JOSH PARMET ON THE NATIONAL EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS:

MY PERSONAL REFLECTIONS

 Happy Sunday!  As Msgr. Brouwers mentioned in last week’s Bulletin, I was blessed to be able to attend the 10th National Eucharistic Congress from July 17th-20th. I was with a group of eight seminarians from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia who attended the event.  After participating in a Mass at 5:00am on the 17th at St. Charles Seminary, we headed out in a van with one of our seminary priests to Indianapolis.  From the moment we arrived at the convention center in downtown Indianapolis for check-in, it was evident that we were in for a special experience.  With over 50,000 pilgrims in attendance – composed of a diverse group of bishops, priests, consecrated religious, seminarians, and lay faithful from across the country – we were able to get a better grasp of what it means to be a member of the universal Church.  It was a true joy to mingle with thousands of diverse, devoted, and faithful Catholics who came to this event with a deep longing to adore our Eucharistic Lord.  This desire was palpable and I believe it echoes the words of Psalm 63:

O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.  So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.

This longing was perhaps most apparent on the fourth day of the Congress when we processed with the Blessed Sacrament on a one-mile route through the city and concluded with Benediction at the top of the steps at the Indiana War Memorial & Museum.  The streets were lined with tens of thousands of overjoyed pilgrims publicly professing their faith.  To say that witnessing the strong faith of all in attendance was inspiring would be an understatement.  Being immersed in an environment with countless devoted and faithful members of the body of Christ, gathered together to worship and adore our Eucharistic Lord was not just a rare opportunity on this Earth but was truly a foretaste of Heaven, where the communion of saints worships God eternally.  The simple witness of all in attendance was definitely the most striking part of the event for me.

The experience of this Congress was not just an experience of inspiration, but also of exhortation.  Outside of the impressive atmosphere that the Congress fostered, there were many talks given at various sessions that laid the blueprint for how we must proceed as both individual members of the Body of Christ and as the Church in the United States.  In the talks that I personally attended, the consistent themes that I was able to pick out as prerequisites for allowing this revival to bear fruit were the following: the need for personal conversion and the need for unity.  Regarding personal conversion, Fr. Mike Schmitz interestingly pointed out that the root cause of the problem that the Eucharistic Revival is responding to is not ignorance of the Lord’s real presence, but rather indifference towards it, quoting Revelation 2:3-4:

“I also know that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for the sake of my name, and that you have not grown weary. But I have this against you: that you have abandoned the love you had at first.”

Fr. Schmitz proposed that the key to overcoming this indifference is through repentance (conversion), and he challenged all to identify the “fire extinguishers” in our lives that are snuffing out the flames of love for the Lord in our hearts and to address them.  Other speakers brought up similar points, stating that we must each personally foster a renewed intimacy with the Lord, and that this must be preceded by the healing that comes from the sacrament of penance (which was widely available throughout the course of the Congress) and from receiving Him and adoring Him in the Eucharist.

Regarding unity, speakers emphasized the need to imitate the Early Church in both being active in community and living in communion with our Local Church.  This message was extended to being unified with the Church’s hierarchy in our bishops and the Holy Father.  Divorced from communion with our Local Church and the Church as a whole, the efforts of the Revival will fail.  It is through this conversion and unity that we will be better equipped to evangelize those who truly are ignorant of the Truth and Beauty of what our Church holds in Her possession.  It was in the context of these points that Cardinal Luis Tagle, Pro-prefect for Evangelization at the Vatican who celebrated the closing Mass, sent out a commission to all in attendance “Let us go to proclaim Jesus zealously and joyfully for the life of the world.”

I felt very privileged to attend this Eucharistic Congress. I pray that we will all be led to ongoing conversion and a renewed love for our Lord in the Eucharist so that we will revive in ourselves and in our country a deeper love for God and a stronger desire to share our faith.