Tenth National Eucharistic Congress-A Call to Mission for the US Church

The message was loud and clear: We were called to the 10th National Eucharistic Congress (Congress) by the Lord for a purpose: to return home and bring the message of repentance and mission to the wider Catholic Church. The Congress was a beautiful, Holy Spirit filled experience, one that I will treasure for the rest of my life and something that I wish every Catholic in America could have experienced. Based on the testimony of participants, the Eucharistic pilgrimage, a journey that took place during the two months prior to the Congress where pilgrims, led by the Eucharistic Jesus, walked thousands of miles across the United States from North, South, East and West, and whose paths converged at the Congress in Indianapolis, was a journey into the deep mystery that is the heart of the Christian faith. This mystery, that Jesus is and always has been really and truly present in the Holy Eucharist, journeying with us through life and becoming our food so that we can become food for the world, deserves continual contemplation and should result in heartfelt thanksgiving.  The pilgrimage and Congress are the seed of a new work of the Holy Spirit within the US Catholic Church, to wake us up and renew our love for and service to the One who gives us His very self in the Holy Eucharist. We were reminded often throughout the course of the five-day Congress that in going to Mass and receiving the Eucharist we are partaking in the heavenly banquet (Rev. 19), receiving the living bread that came down from heaven (John 6:51), not just for our own spiritual nourishment but also so that we can become other Christs for the world. We must learn to share Jesus’s promises more boldly with everyone we meet: people on the street, people in the supermarket, in restaurants and at sporting events. Our life in Christ should make people notice that we are kadosh (i.e. set apart for God, uniquely His). People need to know that there is someone exciting, alive, and beautiful, someone powerful, joy producing and healing, someone that fulfills every longing of the human heart, who is leading and guiding the Catholic Church. People around us need to know through our actions that Jesus loves every human being and wants each of us to be part of His family, to have access to His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity in the lifegiving manna from heaven, Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. They need to know that through the Mass and the Eucharist, heaven joins earth celebrating with angels, Saints and our Heavenly High Priest both His eternal singular salvific sacrifice on Calvary brought forward on the altars of the world for our time and place and the wedding supper of the Lamb that is described in Revelation 19. In the Mass, earth and heaven unite!

What would our country be like if everyone knew that Jesus is truly present: Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the tiny white host that we consume every time we go to Mass? St. Padre Pio said, “Earth could better exist without the sun than without the Mass.” Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen said, “the greatest love story of all time is contained in a tiny white host.” Do we live as if these statements made by the Holy men and women who have gone before are true? What if we had complete faith in the profound mystery and power of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, to transform us into other Christs when we receive Him in Holy Communion? How we would adore the Eucharistic Jesus with gratitude and praise if we completely understood that the host is truly the Lord of the Universe, God with us, the hidden manna under the appearances of bread and wine! Jesus promised us that He would be with us until the end of the age and the Eucharist is the living heartbeat at the center of that promise! Many Eucharistic miracles have occurred to increase our faith in the Eucharist, in which scientific investigation has revealed that the Eucharistic species has turned into living heart muscle! What more evidence in necessary to prove that when you sit before the Blessed Sacrament, you are gazing at the Sacred Heart of Jesus! How might society be transformed if we took this mystery to heart and lived as though we fully believed that Christ is living among us as our Lord and Savior in our tabernacles? He is here just as surely as He walked among His disciples 2000 years ago in human form. Many of us, like the woman at the well, still don’t fully understand who is speaking to us, and the immensity of the gift being offered (see John 4:10). If we did, wouldn’t we run to our towns and villages and tell everyone we meet about the One we know and what He has done in our lives, just as she did?

If the world is hurting, it is at least in part because Catholics are not sharing with others the magnificent treasure of the Holy Eucharist as boldly as we should be. I admit that I’ve not been very bold in speaking about my faith to people outside my circle of friends and family. Why is this? Speaking for myself, fear of rejection of the message and/or the messenger has played a big part in my silence. But perfect love casts out all fear, so the answer is repentance and a deeper gratitude-filled love of Jesus. At the Congress, Fr. Mike Schmitz said that no Eucharistic Revival is possible without repentance. So let’s examine ourselves deeply and return to the Lord with our whole hearts. Let’s take God at His word from II Chronicles 7:14: “If then my people, upon whom my name has been pronounced, humble themselves and pray, and seek my face and turn from their evil ways, I will hear them from heaven and pardon their sins and heal their land. May we humbly ask the Lord to pardon our reluctance in sharing Him with others and ask Him to give us the courage we need to do witness to the faith of our ancestors in the future. Let all the people say Amen!