The International Eucharistic Congress in Hungary

Have you ever noticed that some very important things may never be reported on the news or come across our radar as Catholics? Here is an example:  Did you know that there will be an International Eucharistic Congress in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, from September 5 to 12 of 2021?  This is absolutely great news for all Catholics. We are coming through a time when the COVID pandemic often kept people from receiving Our Lord in Holy Communion and from one another.  Recently polls have shown us that about 66% of Catholics in the United States do not believe or understand that the Holy Eucharist is really and substantially the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.  God’s timing is always spot on.  We need a revival in our faith in Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

The International Eucharistic Congress of 2021 is the 52^nd such event in the history of the Church.  These gatherings normally occur every four years.  The first one was held in 1881 in Lille, France.    The last one was held in the Philippines in 2016.  

So what is an International Eucharistic Congress all about? The purpose  is for the Church to bear witness to the Presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.  Bishops, priests, deacons, religious women and men and the lay faithful come together to pray and reflect before the Eucharistic Lord and proclaim to all the world that God so loves us that He became one of us and remains with us in the Blessed Sacrament.    In Holy Communion He gives Himself to us every time His Sacrifice is celebrated at Mass.  He also calls us to His loving Eucharistic Presence reserved in the tabernacles or exposed on the altars of our churches in the monstrance.  The Lord of heaven and earth begs us to come to Him and be filled with His life and be given hope for our journey through our life.  His abiding Presence in our midst is worth celebrating every day and with a Eucharistic Congress every four years.

This teaching of the Church about the Eucharistic Presence of Jesus is not new.  It began with Jesus Himself who said, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (Jn 6:51)  He also said as he shared the unleavened bread and the cup at the Last Supper, “Take, eat, this is my body…take drink of it all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for the forgiveness of sin…” (Mt 26: 26-27)  The Catechism of the Catholic Church says it this way, “…the power of the words and the action of Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit makes sacramentally present under the appearances of the bread and wine Christ’s body and blood, his sacrifice offered once for all on the cross.” (CCC, 1353)  In the Holy Eucharist “the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained.” (Council of Trent, DS 1651)  It cannot be any clearer than that!

This means that Jesus never abandons us.  His Presence is always with us.  In a world that has grown so cold, dark, divided and inhospitable, His Eucharistic Presence is always in our midst and is always asking us to come to Him and experience the warmth of His love.  Each Eucharistic Congress clearly and enthusiastically cries out to us to come to Him, receive Him and know His mercy for us.  

The people who will gather in Budapest will proclaim to the whole world that we should not be afraid because He is with us.  The love poured out through His Body and Blood will conquer all violence and division, all hatred and destruction of humanity so prevalent today.  This is a message that can often get sidelined and canceled in our world.  Fear can keep us paralyzed in despair and doubt, in anger and bitterness.  I think of what a priest said to me recently about the lack of belief in the Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist.  He said to me, “We will not solve any of the problems that the Church is facing today until we stop treating the Blessed Sacrament like it is a thing, and starting treating it like it truly is, a Person, Jesus Himself.” No thing will save us.  Only Jesus who died for us on the cross saves us!  

If this is true, then we should ask ourselves about our attitude toward Mass.  When we come to Mass, do we really expect to have an encounter with the Lord substantially present in Holy Communion?  Do we believe that at Mass God’s love is poured out upon us?  Or do we see the Mass as a service provided to us and we simply evaluate it regarding our likes and dislikes?  Do we think that to receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist is a right for anyone?  Or, rather, do we humbly come before Him and recognize that we must be properly disposed to receive such a tremendous gift of love?

I recently watched an interview with Father Kornel Fabry, the priest from Budapest, Hungary, who is responsible for the organization and planning of the International Eucharistic Congress there this year.  He spoke of the wonderful events that are being planned to gather great numbers of people before the Eucharistic Lord.  We might think of Father Fabry as a high-powered, talented organizer or administrator, to be put in charge of such a monumental task.  Instead, during this interview he showed himself to be a humble man with a deep and abiding faith in Jesus Christ. He related a simple but profound story of his own journey of faith and his “Eucharistic conversion”.  

During his days as a lay student at the university in Budapest, he was given the grace of falling in love with the Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.  He became convinced that if Our Lord gave Himself to him at Mass every  Sunday, Jesus desired also to give Himself in Holy Communion to him every day.  The then young Kornel Fabry began to go to Mass daily.  

The only Mass he could attend, given his very busy schedule, was an early morning Mass.  The priest who offered this Mass was elderly and was recovering from a stroke.  Because his speech was impaired as a result of the stroke, he had to learn to speak again as part of his recovery.  He also needed someone to help him find the prayers of the Mass in the missal and to assist him walking up and down the altar steps.  Father was there every morning doing his best.  Kornel was also there with a small congregation of about 5 or 6 elderly women.  

In the eyes of the world this early morning Mass would not have been an important or attractive gathering.  There was no singing. The homily and sometimes the prayers of the Mass were not easy to understand.  “Why bother?,” some might say, “Do something more meaningful in your life!”.  However, this  Mass each day became a school more important than the university Kornel attended.  It taught him that the love of God came to him each day as the Word Incarnate, Jesus, descended unto the altar.   Jesus Christ, really present, made sense of young Kornel’s life and taught him to look beyond the cares and noise of the material world surrounding him to an eternity of love with God.  In this daily appointment with God, Kornel found peace, hope and direction for his life, as well as a vocation to the priesthood.  At this heavenly rendez-vous, bread and wine became the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, the Love of his life and heavenly Food for the journey.  Now Father Kornel is organizing an international celebration of this tremendous Mystery of Christ’s Presence in our midst.  Amazing!

Perhaps the question for us is this.  If we are missing something in our life, or better put, someone  in our life, where do we look? The world of finance, power, politics, Hollywood, sports or the media?  No, As good as they may or may not be, they will not satisfy us.  I recommend that, if we want to find that someone who will truly satisfy our every desire, why don’t we look to that appointment with Jesus at daily Mass?  After all, He died for us on the cross and rose on the third day and he makes that Mystery present for us every day on the altar!

Most Reverend William J. Waltersheid

Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh