On June 22, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, celebrated a Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels to mark the conclusion of the three-year National Eucharistic Revival initiated by the U.S. Catholic bishops. Archbishop Gomez delivered the homily. The following is adapted from his homily.
These past three years have been a season of grace for the whole Church in this country. We all have come to understand that the Eucharist is the heart of God’s plan of love for human history and his plan of love for each of our lives.
Pope Benedict XVI told us that all of history is a “love story,” that everything that happens in the world and in our lives is part of one beautiful story of God’s love for his people, and God’s desire that every heart turn to him and to live forever in his love.
From the start of creation, God was preparing to give us the Eucharist. Early in salvation history, the high priest and king, Melchizedek, comes to offer “bread and wine.”
Melchizedek does this to give thanks to “God Most High, the creator of heaven and earth” because he delivered his servant Abram from all his enemies.
In Jesus, we have a new Melchizedek, a new King and High Priest. In Jesus, the living God, God Most High, the Creator of the universe, comes down from heaven to share our life, to become one of us.
And out of love for us, and to deliver us from the enemies of sin and death, he was willing to lay down his life on a cross.
And we thank the God Most High for this sacrifice of love that he made for us, and we enter into the mystery of this sacrifice of love, in every Eucharist.
Jesus leaves us the Eucharist so that day after day, from East to West, from the rising of the sun to its setting, until the end of ages, his living presence will be revealed, and we will know his promise: that the power of the last enemy, death, has been defeated.
In the Eucharist, God’s Son again comes to give his body for the life of the world, to pour out his blood for the forgiveness of sins. The same body that was broken on the cross, the same blood that flowed from his pierced side, is now present in bread and wine.
In today’s Gospel, we relive the great scene of the multiplication of loaves and fish. This is the last sign that the Lord gives in salvation history before the gift of the Eucharist.
In performing this miracle, Jesus follows the same pattern that he would follow at the Last Supper, where he established the Eucharist. As we heard: Jesus “took” the bread, said the “blessing,” “broke” it and “gave” it to the people.
But this action of feeding the multitude is also a symbol and sign of the mission that Jesus gives to his Church.
Jesus knows that the human heart hungers, not for bread alone. We hunger for love, we hunger to know the meaning and purpose of our lives, we hunger for living bread, bread that can give us life without end.
So, Jesus commands his disciples today: “Give them some food yourselves!” This is our mission now, dear brothers and sisters.
The Eucharistic Revival does not end today but continues in each one of us, you and me.
Like those first disciples, we need to keep the fire of his words burning in our hearts, we need to come again and again, as often as we can, to know him in the breaking of the bread.
And like those first disciples, we need to become Eucharistic evangelists!
Jesus is counting on us to bring people back to the Church, back to Mass! We can never approach the altar without wanting to bring others with us, to know the love that we know!
So, let’s be bold for Jesus! Bold like that first generation in the Church, bold like the saints down through the ages!
Jesus is sending us into our homes, into our schools, into the places where we work.
Let’s go forward, always forward! Let’s inspire our neighbors to see that the Love they are looking for is true and real, that this Love has a name, Jesus Christ!
Let’s lead them to this Love that is ready to meet them in the mystery of the holy Eucharist!
May holy Mary help us all to live more deeply from the body and blood of her Son. And may she help all of us in the Church to boldly proclaim him until every heart, from the rising of the sun to its setting, knows the saving power of his love.
