Cardinal Luis Tagle, the papal envoy to the National Eucharistic Congress, was the primary celebrant at the final Mass, which included about 200 bishops, hundreds of priests and a congregation of about 50,000 people. (Photo by Kathleen McGillis Drayna)
Begin your Eucharistic mission to share Jesus by sharing yourself and your gifts, a representative sent by Pope Francis told a congregation of about 50,000 attending the final Mass of the National Eucharistic Congress.
“The gift of his presence and love for us will be our gift to people. We should not keep Jesus to ourselves — that is not discipleship, that is selfishness,” said Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, papal envoy. “The gift we have received, we should give as a gift.”
The Sunday Mass, celebrated at Lucas Oil Stadium as the five-day congress drew to a close, included a procession of Cardinal Tagle, about 200 bishops, and so many priests and seminarians that it lasted about 20 minutes.
Cardinal Tagle serves as Pro-Prefect of the Section for the First Evangelization and New Particular Churches of the Holy See’s Dicastery for Evangelization. He has lived in U.S. in the past, having earned a doctorate in theology at The Catholic University of America in 1991.
“I bring to you the fatherly, the paternal blessings of his holiness, Pope Francis. The Holy Father prays, as we all do, that the Congress may bear fruit, much fruit, for the renewal of the Church and of society in the Unites States of America. Before coming here, I asked the Holy Father if he had a message for you. He said, ‘Conversion to the Eucharist, conversion to the Eucharist.’
“In his letter to me, Pope Francis expressed the hope that ‘the participants of the Congress, fully aware of the universal gifts they receive from heavenly food, may impart them to others.’’
“What you have heard, touched and tasted, you must share with others. We have received the gift of Jesus. Let us go to proclaim Jesus zealously and joyfully for the life of the world.”
The congress was held as part of the three years of National Eucharistic Revival initiated by the bishops of the United States in 2022 to renew faith in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.
Since those attending the congress were to be sent out as Eucharistic missionaries, Cardinal Tagle offered points for reflection on the connection between Eucharistic conversion and missionary conversion.
“The Eucharist is a privileged moment to experience Jesus’s mission as the gift of himself,” Cardinal Tagle said. If our zeal to share this is weak, this may be because we fail to see everything around us as gift.
“If our horizon is only that of achievement, success and profit, there is no room to see and receive gratuitous gifts. There is no place for gratitude and self-giving. There will only be a relentless search for self-affirmation,” he said.
This leads to unhappiness and complaining as we perceive the gifts in our lives — especially people such as spouses, children, parents, supervisors, employees, friends, poor people, sick people, people who are different — as problems, even the people we see as closest to us.
“Is Jesus a gift or a problem?” Cardinal Tagle questioned. Many of his disciples ultimately rejected some of his teachings, in particular the idea that they should eat his flesh, and decided to leave him out of their lives. Cardinal Tagle asked the congregation to examine whether any of their behaviors or attitudes — or those of even church communities — were ultimately keeping some of Jesus’ disciples from him rather than drawing them closer.
“Do Mass goers manifest the presence of Christ through their witness of life, charity and mission? Do our parish communities provide an experience of Jesus’ closeness and caring? Do the youth feel listened to and heard about their search for Jesus? What cultural mindsets challenge the faith in Jesus’ word and gift of self?”
He also challenged the congregation to consider people who may not come because they do not feel as if they belong — people who are poor, homeless, migrant, refugees, indigenous, hearing impaired, elderly or otherwise “hidden.”
Finally, he encouraged the congregants to stick with Jesus like the 12 apostles did — with conviction.
“Faith and conviction are our gifts to Jesus who gives himself to us,” he said. “So I ask, my friends, will you stay with Jesus? Those who chose to stay with Jesus will be sent by Jesus.”
How are we sent? “Go and share Jesus’ tender love to the weary, the hungry and the suffering. Have you experienced Jesus’s compassion and guidance when you were like sheep without a shepherd? Go and share Jesus’ shepherd’s caress to the lost, confused and the weak.”
He also encouraged Catholics to continue to take “the gift of their flesh” to Mass, along with their talents. “Jesus gives his flesh — why can we not give him and the community the gift of our fleshly presence?” he said to applause.
