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March 11, 2022BY TANYA CONNOR
THE CATHOLIC FREE PRESS
WORCESTER – The Eucharist is not only central to Catholics’ lives – it’s key for evangelization. And it’s the opposite of the war in Ukraine.
Jesuit Father Matt Malone, president of America Media, made those points in an interview with The Catholic Free Press Monday. He was expanding on themes from his homily Saturday at the St. Francis Xavier Novena at St. John Parish.
Preaching at the annual Novena of Grace for the first time, Father Malone, who grew up on Cape Cod, said St. Francis Xavier wrote that with gratitude all things are possible. An attitude of gratitude enabled Jesus to resist temptation, he said.
Gratitude, while it involves emotion, is fundamentally an orientation, seeing everything as coming from God and returning to God, he said. God gave us the transformative power of his love and the redemptive power of his mercy and sent his Son to show us how to live.
“The gift that God has given us is the way, the truth and the life – Jesus himself,” he said.
The opposite of gratitude is grandiosity, Father Malone said. He described grandiosity as misunderstanding our lives as possessions we have earned, seeing ourselves, not God, as the beginning and end of everything.
With an attitude of grandiosity, we feel entitled to everything, and then we’re tempted to scapegoat others for our problems, for standing in our way, he explained. Those “others” might be politicians, bankers, or people across the room or across the world.
The current Russian invasion of Ukraine and the indiscriminate killing show us that, “the Russians … see the innocent men, women and children as a means to an end,” standing in their way, Father Malone told The Catholic Free Press. “That’s grandiosity on a global scale.”
In his position as editor-in-chief of the Jesuit magazine “America: The Jesuit Review of Faith & Culture,” Father Malone deals with many worldwide events.
Invited to comment about preparations underway for the worldwide Synod of Bishops in October 2023, Father Malone said Pope Francis is displaying an attitude of gratitude in seeking input from all Catholics.
“You recognize that everyone is a gift and has gifts to share,” he said. Pope Francis wants to create a mechanism for the Church to listen “to the gifts of all of its people,” Father Malone said.
Asked for his advice to members of the Worcester Diocese as they give their input for the synod, Father Malone said our relationships with others are only as strong as our individual relationship with Jesus. So, it is most important to tend to that relationship and to one’s prayer life.
“That’s the piece that the Holy Spirit is going to use to create the connective tissue between you and everyone else in the process,” he said.
Asked for comments about the United States bishops’ present emphasis on the Eucharist, after the pandemic shut-down that kept people from Mass, Father Malone said he believes the bishops have the right approach, “and it’s needed now more than ever.”
“The Eucharist is central to our lives as Catholic Christians,” he said. “Also, it should be at the forefront of our evangelization … the symbol that speaks the loudest” to the world.
The Eucharist is the opposite of what is happening in Ukraine, he said. The Eucharist brings us together and creates community anew “and war is the precise opposite of that, tearing people apart, dividing and conquering.”
