Celebrating the March 18 closing Mass of the annual Lenten observance “24 Hours for the Lord: 40 Hours Devotion” at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory praised Eucharistic Adoration, saying it opens people’s hearts to reflecting Christ’s love to others.

“It is a good and holy tradition that needs to be remembered as a blessing of our Catholic faith,” he said in his homily.

To mark Pope Francis’s annual Lenten initiative “24 Hours for the Lord,” the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception hosted the 40 Hours Devotion that began with an opening Mass on Thursday March 16 and concluded with the cardinal’s Mass on Saturday March 18. After the Opening Mass, Eucharistic Adoration took place continuously at the basilica, including during overnight hours, through the closing Mass.

In his homily, Cardinal Gregory noted how treasured religious customs like Adoration can be passed on from generation to generation by parents and grandparents to their offspring and by teachers and catechists to students.

“This evening, we shall conclude an extended period of Eucharistic Adoration and quiet prayer – something that many of us may have learned during our childhood and through the good example of our elders,” he said. 

Praising Adoration, Cardinal Gregory noted, “This spiritual tradition helps us to concentrate on the Lord’s great gift of Himself in the Blessed Sacrament, but it also challenges us to extend His presence in charity and genuine concern for all others, especially those who are poor and neglected.”

Reflecting on the Gospel reading at the Mass from John 9:1-41 about Jesus healing the man who was born blind, the cardinal noted how people in ancient times wrongly believed that parents’ sins could be passed down genetically in the form of disabilities in their children. But he noted that parents can transmit sinfulness like bigotry and narrow mindedness to the next generation.

“There is a far worse type of blindness than mere lack of physical vision…,” Cardinal Gregory said, adding, “There is the type of blindness that hardens the heart, closes the mind, and literally destroys the human soul. Above all, Jesus came to heal that type of blindness in all of our lives.”

Washington’s archbishop said that Eucharistic Adoration can “help us see with the eyes of kindness and remove any of the barriers of disbelief and doubt that cloud our vision and frustrate our good intentions to live honorably in our world.”

Concluding his homily, Cardinal Gregory said the Gospel story of Jesus healing the blind man offers “an invitation to ponder our own blindness and to ask the Lord to once again restore our sight, to soften our hearts, to restore our ability to see and love others as He loves them and would have us to love them.”

The cardinal noted that “hatred blinds the heart yet love opens the heart’s eyes. It’s as simple as that, and none of us is ever completely immune from that disease nor are any of us not occasionally in need of the cure.”

The closing Mass for National Shrine’s 40 Hours Devotion in observance of Pope Francis’ “24 Hours for the Lord” initiative was concelebrated by Msgr. Walter Rossi, the basilica’s rector, and Msgr. Vito A. Buonanno, the basilica’s director of pilgrimages.

At the conclusion of the Mass, Cardinal Gregory led a solemn procession of the Most Blessed Sacrament through the basilica. After he returned to the main altar of the Great Upper Church, the Blessed Sacrament was incensed and the hymn “Tantum Ergo” was sung. Cardinal Gregory then sang the antiphon and prayer and imparted the Benediction, and he and the assembly recited the Divine Praises.