Belief that the Most Blessed Sacrament is indeed the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ must lead the faithful to “the determined pursuit of social justice and the genuine compassionate outreach toward the poor and the neglected,” Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory said July 19 at a Mass he celebrated at the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis.
“Believing in Christ’s genuine Eucharistic Presence must also prompt our equally important active response to that Presence, in charity in each of our lives offered in service and with care for others,” Cardinal Gregory said. He added that “without that response the sincerity of our earnest reverence for the Blessed Sacrament will fail to capture the essence of why Christ chooses to remain with us by way of this wondrous Presence.”
Thousands of people – whom Cardinal Gregory called “my dearest brothers and sisters in the Lord” – attended the morning Mass at Lucas Oil Stadium. So many people attended the Mass that it took more than 100 Ministers of Holy Communion nearly 20 minutes to distribute Holy Communion.
Cardinal Gregory was the main celebrant and homilist at the Mass that was concelebrated by hundreds of priests, bishops and cardinals. The Mass followed the recitation of the rosary and preceded the start of the third day of talks, prayers and other activities of the National Eucharistic Congress.
Cardinal Gregory, in his homily, said care for the poor and unfortunate are “generated from a belief in and as a response to Christ’s Eucharistic Presence.”
“The most prolonged and profound adoration moments will be inadequate unless they direct us to deeds of kindness toward others,” he said. “This Eucharistic gift must prompt us to live as does the compassionate Christ who chooses to remain in our midst under the forms of Bread and Wine.”
About 50,000 people – including 1,200 bishops and priests– registered to attend the July 17-21 National Eucharistic Congress. Participants from The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington include Washington Auxiliary Bishops Roy E. Campbell Jr. and Evelio Menjivar and members of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council. Countless thousands have participated virtually via several social media platforms.
The gathering is the culmination of a three-year National Eucharistic Revival initiated by the U.S. Catholic bishops in 2022 to inspire greater understanding of and love for Jesus in the Eucharist.
Cardinal Gregory said the congress is important because recent surveys and studies “suggest that the darkness of doubt and denial has cast an unwelcome shadow over the once widespread acceptance of our Church’s heritage of faith in the Real Presence.”
“Our Eucharistic Congress seeks to reaffirm and to intensify the light that illuminates the truth of Christ’s unique Presence in the Most Blessed and enduring Sacrament,” he said.
He added that despite doubts in every previous generation, belief in the true Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist has persisted through the ages.
“Great pastors, mystics and learned theologians have attempted to offer explanations regarding the truth of this great gift,” he said. “Often, however, it is the uncomplicated faith of ordinary people that serves as an assurance of the wonder of this gift.”
Cardinal Gregory also referred to the nationwide Eucharistic processions that took place prior to the gathering and said it was an opportunity to invite the faithful to “renew our love, our awareness and our respect for this special gift of His Presence.”
“Many of you have arrived at this Eucharistic Congress having walked with the Presence of the Blessed Sacrament throughout your neighborhoods as pilgrims,” he said. “The paths that led us to this assembly came from the four corners of our nation.”
Two months prior to the congress, a National Eucharistic Pilgrimage was commenced from four parts – north, south, east and west – of the United States. The different routes formed a cross across the map of the country and culminated with the four groups coming together in Indianapolis prior to the start of the congress.
“Along the journey, you no doubt came face to face with a number of homeless people who frequently live on the streets, in parks, under bridges. They too are a genuine reflection of Christ Himself,” Cardinal Gregory said. “Carrying the Eucharistic Christ through some of the depressed areas of our nation was also an important dimension of the journey that brought so many of us here to this venue in Indianapolis, Indiana.”
He called the nationwide processions a “journey of faith (that) … may have rekindled the faith of some people who might have watched your spiritual voyage. Maybe it helped some individuals to think about their own forgotten or neglected faith heritage. Whatever it might have accomplished, it was well worth the trip.”
During the Mass, prayers were offered for “all those entrusted to preach the message of mercy,” that “peace may come down on those places where innocent lives are in danger,” and for the faithful to be zealous evangelizers who will “bring home all those who have fallen away from Christ”
Cardinal Gregory reminded those who traveled to the congress that they were pilgrims “bringing the very one who is Himself our desired end – the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
“Jesus is on the pilgrim journey accompanying us – and not merely as the end of the journey but as one who travels the spiritual path along with us,” the cardinal said. Calling the Eucharistic Christ our “ultimate goal… precious Sacrament and enduring guide,” he said Jesus “stays with us as a companion and as food for the journey. He is the Light of the world and there is no darkness within Him.”
Prior to blessing and dismissing the faithful at the end of the Mass, Cardinal Gregory prayed to God that “the sacrament of your Son which we have received (may) increase our strength that from this mystery of unity … and everywhere we may promote your peace.”
Cardinal Gregory’s Mass was one of three offered at the opening of the third day of the Congress. At the nearby Indiana Convention Center, Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson Pérez offered Mass for Spanish-speaking attendees and Archbishop Timothy Broglio, archbishop for the Military Services, USA and president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, offered Mass for youth attending the congress.
