• On the occasion of the official inauguration of the new Cathedral’s Maestro di Cappella, Maestro Hamish Dustagheer performed an organ recital, at St John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta, on Saturday, 17th June 2017.

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    The Celebration of Mass on YouTube

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    Homily by Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna

  • St John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta

    17th June 2017

    I would like to share a brief reflection on today’s Gospel from John’s sixth chapter. His beautiful address of Jesus and reflection on the gift of the Eucharist, that Jesus shared with his fellow Jews in the synagogue of Capharnaum. When you go to Capharnaum you find an archeological site, but one of the most moving moments is when you look down into an archeological wealth and you see the threshold of the synagogue that Jesus trod upon going into this place of prayer to share with us this important and essential teaching that he is the bread of life.

    Today in the solemn liturgy at the beginning of the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Jesus, we celebrate the Eucharist as the gift of life that brings us to eternal life. Jesus said: “whoever eats my body and drinks my blood will have eternal life, I will raise him on the last day” (Jn 6,54).

    And he said: “I am the truth, I am the way, I am the life” (Jn 14, 6). As he promises life, he promisies communion with him. And he insists with his contemporaries as he does with us that his body is food, true food, and his blood is true drink. We need to eat his body and drink his blood and this is not something which  scandalises us but it is an invitation to a very radical and intimate communion with him.

    So today, as we read the Gospel from St John Chapter 6, we thank the Lord who gives us the Eucharist as a life-giving sacrament: “I am the bread of life which came down form heaven. Whoever eats this bread and drinks this blood will have eternal life and the bread I give is my body for the life of the world” (Jn 6, 51). We thank Jesus for this gift, this life-giving gift of the Eucharist.

    ✠ Charles J. Scicluna                                                          

        Archbishop of Malta

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    The organ recital by the Maestro di Cappella

  • Photos: Curia Communications Office