Fr. Roger J. Landry
The Anchor
Editorial
July 5, 2024
Every Mass is meant to be a Eucharist congress, when those who believe in, follow and love Christ come together to be in his presence, hear him speak to us in Sacred Scripture, adore him, receive him within, and be sent out by him transformed to transform the world as salt, light and leaven.
Since 1881 internationally and 1895 nationally, however, there has been a tradition of congresses that bring together believers from across the world or across the United States as a visible expression of the Church’s Eucharistic faith and communion.
They’re held to celebrate the awesome self-gift of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, to increase understanding and participation in this great mystery of faith in all its aspects: the celebration of Mass, extended Eucharist adoration outside of Mass, processions expressing the public dimension of our Eucharistic faith and love, catecheses on various dimensions of the Eucharistic mystery, testimonies of Eucharistic life, and the fostering the charity that Christ in the Eucharist inspires. All are done so that faith in God-with-us in the most Blessed Sacrament will more greatly influence the lives of individuals and more effectively permeate Church and society.
At the beginning, Eucharistic Congresses, in addition to striving to make Jesus in his Eucharistic mystery better known, loved and served, helped to foster the first communion of children and the frequent communion of adults. Then many participated in the sacrifice of the Mass but few received Jesus in Holy Communion, such that the Church needed to insist that Catholics receive Holy Communion at least once a year.
Through the first Eucharistic Congresses, and eventually the work of Pope St. Pius X, the various reasons why people were not receiving Holy Communion often and well were overcome, epecially an exaggerated sense of unworthiness based on the lingering effects of the Jansenist heresy as well a lack of appreciation, hunger and prioritization to receive Jesus in Holy Communion.
Over time, Eucharistic Congresses would also explicitly take on an added missionary dimension, trying to “re-evangelize” those who had wandered from the practice of Eucharistic faith, so that they might return to Jesus as the source, summit, root and center of their life.
Pope Francis, in a meeting last June 19 with the organizers of the upcoming tenth National Eucharistic Congress that will take place in Indianapolis July 17-21, called the Congress “a significant moment in the life of the Church in the United States.” He thanked the Church in the U.S. for its work and encouraged us “to continue your efforts to contribute to a revival of faith in, and love for, the Holy Eucharist.”
The Holy Father underlined, “The Eucharist is God’s response to the deepest hunger of the human heart, the hunger for authentic life, for in the Eucharist Christ himself is truly in our midst, to nourish, console and sustain us on our journey,” but he noted that, “sadly nowadays, there are those among the Catholic faithful who believe that the Eucharist is more a symbol than the reality of the Lord’s presence and love.”
Hence the need for Eucharistic Congress and the broader National Eucharistic Revival, meant to start a new fire of love for the Eucharistic Jesus.
Pope Francis expressed his hope that “the Eucharistic Congress will inspire Catholics throughout the country to discover anew the sense of wonder and awe at the Lord’s great gift of himself and to spend time with him in the celebration of the Holy Mass and in personal prayer and adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.”
He underlined the point about adoration. “I believe that we have lost the sense of adoration in our day. We must rediscover the sense of adoration in silence. … Too few people know what it is. It is up to the bishops to catechize the faithful about praying through adoration. The Eucharist requires it of us.”
These are important words especially for a few prominent Church leaders in the United States who have tried to say that the priority of the Eucharistic Revival should primarily be on the faithful’s fruitful participation in the Mass and not give as much attention to Eucharistic adoration and processions, as if the Eucharist were a thing rather the eternal Son of God in his sacramental reality before whom we were encouraging people to pray and adore and take out of their Churches to the world he redeemed.
Pope Francis likewise said, “I cannot fail to mention the need for fostering vocations to the priesthood, for as Saint John Paul II said, ‘There can be no Eucharist without the priesthood.’ We need priests to celebrate the Holy Eucharist.” A Eucharistic Congress not only is meant to inspire among young men a greater sense of the importance of discerning a priestly vocation so that the world may still have access to the Holy Eucharist, but to catalyze the whole Church to pray to the Harvest Master with greater insistence for priestly laborers in the various parts of his vineyard.
The successor of St. Peter similarly expressed his hope that the Congress “will be an occasion for the faithful to commit themselves with ever greater zeal to being missionary disciples of the Lord Jesus in the world. … We become credible witnesses to the joy and transforming beauty of the Gospel only when we recognize that the love we celebrate in this sacrament cannot be kept to ourselves but demands to be shared with all. … You go to the celebration of Mass, receive communion, adore the Lord and then what do you do after? You go out and evangelize. Jesus asks this of us. The Eucharist, then, impels us to a strong and committed love of neighbor.”
The conclusion of the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis will fittingly begin the “missionary phase” of the National Eucharistic Revival, in which every Catholic is being asked to invite and accompany one person at a time to come or return to Mass with them, to help people one by one to come to encounter, know, befriend, love, adore and unite themselves with the Eucharistic Jesus. That’s meant to be the fruit of both the Congress and the Revival.
While 50,000 American faithful are expected to convene in Indianapolis, the Congress is meant to unite and express the communion of the Church throughout the United States. Every Catholic is urged to participate in the Congress through attending simultaneous local events being planned in parishes and dioceses, by watching the talks and liturgies that will be aired by EWTN, CatholicTV, Catholic Faith Network and other television and radio networks, following the reports of Catholic news sites web and social media, and especially through their prayer for its fruits.
They are also encouraged to help those they know — both those who practice the faith and those who don’t — to be aware of what is taking place in the hope that they, too, might receive graces of conversion and growth in Eucharistic faith.
In an age in which many take Jesus’ self-gift in the Holy Eucharist for granted, when many find Jesus’ Real Presence in the Eucharist a truth too good to be true, the Eucharistic Congress is a literally spectacular expression of the Church’s faith and love.
At a time in which musicians and sports teams pack stadiums full of devoted groupies and fans, the National Eucharistic Congress will bring together Catholics to do so for Jesus Christ, to express our gratitude and love for him whose love for us exceeds his taking on our humanity and even his passion, death and resurrection, but who desired to give us himself in the Holy Eucharist in order to remain with us, and indeed within us, until the end of time. The Congress is an opportunity for the Church in the U.S. collectively to express its gratitude as we ask Jesus for the grace of increased Eucharistic faith, amazement, love and life.
The National Eucharistic Congress is, to repeat the Holy Father’s obvious and yet understated words, “a significant moment in the life of the Church in the United States.” The same Jesus Christ who spoke to the crowds in the Sermon on the Mount, gave his Bread of Life discourse in the Capernaum synagogue, who celebrated the new and eternal Passover in the Upper Room and gave his Body and Blood for us on Golgotha, is coming to Indianapolis to strengthen us as his disciples and embolden us as his apostles.
And he’s inviting each of us, in whatever way we can participate, to come to meet him.