Cardinal Poola urges deeper Eucharistic encounter during Holy Week

Hyderabad archbishop calls Catholics to rediscover the Eucharist as the living encounter with Christ, grounding faith, mission and Easter joy in the mystery of the Mass.

HYDERABAD, Telangana (Indian Catholic News) — Calling Catholics to walk in the footsteps of Christ’s disciples, Cardinal Anthony Poola has urged the faithful to fully understand the Eucharist and truly encounter the incarnate Son of God during Holy Week and Easter.

In his April message, the archbishop of Hyderabad reflects on where believers meet Christ most fully, pointing to the centrality of the Mass in Catholic life and worship.

“Where and how do duly baptized Catholics meet the incarnate Son of God as our Lord Jesus Christ in His one Holy Catholic Church?” he asks, before answering that it is “in the Holy Mass offered on the altars of the Holy Catholic Church by her duly ordained priests” that the ”believing community of Christ’s disciples” encounter him.

He emphasises that this encounter is not symbolic but sacramental, rooted in the Church’s teaching on the Eucharist. During the consecration, he says, bread and wine “become transubstantiated into Him as the Bread of Eternal life and as our Spiritual drink for us and for our salvation”.

Quoting the liturgical acclamation, he highlights the faith of the gathered community: “We proclaim Your death O Lord and we profess Your resurrection, until You come again!”

Mystery of faith and salvation

Cardinal Poola explains that this proclamation goes beyond recalling Christ’s death as a historical event. Instead, it expresses the believer’s participation in the mystery of salvation.

“They are gratefully and joyfully telling Him in the Holy Spirit that it is through the death that He underwent… that they have received their eschatological Passover,” he writes, linking the Eucharist to liberation from sin and entry into new life.

He draws on Scripture to underline this transformation, noting that the faithful are transferred from “the dominion of darkness” into “the kingdom of His beloved Son whom He loves”.

Eucharist as source of Easter joy

The cardinal further connects the Eucharist with the resurrection, saying believers are raised with Christ and called to “look for the things above where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God”.

He concludes that this “Easter joy enshrined in this solemn proclamation of the Mystery of Faith” is the driving force of the Church’s life and mission, describing it as “the substance and the synodal propulsive power of the eucharistic celebration”.

The message comes as Catholics enter Holy Week, a time when the Church commemorates the passion, death and resurrection of Christ, culminating in the celebration of Easter.