“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (Jn 14:6)
The 10th National Eucharistic Congress was a pious experience. Religious sisters huddled together reciting their daily office. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament was a constant. I noticed how meeting Jesus in the sacraments led me to encounter the Father’s love. I cried as I heard confessions because I was so moved by the goodness of the penitents and their desire to receive God’s mercy. The sacramental life of the Catholic Church is the way to the Father.
I also noticed how well the U.S. Catholic Church has catechized the faithful about the truth of the Eucharist. There were youth groups with “Body, Blood, Soul, Divinity” T-shirts adorned with a monstrance. Inspirational quotes from patrons of the revival like Blessed Carlo Acutis (“When we face the sun we get a tan…but when we stand before Jesus in the Eucharist, we become saints”) found their way onto the merchandise of the vendors.
In his homily on the first full day of the Congress, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York reminded the faithful that the Eucharist is “sacrifice, real presence and a meal.” It was stunning to see that the National Eucharistic Revival had achieved one of its principal aims—Eucharistic coherence. The truth of our salvation in and through the Eucharist was not only in the hearts of the faithful but also on their lips.
There was a joyousness of life at the Congress as well, nowhere more than on the streets of downtown Indianapolis on Saturday afternoon, as 40,000 people joined a Eucharistic procession. I found myself in a line of 1,000 priests as we processed through a cannon of noise. I felt like we had won some sort of sports championship. Heads poked out of the upper levels of parking garages. Children held out their hands hoping for a high-five from a priest. People shouted their gratitude toward us: “Thank you, priests, for letting us have Jesus.”
Priests and participants alike sang Eucharistic hymns. People screamed, “Viva Cristo Rey!” Some women wore veils; others Birkenstocks; others traditional Igbo dresses. They were all in the words of Bishop Andrew Cozzens, from the diocese of Crookston, Minn., during his homily: “A church in procession.” This is a church moving toward new life in and through Jesus.
Jesus had brought us here, to the streets of Indianapolis, filled by our common love of our savior.
At a reception hosted by the Pontifical Mission Societies, Cardinal Luis Tagle of the Philippines first noted that collections for world missions have dropped in the past years. His theory for the decline was simple: People had lost sight that the world missions are really about our love of Jesus.
But he then shared a story of going to a refugee camp in Lebanon. A girl there commented on the strangeness of his visit from her perspective, as there were no Christians in the camp: “Why did you come here if there are no Christians?” The cardinal said he then told her, “My friend and mentor Jesus tells us that we should love everyone.” The girl then tugged on the cardinal’s garment and replied, “I want to meet your friend Jesus.”
The Eucharistic Congress commissioned us today to be a church in procession, to bring God’s love to the ends of the earth. The places we go may or may not be Christian, but they are places that need the kind of love our friend and mentor Jesus preaches. We now take Jesus to our local streets full of knowledge, devotion and life. May we be attuned to the suffering in these streets and bring the source of all life, Jesus, our friend and mentor, there.
America was at the 10th annual National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis. Find additional essays and reflections here.
