This word is “eucharistia” — the ancient Greek word meaning “thanksgiving” adopted by the early Church as a word for the sacred host, the Eucharist, the Pope explained after offering Mass in Athens’ Megaron
Concert Hall on 5 December.
In Pope’s speech he said, the Greek language gave the entire Church a word that sums up the gift of Christ.
“For us Christians, thanksgiving is at the heart of our faith and life,” the Holy Father said.
“May the Holy Spirit make of everything we are and everything we do a ‘Eucharistia’, a thanksgiving to God and a gift of love to our brothers and sisters.”
In his homily, Pope Francis reflected on Saint John the Baptist’s call for conversion as “a voice of one crying out in the desert.”
“Dear brothers and sisters, in our lives as individuals or nations, there will always be times when we feel that we are in the midst of a desert. Yet it is precisely there that the Lord makes his presence felt,” Pope Francis said.
“Indeed, he is often welcomed not by the self-satisfied, but by those who feel helpless or inadequate. And he comes with words of closeness, compassion, and tenderness: ‘Do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you.’ (Is 41:10).”
The Pope motivated the 2,000 people gathered in the hall to be “witnesses of hope and sowers of joy.”
“Brothers and sisters, let us ask for the grace to believe that with God things really do change, that he will banish our fears, heal our wounds, turn our arid places into springs of water,” he said.
“Let us ask for the grace of hope since hope revives our faith and rekindles our charity. It is for this hope that the deserts of today’s world are thirsting.”
Pope Francis said that “to be converted” means “not listening to the things that stifle hope, to those who keep telling us that nothing ever changes in life.”
“Here your beautiful Greek language can help us by reminding us of the etymology of the verb ‘to convert’, metanoeίn, used in the Gospel,” the Pontiff said.