Yuma priest reflects on Eucharistic Congress

 

Every day at the Congress we started by praying the Rosary, and followed by celebration of the Holy Mass. It was just fitting to pray the rosary before the Mass because as the famous phrase says, ad Iesum per Mariam, “to Jesus through Mary”. Each evening, we gathered together at the Lucas Oil Stadium to experience the revival session in which we adored the Lord through music and reflections and listened to talks and testimonies of several dynamic and insightful speakers. We ended each revival session with a solemn benediction. Everything we did in the Congress revolved around the Eucharist. This beautiful experience reminded me of a fundamental reality that we find the source of our strength and fruitfulness as followers of Christ from the celebration of the Holy Eucharist and the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. As the Vatican II teaches us, “the Mass is the source and summit of our Christian life”. Moreover, our Lord Jesus said, “He who abides in me, and I in Him, He it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Indeed, we can abide in Him and be fruitful because He made Himself close to us by making Himself as our spiritual food in the Eucharist, the source of our strength and nourishment. He is not a God from a distance, but a God who desires to remain with us in the Eucharist until the end of time. He makes Himself accessible to us, so we can turn to Him and offer to Him all the daily experiences of our life: our joys, achievements, and successes, but also our sorrows, problems, struggles and brokenness. By uniting all our experiences and activities to the Lord in the Eucharist, they are all transformed into opportunities of our sanctification and fruitfulness. Out of love, our Lord remains with us in every tabernacle of each Catholic church so we can have a heart-to-heart conversation with Him and thus develop a personal and loving relationship with Him. Throughout the Congress, St. John’s Church was open 24 hours and offered an opportunity of Eucharistic Adoration for all the pilgrims who desire to adore the Lord and converse with Him. The church was just walking distance from the Lucas Oil Stadium and Indiana Convention Center where we had all our activities. It was amazing to see the church filled with pilgrims praying and adoring the Lord.  

 

Out of His infinite love, He remains with us in the Eucharist, and He will never abandon us. He is truly present in every tabernacle of each church. At St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Yuma, we are blessed to have a perpetual adoration chapel where people can come and adore the Lord anytime. This revival helped me to have firm resolution to have a constant recourse with our Lord throughout the day at our adoration chapel. My hope also is that more and more people will pack our adoration chapel and more and more people can attend the daily mass, not only on Sundays. The Lord in the Eucharist is the source of our strength, nourishment, and fruitfulness. I hope to continually remind myself of this reality and to help the people that I serve to fall in love with our Lord who is truly present in the Eucharist, the one who can satisfy the longings of our restless hearts.  

 

Monsignor James Shea eloquently explained this reality in his talk, “It’s time for faithful Catholics to stop trying to live for God. Instead, we should start living from Him. The body and blood of the Lord is the source of our life, our energy, our joy. So, let’s eat and drink here and every day to our heart’s content and then let’s rush out into a starving world and tell everybody we meet, ‘starving people, listen! We found where the food is!’” 

 

One of the powerful messages that caught my attention and helped me reflect more was Fr. Mike Schmidt’s words that we can “never have a revival without repentance.” In order for a Eucharistic revival to really happen, one must be willing to accept the call to repentance. The Eucharist should not only make us in awe of its beauty and majesty, but our encounter with the Eucharist should also transform us to be better, to be more and more conformed to the Eucharistic Lord. As imperfect human beings, we always have room for growth. Sister Josephine exhorted all of us to “repent in hope and joy”. We are able to be hopeful and joyful in our repentance because we have a loving and merciful father who always welcomes us back to His loving embrace. After that revival session, the confession lines got longer. Confession was available daily throughout the congress from 6 am to 11 pm. Seventy priests were always at the confession area to be instruments of God’s mercy to those seeking forgiveness and reconciliation.  

 

Another highlight of my experience was the Eucharistic Procession at downtown Indianapolis. It was truly beautiful to see around 50,000 people gathered to show their love and devotion to our Lord during the procession. That moment of being together during the procession reminded me that we are not created to be in isolation, but we are created for communion. We don’t go to heaven alone. Instead, we are all in our journey toward heaven as one church. And we have the fundamental calling to love. Out of love, we are called to help others to join us in our journey towards the heavenly Jerusalem.  

 

The Eucharistic Procession was also a great opportunity to make Christ known to the City of Indianapolis and the world because we are not meant to keep Christ for ourselves. Instead, we are sent as His disciples to make Christ known to others. In his talk, Bishop Barron exhorted us “to bring the lumen to the gentes, to bring the light of Christ to the world.” We are called to “christify” the society by making Christ present in our homes, workplace, schools, and in the different events and places of our daily life. During his homily at the Closing Mass, Cardinal Tagle said that when the priest or deacon says, “the Mass is ended, go in the peace of Christ”, we must not stay in the church, but we must share to others the gift that we received from our Lord with zeal and joy.  

 

I hope and pray that this Eucharistic Revival may increase the faith of all Catholics in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and may we all be united to Christ in the Eucharist. May this revival move us to share Christ to others and the world.