Dear Parishioners. I want to share with you some highlights from my week at the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis which took place July 17-21. Over the course of days, it is said that up to 60,000 people from across the country joined in. As the title of the event implies, the NEC was a communal event to give thanks to God who in his goodness became incarnate in Jesus Christ, and to grow in appreciation of the enduring gift of the Eucharist, which is Jesus' Real and perduring Presence in the Church throughout the ages. The events took place in the Indiana Convention Center and in Lucas Oil stadium in Indianapolis.
 
The first night 40,000 plus gathered in the stadium as pilgrims who carried Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament from 4 corners of the U.S. entered the stadium. Then the lights went down, and Jesus was brought into our midst in a beautiful, large monstrance blessed by Pope Francis. And the silence of 40,000 - on our knees in the presence of our Savior and King - was simply precious. Such gratitude and devotion! During the week notable Catholic speakers shared powerful and inspirational words that, I think, helped us all appreciate even more personally how close we are to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and how intentional this gift given to the Church the night before Jesus died, means to us. I highly recommend watching on YouTube talks by Sr. Bethany Madonna, Mother Olga of the Sacred Heart, Gloria Purvis, Sr. Josephine Garrett, Bishop Robert Barron, and Chris Stefanik among others. Also on YouTube, watch the stadium Masses such as the closing Mass with Cardinal Tagle. Though there were so many people in the stadium, amazingly these Masses were intimate, reverential and beautiful.  
 
The NEC wasn't just something for a week, to be lived and forgotten. The NEC helped us to refocus our attention on the great gift of Jesus, God incarnate, and the centrality of the Mass as our communal sacrament of his love, grace, and Real Presence in the holy Eucharist. May our worship of Jesus at Mass at St. Bonaventure be ever more beautiful, heartfelt, and fruitful as we proudly live our faith in these troubled times. Let us show it forth with great devotion and fervor and in so doing bring more and more souls to Christ.
 
Perhaps it is not surprising to see that in the same week that we concluded this event honoring Jesus' Real Presence in the Eucharist, he would be mocked during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Yes, during the opening ceremony the television camera broadcasting to a billion viewers across the planet showed a group of people dressed in drag mockingly depicting Leonardo DaVinci's famous "Last Supper" scene. In a strange way, this mockery only emphasizes the Truth of what we believe about Eucharist. Why else go to such great lengths to depict Jesus' greatest gift - his enduring gift of his very self - in such a way?
 
Dear Parishioners, the juxtaposition of these two events is something of a wake-up call for us. Our battle as faithful Christians is with dark powers and principalities (Eph 6:12). These dark powers know that Jesus has already defeated them. They know that the Eucharist is what sustains and empowers his Church in every age. They are emboldened to use any means possible to disparage and mock our faith so as to bring everyone under their mastery. With Bishop Andrew Cozzens who organized the NEC, please pray and, if possible, fast for those who do such things, that they may repent and come to know the One who died to save them too.

One of the high points of last month’s Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis was a speech by Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus on the television series The Chosen. About 9 minutes into the speech (click here to see it), Roumie began to read from the 6th chapter of the Gospel of John, where Jesus tells the crowd “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst” (Jn 6:35).  Roumie’s reading was powerful enough to reduce a stadium of 50,000 people to silence. 
 
Starting last Sunday and continuing through the end of August, our Gospel will also be taken from John 6.  It begins with the feeding of the 5,000, which we heard proclaimed last week.  This weekend, we hear Jesus tell the crowd “I am the bread of life.”  The following Sunday, Jesus puts an exclamation point on his statement, declaring “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.” This angers the crowd and divides his disciples, many of whom leave Him.  On the final Sunday of August, Jesus will ask the Twelve apostles “Do you also want to leave?”  Peter replies, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
 
As we continue along the journey of Eucharistic Revival, this would be a great month for us to spend time meditating on John 6 before we come to Mass each week.  Jesus’ words remind us that He wants us to become one with Him through the sharing of his Body and Blood.  The Church, the Body of Christ, receives the Body of Christ that we might be more fully the Body of Christ in our lives and in our world.