The Eucharist and the Cross: A Priest’s Testimony from the National Eucharistic Congress

I must admit that I was not expecting much from the National Eucharistic Congress. I had gone to other large conferences before and making arrangements for the trip felt like one more unnecessary burden amidst the busyness of ministry. Thankfully, through God’s grace, I did go, and what I thought would be no more than a “work trip” became something more akin to a retreat, a privileged opportunity for receptivity and renewal.

Even on the relatively superficial numbers level, the National Eucharistic Congress (NEC) was profoundly inspiring. Indianapolis became the convergence point of more than 50,000 Catholics, at least 1,000 priests and four separate National Eucharistic Pilgrimage routes that together traversed over 6,500 miles through our country. At the center of this all was our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. To have simply witnessed this gathering was a grace in itself. However, in this brief article, I wish to share from a deeper, more personal place, bearing witness – albeit imperfectly – to how I perceived the Lord bringing me to a renewed embrace of the Cross through the Eucharist.

Tens of thousands of faithful Catholics fill the American Legion Mall after adoration and benediction on the steps of the Indiana War Memorial for the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis on July 20, 2024. Photo: Grant Whitty, in partnership with the National Eucharistic Congress.

Fruitfulness Requires Sacrifice

Those familiar with me may know that fruitfulness has been a significant theme in my priestly ministry. When I was in full-time parish work, one of my great desires was for parishioners to not only be faithful but fruitful – that is, to live their faith with such vitality and zeal that others may come to know and follow Christ through their witness. Since becoming Director of Vocations for the diocese, the image and ideal of “Many Fruitful Harvests” has been prominent in my mind and even in our branding. How incredible would it be to see “fruitful harvests” of many young people entering the priesthood and Religious life year after year? Maybe something about growing up among the fields and orchards of the Tri-Cities area has had a lasting impact on my imagination.

However, something was missing in this imaginative vision, or at least not given sufficient credit recently: the necessity of sacrifice. Our Lord’s words in John 12:24 sums up this principle: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.”

I, of course, have long been familiar with that verse. Still, something about the content I heard, the testimony of the speakers, and the movement of God’s grace did something to electrify the essential connection between sacrifice and fruitfulness. The content of the Abide Sessions – a series of talks specially geared for priests at the NEC – was especially illuminating. Many of the speakers, which included bishops, priests, and laymen, repeatedly returned to the theme of the essential quality of sacrifice in the life of priests. Some speakers even beautifully bore witness to their own experiences of sacrifice and the “death” that precedes fruitfulness in their own lives.

A Eucharistic Vision of Sacrifice

Christ is both Priest and Victim, the one who both offers sacrifice and is himself offered as the sacrifice. Therefore, priests who have been configured to Christ through ordination are to embody in their lives both Christ’s priesthood and victimhood. Again, this idea is nothing new to me, but something at the NEC made this truth all the more real, tangible, and even desirable. Over the development of my own Eucharistic devotion, I had previously begun to pray, “Lord Jesus Christ, present in the Blessed Sacrament; you are the source of my life.” Since the NEC, perhaps a new prayer can be added to my repertoire: “Lord Jesus Christ, who pour yourself out in the Eucharist, teach me how to die!”

Thanks to a powerful closing address for the Abide Sessions by Bishop Daniel E. Flores, vulnerability and accessibility have started to define the kind of “death” I feel called to in the daily life and ministry of the priesthood. As Bishop Flores described, by embracing the poverty of our human flesh, God the Son exposed himself to the vulnerability of our condition. A specific aspect of this vulnerability was Christ’s accessibility in the flesh. Namely, through the body of Jesus, God allowed himself to be touched by others – both by those who sought him for help and those who intended harm. The crowds pressed in upon him, the woman suffering from the flow of blood touched his cloak, and the soldiers nailed his hands. In his public ministry, our Lord was daily pouring himself out through his body, and this dynamic of self-gift finds its culmination on the Cross, which is daily re-presented through the Eucharist.

Admittedly, this cut me to the heart. I recognized how easily I have fallen to the temptation of grasping for invulnerability and limiting my accessibility simply as a response to the many and varied responsibilities of priestly ministry. Yet, as an apparent fruit of the NEC, I received a renewed conviction and clarity to embrace the sacrificial qualities of vulnerability and accessibility in my vocation.

(L-R) Jason Simon (Evangelical Catholic), Johnathan Reyes (Knights of Columbus), Dan Cellucci (Catholic Leadership Insititue) and Tim Glemkowski (NEC, author of ‘Made for Mission’) led a panel discussion for the priests on the Abide Track at the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis from July 17 to 21, 2024. Photo: Grant Whitty, in partnership with the National Eucharistic Congress.

Confidence in the Eucharist

I also received from the NEC a corresponding confidence in the power of the Eucharist to raise me up to this priestly life of sacrifice. As Bishop Andrew Cozzens said to the priests in an earlier talk, “Christ reproduces his sacrifice in the Eucharist because he wants to reproduce it in our lives.” Even as I write this, I find myself distracted by awe in considering the transformative effect of the Eucharist, joining me to Christ, impelling me to self-gift, and sustaining me in that response. If it is the case that the Lord gives himself to me as flesh and blood poured out in the Eucharist, then by the reception of this Sacrament, I too am to become flesh and blood poured out for others! Yet in this self-gift, I am sustained by our Eucharistic Lord.

I recognize that for many people, this notion of enthusiastically embracing sacrificial self-gift may strike them as odd, if not antithetical to human flourishing. I am reminded of St. Ignatius of Antioch, who wrote a series of letters to the Christian communities he passed through as he was transported as a prisoner to Rome, where he suffered martyrdom around the beginning of the second century. He wrote with an ardent desire for martyrdom that defies our modern sensibilities and our valorization of self-preservation. Yet, I humbly feel that the Lord has brought me to a place of deeper conversion where I can live the daily “martyrdom” of priestly life with greater freedom and joy.

Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens, chair of the 10th National Eucharistic Congress, processes Jesus Christ in the Eucharist through Lucas Oil Stadium at the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis on July 17, 2024. Photo: Grant Whitty, in partnership with the National Eucharistic Congress.

Renewed and Sent

One of my favorite theology professors had a repeated refrain when describing the Eucharist: “We gather, and we go. We gather, and we go.” In Holy Mass, we gather together to worship God and to be united with him and with one another through Holy Communion. Then we go! We go so that when we gather again, we may bring with us more people to be added to the Lord. This dynamic came alive for me over the course of the National Eucharistic Congress. At the heart of this was a heightened clarity and conviction to embrace the Cross through the Eucharist. This is a grace that I did not expect, but it is one I am moved to share – certainly through this brief article, but most especially through a priestly life and ministry renewed in sacrificial generosity.

I pray that this brief sharing spiritually builds you up, especially if you could not attend the National Eucharistic Congress. Some people may describe this event as a “mountaintop experience,” and it certainly had those qualities. Nevertheless, I believe the Lord does not intend for it to be a spiritual high to be looked back upon with nostalgia. Rather, like the snowcap of a mountain peak, I’m confident that the graces received at the NEC are meant to go out, spiritually irrigating a parched land. Therefore, I, in turn, encourage you to consider how the Lord is inviting you to take the next step as his Eucharistic disciple. Is he purifying your imagination to see the necessity of sacrifice in your Christian life? Is he drawing your attention to a specific area of self-gift unique to your vocation? Is he consoling you with deeper confidence in the power of the Eucharist to transform you? May it be that we have the capacity to receive these graces, to share them with others, and thus to find ourselves and many more others gathered around our Lord in the Eucharist.

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