Int. Eucharistic Congress in Cebu: culture and curiosity

It's an event that takes place every four years and sees Catholic clergy and lay people from around the world gathered together to reflect upon and to celebrate the great mystery of the Eucharist.

The theme of this year's Congress - which wraps up on January 31 - is “Christ in you, our hope of glory.”

Vatican Radio's Seàn-Patrick Lovett is in Cebu following the Congress and sent us this report on key events that took place on day 5.

Listen: 
    
What do a sex abuse victim, a tsunami survivor and a juggler in a circus act have in common?
Nothing. Of course. Except for sharing their faith testimony here at the International Eucharistic Congress in Cebu.    

They are among the many surprises this event has reserved for the lucky delegates coming from 74 countries, curious to discover how victims, survivors, and performers (among myriad others) reconcile their faith with their life experiences. And the responses range from the superbly erudite to the simply entertaining. 

At the heart of all this learning and yearning lies the Eucharist. Naturally. But what makes this encounter unique is the way the organizers have succeeded in making their theme meaningful and pertinent to a 21st century audience by applying it to 21st century concerns. Like Culture, for instance. Not in an abstract or academic sense, but Culture understood as an opportunity to understand oneself and others better – in order to become more accepting, discerning, credible and responsible – and to start talking…and listening…more authentically.

At least that’s the way Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle interprets culture. His was the keynote speech at the Congress on Thursday morning. His theme: “The Eucharist and the Dialogue with Cultures”. His approach was to define different kinds of contemporary cultures and to illustrate them lavishly in terms of his own experience. Take the Digital Culture, for example. He spoke of his own difficulties in promoting an appreciation of the Real Presence of Christ (in the Eucharist, in the Word, in the Community at prayer) with a virtual world where hardly anything is as it seems, where Friendship is reduced to clicking on an icon, and where appearance counts more than substance. Or Community versus Individualistic Culture (what he calls the “self-help” and “selfie” culture) which risks destroying the very individual it pretends to exalt – and which finds its expression in the “throwaway culture” so often referred to by Pope Francis.
 
The solution, according to Cardinal Tagle, is to promote a new kind of “cultural intelligence”. IQ’s and EQ’s are no longer enough, he says. We need to develop a “CQ” (“cultural quotient”) so that we grow in our own awareness and become more sensitive towards others, meeting them in a new kind of dialogue that is both “authentic” and “credible”. In his view, the Eucharist is central to this process because it represents a “culture of convocation” – a “coming together with others around a meal hosted by the Lord”. And that meal, he concludes, is not served on a plate where we consume it in solitude…but at a table where it share it together.

Now I’m curious to hear what tomorrow’s speakers bring to the table. Aren’t you? 

Here in Cebu, following the International Eucharistic Congress, I’m Seàn-Patrick Lovett.

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