Eucharistic Revival – it’s never finished!

The Church in the USA recently developed a three-year program to revitalize the awareness of the importance and centrality of the Holy Eucharist. Please God, its impact will have been worth all the time and effort put into it. There were events on the national, diocesan, and local parish levels. Efforts were made to deepen the appreciation of the Eucharist celebrated at our altars, adored in the monstrance, and reserved in the tabernacle. 

The celebration of the Eucharist is the heart and soul of who we are as Catholics. It is the center of our lives as followers of Jesus. We are our Eucharistic people! What does that mean? It means that the Eucharist defines us and makes us different. We believe with every ounce of our being that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, is truly present in what looks like bread and wine that has been consecrated and transformed by the words of consecration spoken by a Catholic Priest.

The Priest is ordained to offer the Eucharist. He is aware of his own unworthiness, and yet God has chosen him to be the one who makes Jesus present so that God’s people can be nourished and fed. You cannot receive Jesus by watching the Mass on television (unless you are very sick or a shut-in, who is ministered to by an Extraordinary minister of Holy Communion). Many people received great comfort and consolation during the pandemic by following the Mass at home from the diocese or from their local parish! What we missed was the most important part of the Mass: the actual rite of Holy Communion – Jesus entering into us and abiding with us in a most special and unique way! 

Among the primary motives for the bishops of the United States to initiate a program like the Eucharistic revival, I would say would be (1) the number (approximately 70%) of baptized Catholic people who do not actually attend the Eucharist on Sunday and (2) the increasingly alarming number of Catholics (approximately 50%) who do not believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. This led to the obvious conclusion that there is substantial confusion on what the Church teaches about the Eucharist. And according to Bishop Andrew Cozzens, who spearheaded the three-year effort, “This is what we are about with the Eucharistic revival, this encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist that lets me realize he’s a living person and that changes the way I live. That’s what we really need. “ 

So, how do we measure the success of the revival? It’s probably impossible to do so. God is still doing His work, and His work will bear fruit. Another Eucharistic Congress is being planned for 2029. As one observer put it, “I feel like the revival is God putting down a deposit on the work he wants to do over the next 20 years. “ 

My own conclusion is that the work of revitalizing our people’s understanding of the Eucharist and the active participation in Sunday Mass is the most pressing and important work of every Catholic Parish, every Catholic Bishop, Priest, Deacon, and Lay Leader. Our preaching and teaching must be geared toward helping our people know the treasure and the power of the Real Presence of Jesus in this gift of Himself that He told us to do in His memory.