WITHOUT THE EUCHARIST WE ARE NOT REALLY ALIVE

It is recorded that over 60,000 people attended the National Eucharistic Congress, held at the Lucas Oil Stadium and the International Convention Center in downtown Indianapolis from July 17 - 21. I am grateful to the Lord that I was able to participate in this epochal event in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States. Alongside the number, I was thrilled by the diversity in the demographics of people who attended, from young and old, men and women and children, Cardinals, Bishops, priests, religious (male and female), in fact, the whole church was present. There were times when I got exhausted from walking, but I was encouraged by the number of people I saw on wheelchairs, who made the sacrifice to show up for our Eucharistic Lord. My purpose of writing this piece is not to make those who could not attend feel bad, or make them feel like they did something wrong for not going to Indy. I know people’s life circumstances are different. I want to share my initial feelings seeing the massive crowd of people who attended, the most I have seen in my lifetime at a religious event. I have been to football games and other sporting events before, and I know these are usually packed. But to see catholics from across the country gather to adore and profess their faith in Jesus truly and substantially present in the Eucharist was just beyond words. I do not have the words to express what I saw and how I feel. 

You might wonder: if Jesus is present on every altar, and in every tabernacle in every catholic church throughout the world, why then did we have to make the sacrifice of traveling to Indy just to adore him? Eucharistic Congresses don’t happen every day. In fact, the last time it was held in the United States was 83 years ago. So, you would understand why we were so thrilled that it was happening in our lifetime, and right in our backyard. We were excited that it was taking place in a location, which is just a two-hour drive from South Bend, and we could not wait to participate. I walked into a number of our parishioners from Little Flower who either participated all five days of the congress or one day or two, as their schedules permitted. My gratitude to all who were able to make the sacrifice to attend. I am sure you have your own stories to tell. It is recorded that our diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend had the largest number of people who attended the congress in the whole of the United States. We beat even the host archdiocese in the number of participants. That is record-breaking!

I would like to thank those who could not go to Indy, but participated online by following the livestream from the congress. We already sent you the link to watch the talks and events, but you can access videos from the congress either from EWTN YouTube Channel or the National Eucharistic Congress website. I highly encourage you to take a look to see what happened and why we have all been speaking about this great event in the history of the church in the United States. 

Beyond going to adore Jesus in the Eucharist, the Eucharistic Congress was a profession of faith. We made a public act to the world that we believe the Eucharist is not mere bread, and it is not, as some antagonists say, a “dead cookie.” Rather, it is the true Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ given to us in the form of simple elements of bread and wine. We profess that this gift is the greatest gift ever, because it is Christ giving us himself as food for our souls and bodies. We profess that we cannot aspire for any gift greater than the Eucharist, because we do not truly live without eating of his flesh and drinking his blood (John 6:53). Our Lord Jesus knows our need for him, and did not intend to leave us desolate and without any consolation. He left us the gift of his Body and Blood. And every time we gather to break bread, we share in the One Body and one Cup of his blood until he comes again in glory. This is the treasure of our Catholic faith. 

I will share more reflections on the National Eucharistic Congress in the coming weeks. Providentially, we will be reading from the 6th chapter of St. John’s gospel, which focuses on the Bread of Life discourse of Jesus with his disciples. 

May Jesus bless you, and may Our Lady protect you!