Eucharistic Revival

At the meeting of the Catholic Bishops of the United States just a little over a month ago there was an enthusiastic discussion about a movement of “Eucharistic Revival” for the Church in our nation.  There will be more discussion about it during the upcoming meeting of bishops in November.

Many people are asking what “Eucharistic Revival” means.  We might think about it in this way.  Sometimes when we go through a time in our life when we have faced many challenges, when we have been “running as fast as we can” jut to keep up, we find ourselves exhausted, simply spent.  We may even just collapse.
I am sure that you know what I mean.  We get so tired that we can hardly move.  Our eyes are only half-open as we sink into a sort of stupor.  We cannot see what is right in front of us.  We cannot recognize who can bring us back to life – who can revive us.

I think that is the place we have been in the Church in some ways.  So much has happened to us that we are exhausted.  We have been battered down by a culture that thinks God is irrelevant and that His Word can be changed or interpreted in any way one chooses.  We have been told that the truth of the Gospel and the teachings of the Church are out of date.  Recent surveys have revealed that some 66% of Catholics do not believe that  the Holy Eucharist is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ.  To complete this scenario, we have just suffered a pandemic that greatly hampered the mission of the Church.  Yes, the Church has been battered but the Church is NOT going away.  We just need a Eucharistic Revival.  We need to have our eyes opened to see who is right before us.  We need to see with the eyes of renewed faith who can revive us - Jesus Christ alive and in our midst, dwelling in our tabernacles and coming upon our altars.  He is the Eucharistic Revival that we sorely need!

Beginning this past Sunday at Mass we began to hear a series of passages from the sixth chapter of St. John’s Gospel that will continue until the next to the last Sunday of August.  These passages proclaim the truth of the Lord’s Presence in the Holy Eucharist from His very own lips.  We should pray over these Gospel passages and ask the Lord to increase our faith in and our love for Him present in the Blessed Sacrament.

In the first of these passages we have described for us Our Lord’s feeding of the great multitude with just five barley loaves and two fish (Jn 6:1-15).  Some would argue that this passage is only a lesson about the obligation of Christians to share with the needy and the hungry.  Certainly caring for those in need is an important dimension of the life of any follower of Christ.  However, a closer look at the passage reveals a deeper reality. 

Our Lord had a large crowd following Him.  They were attracted to Him because they saw “the signs He was performing on the sick.”  He cured their ills and gave them hope.  Then Jesus goes up on the mountain with his disciples.  The crowd follows Him.

In Sacred Scripture the places of encounter with God occur especially on a mountain.  Think of Abraham taking his son Isaac to make sacrifice on a mountain in the land of Moriah (Genesis 22: 1-19).  So also, we read that Moses was called to meet God on Mount Sinai where God gave him the Ten Commandments and laws about sacrifice.  (Exodus chapters 19-20)  In these two cases, going up to the mountain is about meeting God and offering sacrifice.  It is about encountering God who tells us how we are to worship Him.

In the New Testament we have the Transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain.  He goes up with Peter, James and John and He is transfigured in glory.  This strengthens His disciples in anticipation of His upcoming Passion and Death.  The tremendous event of the Transfiguration points towards Jesus’ ascent to Mount Calvary where He will offer Himself in sacrifice to the Father for our sins.  In light of what he did at the Last Supper, He will perpetuate His sacrifice of love on Calvary every time Mass is offered until He returns in glory.  What happens at Mass is not just a reminder, or a symbol, or a lesson.  It is Jesus’ making present again His Passion, Death and Resurrection and His giving Himself to us.  It is about our going up on the mountain with Him.

We see that the feeding of the multitude with barley loaves points toward how Jesus feeds us with His own Body and Blood in Holy Communion when we come to Mass.  We go up with Jesus to Mount Calvary at Mass and we are fed with His Sacred Body and Precious Blood.  Rather than receiving barley loaves for physical nourishment only, we feast on the bread and wine that is changed into Christ’s Body and Blood as spiritual nourishment for eternal life.  It is the pinnacle of our relationship with Him.  It is the fullest expression of His love for us.

To underline the connection of the feeding of the crowd on the mountain with the feeding of the faithful at Mass, we hear, right after Jesus ascends the mountain, these words, “The Jewish feast of Passover was near” (Jn 6:4).  At the Jewish Passover, lambs were sacrificed and eaten in remembrance of the Israelites’ passing over from Egypt to the promised land. This short line shows us clearly that Jesus who ascended the mountain to feed the people was Himself the Lamb of God who would ascend Mount Calvary to offer Himself in sacrifice for all.  His sacrifice, His Passover, would fulfill all of the sacrifices of the Old Testament.  Just as the God’s people of Old Testament would eat of the Passover Lamb, so, too, we, as members of God’s people, truly are fed with the Lamb of God, Our Savior Jesus Christ.  How awesome is that?!

If we truly believe that, what should our attitude be about coming to Mass to offer ourselves along with the Sacrifice of Jesus and receive Him, the Lamb of God in the Holy Eucharist?  We would be running to Mass as often as possible and kneeling in adoration before Him!

In order to approach Him with amazement, devotion, reverence and love, I say we certainly need a “Eucharistic Revival.”  We need to have our eyes and our hearts opened in Eucharistic amazement.  I know I pray for that for myself and every member of the Church every morning when I come to the altar to offer the Sacrifice of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ in our midst.  I want to be filled with Eucharistic amazement!  What about you?

Let our prayer be, “Revive me, Jesus, by Your Presence so that I may clearly see you in the Holy Eucharist at every Mass!”

+William J. Waltersheid
Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh