Church's mission in its programme, which has its centre in Jesus Christ himself.

“Jesus is to be known, loved and imitated so that in Him we may live the life of the Trinity. Around Christ in the Eucharist, the Church grows as a family: one, holy, catholic and apostolic,” Fr Hudlin said.

In his wide-ranging presentation, Fr Hudlin also discussed the concepts of hospitality, friendship and truth as they related to the Eucharist as mission.

He related hospitality to the story of the road to Emmaus (Jn 24: 13 – 35) when the disciples invited the stranger (Jesus) to stay the night with them.

It was at the shared meal that they recognised the stranger as Jesus. Though Jesus later disappeared, that experience -- arising out of hospitality -- motivated the disciples to leave immediately on a mission to Jerusalem to share the good news of the risen Christ.

On friendship, using references from Matthew and John's gospels, Fr Hudlin described how Jesus in His life reached out in friendship to strangers, persons who did not belong, with the message that God loved them unconditionally.

He also presented friendship as a relationship between God and humankind, referring to when Christ told his apostles “ I no longer call you servants but friends ”.

Truth, he said, was essential to mission and required courage and humility. Fr Hudlin pointed out that the Church began at a time when it seemed to be disintegrating.

Christ was arrested, Peter denied Him, and the other disciples ran away. Not long after the seeming disintegration, the Church blossomed.

Throughout history, the Church experienced moments of spiritual despair and near collapse, but was rejuvenated each time. Jesus Christ is Truth personified and Truth is not extinguished by bias, he said.

The final day of the Symposium began with Holy Mass at about 7.45 a.m. with Southern Region's Vicar, Fr Stephen Doyle, as the Chief Celebrant. Shirley Hinds, from the Southern Vicariate, chaired the day's proceedings.

Msgr Michael de Verteuil's presentation “Eucharist as Celebrated Through the Ages” was the second presentation. It was a whirlwind tour through history from the first three centuries, to the Constantinian era, the Middle Ages, the Reformation and the Council of Trent, the Second Vatican Council, to the present.

The final presentation of the day was by Sr Katrina Charles on Eucharistic spirituality. She fittingly ended her presentation with a song Christ Has No Body Now but Yours , effectively underlining the fact that Eucharistic spirituality is incarnational.

All the presentations were followed by a question period, group discussions and reports.

The symposium committee are to be congratulated for their efforts in organising a well-run, enriching educational experience for the laity of the archdiocese.