Christ the Cornerstone

Deepening our appreciation for the greatest love story ever told

“Christ comes to us in the Eucharist, offering himself to us: Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. He nourishes us, offering himself as ‘our daily bread.’ It is easy for us to overlook this extraordinary gift. Even people who go to Mass each Sunday forget that Jesus is not merely symbolically present, but truly and substantially” (National Eucharistic Congress, “Restored”).

The publication date for this column is Friday, July 19. We are currently immersed in the five-day National Eucharistic Congress that is being held at Lucas Oil Stadium and the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis. What a wonderful experience it is!

One of the pillars of the three-year National Eucharistic Revival is a “robust deepening” of our appreciation for the holy Eucharist “through formation” in the great mystery of faith that we celebrate each time we receive the body and blood of Christ at Mass or recognize the real presence of our Lord in eucharistic adoration.

No matter how much we know intellectually about the Church’s teaching on the Eucharist, true understanding can only come from experience. The personal encounter with Jesus that takes place when we eat his body and drink his blood, and when we worship him truly present in the sacred host, is irreplaceable.

The Eucharistic Congress that is happening now is an immersion into the mystery of the holy Eucharist. Sharing this experience of personal encounter with tens of thousands of people from every corner of our country and beyond is truly formative. Together we experience both the intimacy of communion with Jesus and the communal unity-in-diversity that is the body of Christ, the Church. For five days this week, we are eating and drinking, praying and learning, and discovering what it means to be created, redeemed and sanctified by God who has been made manifest to us by Jesus, God’s incarnate Word.

There is no doubt that Jesus is walking with us this week. He accompanies us during liturgies, presentations by women and men of deep faith, meals and entertainment, and all the precious moments of personal prayer and fraternal dialogue that are taking place in between scheduled activities. Clearly, our eucharistic Lord stands with us as we recall past moments of sorrow or grief. He offers us his healing love and mercy, and he challenges us to remain faithful and to follow in his footsteps—even to the point of suffering and death for the sake of his Gospel.

Each day of this National Eucharistic Congress has a theme that summarizes key elements in the history of our salvation. We began on Wednesday with a reflection on the wonder of creation and the many ways that God speaks to us through the beauty and majesty of the world that Pope Francis calls “our common home.”

Yesterday, we focused our attention on the extraordinary gift of grace that we are given every time we receive the body and blood of Christ, who is truly present to us in the Blessed Sacrament. Contemplating this great mystery of our faith, we discovered once again how the story of our lives can be truly understood within the context of salvation history—the greatest love story ever told.

Today we acknowledge our fallen human nature and the reality of sin and evil in our world, and we ask the Lord to heal us and help us grow in holiness so that we can truly be the people God intends us to be. Tomorrow we will rejoice in the good news that we have been saved from the fatal consequences of sin and evil by the extraordinary love of God the Father, who sacrificed his only Son to redeem us from the power of death.

Finally, on Sunday, we will entrust ourselves as fully and completely as possible to the One who gave his life for us and invites us to encounter him in the Eucharist.

The Eucharistic Congress has strongly reinforced our belief that “the principal fruit of receiving the Eucharist in holy Communion is an intimate union with Christ Jesus.” As we are experiencing now, the Eucharist preserves, increases and renews the life of grace that we received at baptism. It separates us from sin, strengthens charity, which tends to be weakened in daily life, and helps protect against future mortal sins. In the end, the Eucharist unites all the faithful in one body—the Church of Jesus Christ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1396). 

Thank God for the many wonderful people who have made this such a festive, inspiring and, above all, sacred experience for the Church in the United States. May Christ continue to bless his Church with the precious gift of his body and blood. †