Last week I had the privilege of attending the 10th National Eucharistic Congress of the United States, as part of an observer team from the Archdiocese of Sydney.
While there were many aspects of the Congress that were prototypically American—most notably a degree of whoopin’ and hollerin’ that would be hard to imagine in an antipodean setting—there was also a universality to the congress in keeping with the nature of our Catholic faith.
For instance, Bishop Robert Barron spoke most eloquently on the nature of the Eucharist as more than simply Christ truly present; it is Christ truly present as offered up in sacrifice on the cross. The Eucharist is Christ given up and poured out for the salvation of others. Therefore, at Mass, as we become what we consume. We too ought then to live lives given up and poured out for others.
One lay woman, Julianne Stanz, spoke of this as our being “tabernacles with feet.” As we receive Christ in the Eucharist, we are then obliged to bring Jesus to all those whom we encounter in our daily lives.
That reality was balanced, however, against the recognition that we cannot receive Christ for anyone else. Each person must themselves choose to turn up and be present to Christ in their flesh, just as he is truly present to them in the Eucharist.
As you can well imagine, many of the 50,000 attendees at the congress were among the most committed and devout parishioners in their respective dioceses. So the notion that they should offer up their lives and be present to Christ at Mass was hardly a foreign concept to them.
But the many talks, encounter sessions, discussion groups, performances and exhibitions at the congress—not to mention the hours of Mass, adoration, benediction and devotions—provided those very engaged Catholics with the language and prayerful impetus that will hopefully serve to draw to Mass those who do not currently attend.
I was a late registration to the Congress, only signing up some weeks before it was to begin, and so the only talks I could attend were those that were not already booked out. As a result, I had rather low expectations as I walked into the various rooms and halls at the Indianapolis Convention Centre.
I was operating on the assumption that, if spots were still available at a given talk, it was presumably on a topic that was unappealing or being delivered by a lacklustre speaker.
Boy was I misguided, as our Americans friends might say. The speakers were often extraordinarily impressive; brilliant, prayerful lay men and women, bishops, priests and religious, all of whom had a unique insight into living life in our Eucharistic Lord.
Those who know me will be aware that I am not given to undue praise. The fact that someone as cynical as myself took notes at many of the talks and was deeply moved by many of the stories told, says a great deal about the potential fruits of this congress for the US church.
Fr John Burns reminded us of the need to better ground our evangelical outreach in eschatology; in a renewed appreciation of the heavenly end towards which we hopefully tend. It is only in understanding what the church will be at the end of all time, he declaimed, that we can appreciate what we are now—a pilgrim people, living lives of exile, sustained by the Eucharist, with the beatific vision as our ultimate goal.
“Revival,” he enthused, “is not about the renewal of structures; it is about our children, and our brothers and sisters, and mothers and fathers.”
Given the spontaneous applause he received following that line, I do not think it would be inaccurate to claim that those present agreed that drawing others to Mass and the Eucharist has far less to do with bureaucratic reforms and committees, and much more to do with a passion for Christ and a passion for the people for whom he offered up his life.
As Bishop Andrew Cozzens was fond of remarking throughout the days we were together, the idea behind the National Eucharistic Congress was to start a fire, not a program. Having spent a week together with those Americans, adoring and worshipping our Lord in the Eucharist, I think it is safe to say that the fire is blazing already (Lk 12:49).
Hopefully Sydney is successful in her bid to host the 2028 International Eucharistic Congress, and we too can then witness for ourselves, in our own land, the flames of this new Pentecost that is beginning to spread.