A couple of weeks ago in Indianapolis, IN, 60,000 Catholics gathered together for a five-day National Eucharistic Congress. I was blessed to be one of them. If I were to describe my experience in three words it would be this: foretaste of Heaven. Being amongst such a vast number of people with the common goal of worshiping and growing in love for Our Lord was truly a taste of the eternity that awaits us.
At the Congress, I witnessed the Church in America address the widespread lack of devotion in the Real Presence, Christ’s Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. The thousands of bishops, priests, brothers, deacons, seminarians, and sisters on fire with love for Our Lord reignited my own flame of devotion. Over the past couple of months, Eucharistic processions have been ongoing from the four corners of the United States. On the evening of July 17th, 2024, these four processions found their final destination in Lucas Oil Stadium. Bishop Andrew Cozzins, chairman of the Eucharistic Congress, processed into the vast, nearly-silent NFL stadium with Our Lord in the monstrance that was blessed by our Holy Father. I was filled with awe for the sheer gift of the Eucharist. Though I was kneeling amidst tens of thousands, I felt that it was only Christ and me in the room. It was surreal. I write this to bring you hope from a firsthand witness. There is hope for our Church, there is a resurgence of reverence and an ever-growing appreciation for the beauty that our Church’s traditions are full of. As someone in my early twenties, I look to the future with excitement and assurance that Mother Church is experiencing a true revival.
On July 20th, the Eucharist was processed through downtown Indianapolis, often coined as “the crossroads of America,” leading a crowd of about 70,000. The procession ended at the war memorial located in the center of the city. There was Jesus, in the center of the memorial surrounded by cardinals, archbishops, and bishops overlooking the massive crowd. I was brought to tears looking at the monstrance, thinking “This is what it is all about.” Our fleeting life finds its purpose in worshiping God in all we do, in realizing that we are always called to walk one step behind Jesus, eagerly following His promptings, and trusting in His love for us. The Eucharistic Congress was a profound reminder of this. Whether you were able to attend or not, I ask you, what can you give God today to make yourself more available to Him and to the beautiful life He is calling you into? A life that He desires to enter into with you by entering into you in the Most Blessed Sacrament.
In the words of Mother Olga of the Sacred Heart, “We have Jesus and no one can take Him away from us.” This was a theme that was echoed throughout the Congress. Walk into a Protestant worship center and what do you not find? A tabernacle. It is Catholics who have the unique gift of hosting Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist in all of our churches across the world. It is Catholics who have the greatest gift in the world, and it is our responsibility to share this gift with others. Having been given the privilege of hosting the “source and summit of our faith” (cf., Sacrosanctum Concilium, 10), it is our mission to walk with those that do not yet know of such a gift. The Holy Eucharist is both a sign and a cause of unity (cf., CCC, 1398). It is our duty to bring others into communion with the Church, precisely through intimacy with Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, the highest level of closeness we can achieve with Him on this earthly pilgrimage.