National congress delves into the Eucharist as 'the greatest love story ever told'

Hundreds of priests, around 100 bishops and several cardinals concelebrated the morning Mass in Lucas Oil Stadium July 18 -- a liturgy that kicked off the first full day of National Eucharistic Congress that had officially opened the prior evening with a revival centered around a beautiful Holy Hour.

"To recover the centrality of Sunday Mass as God's people are fed with the Bread of Life has to be the resolve of this grand Eucharistic congress," Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, the principal celebrant, said in the homily reflecting on Jesus' "Bread of Life Discourse" in John 6.

"As Pope Francis has repeated: 'No Eucharist, no church,'" he said.

Following the liturgy, the morning's seven "impact sessions" -- specific tracks offered for three mornings during the congress -- took that message to heart as speakers encouraged the tens of thousands of congress-goers to enter more deeply into the day's theme of understanding the Eucharist as "the greatest love story."

At the morning's Encounter impact session in Lucas Oil Stadium emceed by Katie Prejean McGrady, Sister Mary Grace Langrell said, "In the Eucharist, we find the greatest measure of our worth," adding, "The Eucharistic heart of Jesus is for every human heart."

Sister Marie Veritas brought home what Jesus' real presence means for the life of the Catholic.

"When we live a sacramental life, when we adore the Lord, when we pray, when we receive the sacraments, we become the stillness in the storm," she said. "Because the same blood that healed the sick, and gave sight to the blind and raised the dead flows through your veins."

Following a Mass in Spanish, hundreds of Latino Catholics participated in the Spanish-language impact session, Encuentro, where Jesus as the summit of encounter and the source of love was the focus.

"The Lord asks us to be accessible to the most vulnerable, and not to hide so that no one will touch us. The Lord saved us through his being vulnerable and accessible," said Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas, inviting people to renew the spirit of mission and participation in today's world by living in the Lord's way.

Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston reflected on what the Eucharist meant to the early church -- particularly the martyrs -- noting the dialogue prayed at the start of the Mass's Eucharistic prayer goes back to the church's earliest days.

"The next time you go to Mass and say, 'We lift up our hearts,' think of these martyrs, since we live in an age when there are still martyrs," he said.

The day's Awaken impact session for youth began with a wake-up call, courtesy of the pulsating rock music that resounded through a hall of the Indiana Convention Center, which led hundreds of teens to rise to their feet, jumping, stomping and clapping to the lyrics that focused on a deeper relationship with Christ.

"If you're here for a hype Jesus concert then you've wasted your time," emcee Oscar Rivera said. "But if you're here to find Jesus -- Jesus the one who set the blind to see -- then you're in the right place."

"Do you know things about Jesus or do you actually know Jesus, because there is a difference," said inspirational speaker and comedian Paul J. Kim, following Rivera. "Who is Jesus to you? Do you have a personal relationship with him?" he asked, inviting the youth to live their lives with heaven as their final goal.

Most of the congress's 1,200 registered bishops and priests attended the Abide impact session for priests, where biblical scholar Scott Hahn exhorted them to renew their understanding of the close bond between Scripture and the Eucharist as Christ's presence in the church, and "rekindle Eucharistic amazement."

The day's Empower track, focusing on practical tools for evangelization, explored how ancient Jewish customs around marriage help explain salvation history as "the greatest love story."

Father John Burns, a priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and founder of the Friends of the Bridegroom apostolate, called the Eucharist "the betrothal feast repeated across time" and "the ongoing memorial of Christ's sacrifice and the price he paid to win this bride."

In every Mass, he said, Christ's followers "look with love to the wedding feast."

The afternoon saw congress participants join 18 smaller breakout sessions and other special events and liturgies.

Hundreds of high school youth participated in a session focused on the human ache and longing for something more -- an ache that can only be filled by Jesus.

Pete Burds, the vice president of mission for NET Ministries who led the event, told youth that Jesus is "desiring to be in relationship with you" -- and urged them to not pass up that invitation.

He shared a personal experience from high school, when he felt an ache for something more and went to Eucharistic adoration. There he felt for the first time a "heart-to-heart connection with Jesus Christ." He said this encounter spurred a desire for involvement in the church community, the sacrament of confession and regular Sunday Mass.

"Does the Eucharist bring me to believe and truly feel that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ?" asked Marilyn Santos, associate director of the Secretariat of Evangelization and Catechesis at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, at a breakout session in Spanish about what it means to be a Eucharistic people.

"Does it urge me to go out toward the poor and marginalized? Does it help me recognize in other people the body of Christ?" she asked the room, which was filled beyond its capacity like the previous breakout session in Spanish.

"The Eucharist nourishes me but also challenges me," Santos said, calling people to be Eucharistic missionaries. She added that the Eucharist celebrates and renews the relationship God has with his people and it helps people to love everyone, "even those who are hard to love."

Santos asked the audience to remember the first time they fell in love and how they wanted to be with their beloved all the time and wanted to learn more about them. "That's evangelization," she said, encountering and falling in love with God.

The Eucharistic Congress offered two breakout sessions -- both in Spanish and English -- about strategies to ensure that persons with disabilities can access the sacraments and that all "are made one in the body of Christ at the Lord's table."

"We are all made in the image of God," said Esther Garcia, who develops and coordinates community outreach with dioceses and parishes to support the meaningful participation of individuals with disabilities in the Catholic Church. She stressed that all in the church have the right to receive the sacraments, formation for the sacraments, and ongoing formation in the faith.

Ministering to and with people with disabilities requires formation about the best ways to serve people with specific disabilities, so they can feel welcomed and part of the church, particularly in Sunday Mass, she said, adding that it also means recognizing that people with disabilities "also have gifts to be able to serve" in the church.

"When we are accompanying not only the person (with disabilities) but his family, we are doing the true mission of Christ," she said.

"We have to be intentional," Garcia said. "We have to do it."

At an extended breakout session, Synod on Synodality delegates Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago, Bishop Flores and José Manuel De Urquidi of Dallas reflected on the relationship between the Eucharist and synodality. The session also included roundtable discussion in the style of "conversations in the spirit" that the global synod convened by Pope Francis -- which holds its second session in Rome this October -- is presenting as a model for dialogue and decision-making between pastors and the faithful.

The session was moderated by Julia McStravog, the USCCB's senior advisor for the synod.

In his remarks, Cardinal Cupich described the Eucharist "as the school for becoming a synodal church."

"If there's a crisis of faith in the church today, it's not so much that people do not believe that Jesus is present in the Eucharist, but it's that people do not fully understand and believe what it means for Jesus to be risen from the dead," he said. "Mass is not about making Jesus present for a moment, so we can worship him as individuals. The focus has to be on what Christ is doing, and what happens to us as individuals and as a community -- namely, being transformed in order to take up more fully Christ's mission of bringing justice, peace and love to the world."

Over at Indianapolis' Holy Rosary Church, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone offered afternoon Mass with the 1962 Roman Missal, commonly called the Traditional Latin Mass, attended by 1,000 congress participants, half in the church and another half in an overflow tent. He gave a 10-point homily on "ingredients for a Eucharistic revival recipe" that blended greater reverence at and preparation for Mass, along with a call for increased parish involvement in ministries that bring the Gospel to others, such as the Society of St. Vincent DePaul and the Legion of Mary. He also exhorted listeners to live out the Gospel in their homes, work and communities.

In the meantime, thousands of congress-goers -- Catholics of an array of races, ethnicities, languages and traditions across America -- continued to traverse back and forth around Lucas Oil Stadium and the Indiana Convention Center under the clear blue sky and hot sun.

Across the convention center, the nearby St. John the Evangelist Church was packed to capacity, with a line extending out of the door of people waiting to adore Jesus in the Eucharist. The afternoon had a special time of adoration geared toward families, particularly young children who gathered in the front of church right in front of the Blessed Sacrament. They prayed and looked upon the Eucharist as a beautiful song to a simple uplifting melody enveloped those gathered.

Two religious sisters had buckets of flowers, and children and adults took flowers and put them in vases placed around the altar.

The conclusion of the afternoon's activities gave way to preparations for the congress's nightly revival session, where well-known podcaster Father Mike Schmitz and Mother Olga of the Sacred Heart were expected to address the crowds at Lucas Oil Stadium beginning at 7 p.m.

Contributing to this story were Lauretta Brown, Maria-Pia Negro Chin, Gina Christian, Michael Heinlein, Natalie Hoefer, Sean Gallagher, John Shaughnessy, Peter Jesserer Smith and Maria Wiering.