Diocese of St. Augustine Annual Eucharistic Congress Jacksonville, Florida Saturday, March 17, 2018 9:00 a.m. THE HOLY EUCHARIST AND THE MISSIONARY DISCIPLE by His Eminence Cardinal Donald Wuerl Archbishop of Washington As I begin these reflections, I want to express my appreciation to Bishop Felipe Estévez for his gracious invitation to participate in this annual Eucharistic Congress. I have known Bishop Estévez for many years, and am pleased to join him and you for this Congress. My very first visit to the Diocese of St. Augustine was over 55 years ago when as a seminarian I came with classmates from The Catholic University of America to visit the Mission Nombre de Dios and Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche. I was particularly interested to visit the Shrine which was founded in 1565, seventy years before the arrival of the first Catholic colonists in Maryland which forms a part of the Archdiocese of Washington. I have always been impressed by the long history of the Catholic faith in Florida. In my reflections today, I would like to place these observations on the Eucharist and the missionary disciple in the context of the New Evangelization. The call to be witnesses to our faith has been highlighted by all of the popes going back to Blessed Paul VI and the missionary discipleship underlined by Pope Francis to which we are all called. At the heart of our faith, therefore our missionary discipleship, is the enduring presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. So I want to begin with our renewal of faith in what it means to say that in the Eucharist we find the real presence of Christ. The Power of Remembering One of the things that has always struck me when we see pictures of the Holy Father going through Saint Peter s Square in the Popemobile as part of an audience with as many as 50,000 people are the number of cell phones raised covering the face of people taking pictures of the Pope. What you see is a mass of IPhones all recording their moment with the Pope. That was certainly true when Pope Francis came to Washington in 2015 to begin his visit to our country. Cell phones by the thousands all taking pictures. Why? The visit of the Pope was of such significance that we all everybody there, everybody in Saint Peter s Square for an audience want to remember it and him. After the event when the Pope is gone and life settles back down to normal, we can make the experience present all over again with the picture.
Memory has the power to make present, once again, the experience of something very important to us. We all have pictures of weddings, baptisms, quince años and graduations. Everybody has photo albums and now electronic albums of so many important memories we want to keep alive. At the heart of the blessing and gift of memory is its ability to make present now something that happened once before. When Jesus was preparing his disciples to live on as his Church after he returned to his Father in glory he wanted to make sure that they would have a way of always remembering him, of always being able to make his presence felt in their midst all over again. So we would always be able to be as close to the living presence of Jesus as was the privilege of Peter, John, Martha and Mary, Jesus instituted a unique sacramental but real way in which we could find ourselves in his presence. When we want to open our hearts or pour out our needs, or simply bask in his love, we are able to do so just as did those who walked with Jesus in the flesh. That is what the Eucharist is all about Jesus continuing presence with us so that we would always have him with us so that we would never forget him or be apart from him. How was this going to take place? How could this happen? The night before he underwent his Passion and death, Jesus established a new memorial a new way to recall and to remember what he was about to endure. The three synoptic Gospels and Saint Paul have handed on to us the account of the institution of the Eucharist. Saint Paul carefully describes the Last Supper in his First Letter to the Corinthians. He is writing to the very next generation of disciples so his letter is also directed to us. Like those early disciples, we were not at the Last Supper but we receive the account of it in faith and awe. We read: For I have received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes (1 Cor 11:23-26). Saint John for his part reports the words of Jesus in the synagogue of Capernaum that prepares for the institution of the Eucharist. Here he tells us of the meaning of the bread at the Last Supper. Christ calls himself the bread of life, come down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh (John 6:35, 51)
Context of Last Supper The context of the new memorial instituted at the Last Supper is the Jewish Passover, when, by the blood of the sacrificial lamb, death passed over God s people in Egypt. This is the ritual meal established at God s command to help the Jewish people remember the events of their deliverance from Egypt and the gracious loving-kindness of God, who is their deliverer. In an age before technology, where there were no cameras, photographs, iphones, or camcorders, the ways in which events were remembered and passed on were through the celebrations and ritualized reminders that formed the history, frame of reference and calendar for a people, in this case, God s people. This was the way people recalled what happened to them in the past, its significance for them in the present and why it is important to continue the memory in the future. Unlike the Passover meal that was the context of the Last Supper and which was intended to remind the Jewish people of their formation as God s people and therefore their identity, the Eucharist was intended to be a memorial that would actually make the event it memorialized present not as a memory but as a reality. In the New Covenant, the memorial takes on new meaning. When the Church celebrates the Eucharist, she commemorates Christ s Passover and it is made present: the sacrifice Christ offered once for all on the cross remains ever-present. Imagine if every picture we took had the capacity, the ability, to actually make the whole event real and present all over again. That is what happens in the Eucharist. Mass Sacred Re-Presentation At the beginning of every Mass, we speak of preparing to enter the mystery of our salvation. Somehow, the veil separating this world from God s spiritual realm is partially parted. We experience through something very visible and real in our lives something on the other side of that curtain of reality that is spiritual, transcendent and all the more real. This Eucharistic Congress is intended to lift up for us once again the events of our salvation, but to do so in a way that we actually participate in those saving actions. The Church calls us not just to a commemoration of the events of two thousand years ago, as laudable as that might be, but also to enter the mystery itself today. We are not bystanders, but rather participants. Unlike any other form of remembrance or commemoration, the Mass, the Eucharistic Liturgy thanks to God s gracious gift, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, has the power to make present the very reality it symbolizes. What is being made present to us is the mystery of our salvation. As Saint John Paul II so beautifully describes in his encyclical letter, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, On the Eucharist, When the Church celebrates the Eucharist, the memorial of her Lord's death and resurrection, this central event of salvation becomes really present and the work of our redemption is carried out (Lumen Gentium, 3) (11). What brings us together for a Eucharistic Congress is our understanding that it is in the celebration of the Eucharistic Liturgy that Jesus is present to us as the one winning for us our salvation.
The how of our experience of the enduring presence of Jesus is answered in the Eucharist itself. But the next question then is: where does this encounter with the Eucharistic Lord take place? This brings us to the article of the faith our belief in the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church. What Jesus accomplishes for us he does in the context of his Church the family of disciples he has called together to be his new God s new family. It is precisely because you and I are a part of God s Church that we can hear and understand. We can see with the eyes of faith and recognize with the heart of belief the meaning of the words of Jesus, This is my Body, this is the cup of my Blood poured out for you (cf. Matthew 26:26-28). The Church Home of the Good News The deepening of our faith today brings with it a renewal in our understanding of the essential role of the Church. We profess our faith in God the Father, in his only begotten Son and in the Holy Spirit. But the same creed calls upon us to profess our faith in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. It is in and through the Church that we hear and appropriate the words of everlasting life. In response to the question How do we come to know and encounter Jesus today?, we look to the Church. The answer is found in the only living witness to the Lord Jesus, the only witness who can say I was there when Jesus died, when he rose, when we ascended into heaven and when he sent the gift of the Holy Spirit on it. That one remaining living witness is Christ s body, his Church. It is in living continuity with that Church that you and I find our connectedness to the Gospels and to Christ himself. It is only through this uninterrupted tradition, stretching back to the time of the Apostles and continued by their successors, the bishops, that we can be sure of the integrity and validity of the Christian faith. The Church is called apostolic precisely because she alone can trace her origins to the deposit of faith entrusted to the Apostles, the Twelve chosen by Jesus and charged, together with their successors, with the responsibility of teaching the true faith, making sure that it is presented clearly, and applying it to the problems and needs of every age. In this way, we have a guarantee that what is taught today is what Jesus actually taught and intended as guidance for his followers, that nothing is forgotten, misunderstood, or lost from century to century, from generation to generation, from person to person. Jesus invites us into God s family. Jesus is the only Son of God (Jn 3:18). We receive our status by adoption. As proof that you are children, God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, Abba Father! So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God (Gal 4:6-7). Why do you call us brothers and sisters? a youngster asked me after Mass. You re not my brother. Ah, but I am spiritually. Because we are all members of God s family, I responded. After he received a nod of affirmation from his mother and father who stood behind him, he said, Wow, I didn t know that. Then he added, That s cool, offering his youthful declaration of approval. Each of us, in fact, is a member of God s family, God s people. Clearly we belong to our own natural family and then because of baptism we belong to God s family. Together we are real spiritual brothers and sisters.
Like any family, the Church also faces challenges. In the last decades some have chosen to leave home. Some may say they are spiritual but not religious and therefore not affiliated with the Church. Others may never have really known what the family is all about. And still others may have had a bad experience. For many, in our heavily secular culture today, there is little understanding of the true nature of love, marriage, commitment and self-giving let alone of faith, transcendence, sacramental life that are all part of the Catholic vision of life. Yet, while their lives and experiences many have drawn many far away from the Church s message, we are all the more called to reach out to them, to invite them and to accompany them on the journey that should help bring them to the joy of love that is also the joy of the Church. Pope Francis puts it this way in The Joy of Love that the Church has the responsibility of helping those who have distanced themselves from the Church. The Church has the responsibility of helping them understand the divine pedagogy of grace in their lives and offering them assistance so that they can reach the fullness of God s plan for them, something which is always possible by the power of the Holy Spirit (297). The Mass is what Catholics do. It is the heart of Catholic life, for individuals and for the community, for ourselves and as we go out and share the eternal sacrificial love of Christ with others. The worthy celebration of the Sacred Liturgy, God s most treasured gift to us, is the source of the highest expression of our life in Christ (cf. Sacrosanctum concilium, 10). It is, therefore, the primary and most powerful expression of the new evangelization (Proposition 35). Why? Why would Jesus have given us so great a gift? Why would he continue to make present his death and Resurrection and our salvation that he won for us? Quite simply the answer is Jesus loves us because God loves us and sent his Son to show the fullness of that love for each of us. But there is even more. We are to be the witnesses of that love. Before he returned to his Father, Jesus also said to his disciples, You will be my witnesses (Acts 1:8). You will bring to subsequent generations the story of my love. My brothers and sisters, that is what the New Evangelization is all about and why the theme for this Eucharistic Congress engages us in the challenge to be missionary disciples to go out of ourselves and to bring the love of God, the Good News of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit to all we encounter. The New Evangelization is a term that has become very familiar in the Church today. Saint John Paul II began, more than three decades ago, to speak of the need for a new period of evangelization. He described it as announcement of the Good News about Jesus that is new in ardor, method and expression (Address to the Latin American Episcopal Conference (CELAM), March 9, 1983). Pope Benedict XVI affirmed that the discernment of the new demands of evangelization is a prophetic task of the Supreme Pontiff (Caritas in veritate, 12). He emphasized that the entire activity of the Church is an expression of love that seeks to evangelize the world (Deus caritas est, 19).
Likewise, in continuity with his predecessors, Pope Francis calls us to the work of the New Evangelization. We can see as a hallmark in this papacy the emphasis that the Church go out into the world, to not stay wrapped up within herself, but to go out to give to people the beauty of the Gospel, the amazement of the encounter with Jesus. I think we are going to have, as we move forward, a time of blessing, a time of renewal, of looking to the future to bring that New Evangelization to the hearts of people we know. Today our outreach is as much the witness of action as it is in our words. Pope Francis keeps reminding us that it is precisely our Christian witness to the truth of our faith that can have an impact on others and be an invitation to them to walk with us. Pope Francis often cites Blessed Pope Paul VI whose post-synodal apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Nuntiandi, On Evangelization in the Modern World, Pope Francis has hailed an extraordinarily significant document. Here Pope Paul tells us, Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listens to teachers, it is because they are witnesses (41). Before a recent Easter Vigil Mass as I greeted those who were to receive the Sacraments of Initiation, I said to one of the young candidates for reception into the Church, I thought you were Catholic because I see you so often at Mass. She replied, I have often come to the Cathedral for Mass but I never began the process to become Catholic because no one asked me. The theme of this Eucharistic Congress is The Holy Eucharist and the Missionary Disciple. We have an extraordinary role model of the evangelizing disciple in the person of Pope Francis. From the moment he stepped out onto the balcony of Saint Peter s Basilica following his election as Bishop of Rome and Successor of Saint Peter, he has presented our faith as an invitation to come and experience the mercy and love of God. Pope Francis has made it clear that the continuation of the mission of Jesus, which began with the Great Commission following his death and Resurrection, is what we are engaged in today. Thus, a key message since the beginning of his ministry has been about being a missionary disciple. To be fully a disciple of Jesus means not only accepting and believing his message, but also taking up and participating in the mission of encountering and inviting others to join our pilgrim journey to his heavenly kingdom. The great gift we have received from the Lord we cannot keep to ourselves. It must be handed on (cf. Lumen Fidei, 37). Our call, the call that is the reason we are here and accept the challenge to be a part of this convocation, is to renew our own experience of a personal relationship with Jesus, our commitment to live his Gospel in a way that his love and truth shines in and through us, and our dedication to sharing this Good News. Another aspect of our Church experience today is found in so many of our young people who are actively searching for a deeper connectedness to the Church. Recently I had Mass with a large number of students who are part of the campus ministry program at George Washington University. Following the Mass I joined the chaplain and a group of the students for some burritos. The students are always happy to tell me how, under the direction and encouragement
of their energetic chaplain, they think of themselves as apostles on the campus charged to bring somebody else back to Mass. The Context Today of our Faith Proclamation As we undertake the New Evangelization and the challenge to be a missionary disciple, we must be aware of the context in which this arduous task unfolds namely, the secularism that is now rapidly enveloping our society and our Western culture. The New Evangelization recognizes that in countries where the Gospel has already been preached there is an eclipse of the sense of God (Evangelium vitae, 21). What brings a new urgency to our mission is the acknowledgment of just how widespread and profound is the new secularism. In his April 2008 visit to the United States, Pope Benedict XVI, summed these up as the challenges of secularism, the materialism around us and the individualism that is so much a part of our culture. Pope Francis in his September 24, 2015 address to a Joint Meeting of Congress reminds us that we are all quite aware of and deeply troubled by the disturbing social and political situation of the world today. Our world is increasingly a place of violent conflict, hatred and brutal atrocities, committed even in the name of God and of religion. We know that no religion is immune from forms of individual delusion or individual extremism. Pope Francis calls for us to go out, to encounter, to engage, to accompany those who should be with us at Mass. In all of this we are evangelizing disciples. Earlier Pope Benedict had reminded us that our task was to re-propose the Gospel as the answer to the perennial questions of life. Somehow in what we do and how we express our faith, we have to be able to re-propose our belief in Christ and his Gospel for a hearing among those who are convinced they already know the faith and it holds no interest for them. Pope Benedict XVI reflected on some aspects of the New Evangelization. He spoke of the three areas and dimensions of the work of sharing and living the Gospel. The New Evangelization, he said, applies, in the first instance, to the ordinary pastoral ministry that must be more animated by the fire of the Spirit. The second aspect of the New Evangelization, the Pope points out, is the Church s task to evangelize, to proclaim the message of salvation to those who do not know Jesus Christ. This we traditionally refer to as the missio ad gentes or mission to the nations. We all recall the terms foreign missions and mission lands. Today, many of those people who have never heard of Christ live next door to us. The third aspect, the Pope notes in his homily, concerns the baptized whose lives do not reflect the demands of baptism the Church is particularly concerned that they should encounter Jesus Christ anew, rediscover the joy of faith and return to religious practice in the community of the faithful. Pope Francis again and again reminds us our task is to go out, to encounter, to engage, to accompany in the manner in which both of us, the evangelizing disciple and the one we encounter draw closer to Christ.
Pope Francis has made it very clear that the continuation of the mission of Christ, which began with the Great Commissioning following his death and Resurrection, is what we are engaged in today. As the Acts of the Apostles tells us, as Jesus prepared to return to his Father in glory he charged his disciples, You will be my witnesses (Acts 1:8). That same challenge echoes in our ears and hearts today we are the witnesses to Jesus Christ, his message, his way of life, his triumph over death and his pledge of new life to all who would walk with him. QUALITIES OF THE NEW EVANGELIZER What are the characteristics of the evangelizing witness? qualities? What should be our identifying Of all the many, I will name only five: boldness or courage, connectedness to the Church, a sense of urgency, compassion, and joy. All of these are expressions of the outpouring, the anointing and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The fruits of the Holy Spirit are all differing manifestations of the same Pentecostal grace, including joy, faithfulness, kindness, generosity and, of course, peace. In the Acts of the Apostles, the word that describes the Apostles after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is bold. Peter boldly stands up and preaches the Good News of the Resurrection. Paul boldly announces the Word in frenetic movement around the Roman world. Today, the New Evangelization must show a similar gift of fortitude, courage, boldness borne of confidence in Christ. We cannot be lukewarm, but must be on fire with the Spirit. Not that long ago as I took my seat on the plane, the woman in the seat next to me turned and asked, Have you been born again? While I thought the Roman collar might have given that away, I said, Yes and she continued, When? My point in bringing this story up is two-fold: first, it points out how there are many people not at all hesitant to proclaim their experience of Christ. But my encounter with the woman on the plane brings me to the second point or characteristic of the evangelizing disciple our connectedness to the Church. This is the gift of knowledge and serenity or peace. In answer to her question, When was I born again? I said, When I was baptized. Oh, she said, you re Catholic. She then went on to explain herself. She said, You Catholics are big into this Church thing, aren t you? I said, Yes, we are to which she replied, Tell me about it. I thought to myself, Well, you asked for it, and so we began. None of us have received directly the revelation, the Gospel message, the truth that Christ brings to the world. It has all come to us through the mediation of the Church, through her enduring, apostolic tradition and witness. The evangelizing disciples also needs a connectedness with the one Church, her one Gospel and her pastoral presence. The authentication of our message of everlasting life depends on our communion with the Church and solidarity with her pastors.
Another needed quality is a sense of urgency. We see in Mary s Visitation to Elizabeth how the Gospel recounts that Mary set off in haste on a long and difficult journey. There is no time to be lost because the ministry is so important. Once again, we experience what our Holy Father, Pope Francis, tells us is the need to go out, to encounter and engage. The gift of the Spirit is not a personal possession a talent to be buried. Rather, it is a gift that carries with it a sense of outreach. Always forward. This too has been a consistent theme of Pope Francis. Like the angels who appeared after Jesus ascended to heaven and said to the Apostles, Why are you standing there looking at the sky? effectively telling them, Don t just stand there. Do something! You have your commission. Do what you ve been told to do. our Holy Father is saying likewise, We have talked about the New Evangelization, about what it is and what it entails. Now, go out and do it! We have been called to missionary discipleship, it is time now for us to rise and be on our way. This brings us to the quality of compassion or mercy. The evangelizing disciple is free to extend the merciful hand of God precisely because he or she has already received the bounty of God s forgiveness. It is now our turn to do likewise, mindful of the petition of the Lord s Prayer: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. As evangelizing disciples, our declaration should always be that of Pope Francis: God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy (Evangelii Gaudium, 3). Again, as Pope Francis put it, The Church is commissioned to announce the mercy of God, the beating heart of the Gospel, which in its own way must penetrate the heart and mind of every person (Misericordiae Vultus, 12). Finally, when we look around and see the vast field waiting for us to sow seeds of new life, we must do so with love. As you know, the exhortation Evangelii Gaudium is translated as The Joy of the Gospel. The document opens with the sentence, The Joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus (1). Our message should be one that inspires others to follow us along the path to the kingdom of God. We should make our own, the words of Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudium, I invite all Christians everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them (3). Dear brothers and sisters, our joy is rooted in the fact that God has looked on us and shown us great mercy. May the mercy and compassion we show to others be a manifestation of our joy. CONCLUSION We are heirs to a bold missionary spirit, Pope Francis said at the canonization of Saint Junípero Serra: We are indebted to a tradition, a chain of witnesses who have made it possible for the Good News of the Gospel to be, in every generation, both good and news, (September 23, 2017). Now, it is our turn. We are called to reinvigorate our faith every day and every year, and to share it with others. This is a new moment in the life of the Church, a new Pentecost. It is our turn in the long history of the Church simply to believe, to say and live the announcement: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. Thank you. March 6, 2018