“Habemus Papam!”
With those words we were introduced to the new shepherd of the Universal Church, Pope Leo XIV.
Within a day of the announcement, the Prime Minister here in Australia publicly stated that the Federal government would formally invite the new Supreme Pontiff to the International Eucharistic Congress in 2028.
(As head of a foreign government, diplomatic protocol requires that the Australian government extend the formal invitation to the head of the Catholic Church to attend this most Catholic of events).
It therefore seems highly likely that the Holy Father will be joining us when Sydney hosts the IEC in 2028.
Our planning committees have suddenly broadened their horizons!
Coincidentally, the last pope who took the name Leo was the very man who approved the establishment of Eucharistic Congresses in the first place.
Pope Leo XIII instituted the Pontifical Committee for Eucharistic Congresses in 1879.
The Statutes of that Committee clearly state the reason for its existence:
“To make Our Lord Jesus Christ in his Eucharistic Mystery ever better known, loved and served, as the centre of the life of the Church and of its mission for the salvation of the world.’”(art. 2)
Leo XIII himself seems to have had a particularly “eucharistic” faith: the final encyclical he wrote before his death, Mirae Caritatis, was on the topic of the Eucharist and was published on the vigil for the feast of Corpus Christi in 1902.
In that text he noted the “beautiful and joyful spectacle of Christian fellowship and social equality which is afforded when people of all conditions, gentle and simple, rich and poor, learned and unlearned, gather round the holy altar, all sharing alike in this heavenly banquet.”
It is our firm intention that precisely such a “spectacle” should dazzle Sydneysiders in 2028.
In a world that is rife with division, the startling sight of a great multitude from all walks of life – and all parts of the globe – receiving with shared reverence the Blessed Sacrament is one that should cause many observers to stop in their tracks and, hopefully, will draw many back to the altar of the Lord.
Indeed, it may awaken in some a desire to join us at the foot of the altar for the first time.
It has always struck me as remarkable that we know rather a lot about the earliest days of the Christian community, thanks to the Acts of the Apostles.
And we know that by the early fourth century there were so many Christians that it simply made political sense to decriminalise Christianity as a religion.
But we know relatively little of those intervening years: a period that must have been marked by an extraordinary evangelical impulse to have brought about the sheer growth in Christian numbers that it did.
Yet I suspect the early church was not beset with committees and plans for how to go about converting the world.
The earliest Christians were simply doing their best to be faithful to Christ; they were trying to live the Christian life well, with a marked reverence for the Eucharist.
And that was so attractive, so compelling, that those around them of other faiths or none saw the Christians and thought, “I want what they’ve got.”
Living our Catholic lives well, reverently, charitably, should in and of itself be so compelling, so attractive, that those around us are forced to rethink who Jesus Christ is for them.
People Leo XIV has called for us all “to bear witness to our joyful faith in Christ.”
That witness will be on full display during the International Eucharistic Congress in 2028, but there is no reason we should have to wait until then before we begin deepening our own reverence for Jesus in the Eucharist.
Each time we receive Communion at Mass or kneel before the Blessed Sacrament in silent adoration, we are presented with a graced opportunity to grow in our own “joyful faith” in the Risen Lord.
And that is just one small way in which, long before the Eucharistic Congress arrives in Sydney, we can all commit to better knowing, loving and serving Jesus.
If you would like more information on the Eucharistic Congress in 2028, or to be added to the mailing list for updates, please email: iec2028@sydneycatholic.org