July 2022

Jesus worked many miracles in the years of his public ministry. And he continues to work miracles in our time. Every day, on the altars of our Catholic churches throughout the world, he works the miracle of feeding us with his body and blood in holy Communion. Beginning this summer, and over the next three years, we are asking Jesus to work another miracle – a revival of eucharistic faith here in West Texas.

On June 18, 2022, on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, we celebrated the inauguration of the diocesan year of a National Eucharistic Revival in the Catholic Church in the United States. We are asking our Lord Jesus to use this Eucharistic Revival as an occasion of renewal of understanding and commitment to the great gift of the holy Eucharist.

To foster the fruitfulness of this revival, I am asking Catholics in the Diocese of San Angelo to give witness to the gift of the Eucharist. How can we give witness? In three ways – by inviting, explaining, and reflecting.

Invite:
Jesus Christ is in our churches, in the celebration of the Mass and in the tabernacle after Mass is over. We can give witness by bringing people to him. We can introduce them to him, so they can get to know him better and be touched and healed by him.

We can bring people to church with us. This includes family members, neighbors, friends, and those who otherwise would not have a way to get there. We can create a welcoming atmosphere in every one of our churches in the diocese, so that visitors will feel welcome and want to come back. We can also pitch in and help with the RCIA and religious education efforts in the parish, to prepare people to receive Jesus sacramentally in holy Communion.

Explain:
This Eucharistic Revival is an opportunity to prepare ourselves to explain the basic facts of the truth of the Eucharist, so we can defend those truths when they are misunderstood or misrepresented. We can take the time to learn how to point out the basic passages in the Bible about the Eucharist. We can study how the reality of the Eucharist has been our constant belief and practice from the time of Jesus, through 2,000 years of history, up to today.

Reflect:
A powerful way to give witness to our eucharistic faith is to live our life in a way that reflects the truth about the Eucharist. When we receive holy Communion, we receive God himself into our body and soul. We carry Christ in us. Therefore, the way we treat people should reflect that fact. If it does not, then we are making it more difficult for people to believe in our resurrected Lord.

If we go to Mass and receive the Eucharist, but live a life of sin, cheating, disrespect, and selfishness, then we become a countersign, a contradiction, and a scandal. If we are going to give convincing witness, then the way we live should be a reflection of the holiness that we receive regularly in the Eucharist. This includes the way we treat our family members, the way we treat coworkers, and the way we treat strangers along the way. It includes the language we use. It also includes our lifestyle. All of these need to be coherent with the Eucharist if we are to provide effective witness. In all that we do, our lives as believers are to reflect Christ’s real presence in our world.

For example, in the Eucharist, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross is made present to us on the altar. We mirror that sacrifice when we are willing to make sacrifices for the good of others.

The Eucharist is an act of thanksgiving for the good things God has done for us in Jesus. We reflect the Eucharist when we live with an attitude of gratitude for the many blessings God has given us.

The Eucharist is the source of our unity. We mirror the Eucharist when we serve to unite people rather than to divide them.

Finally, our lives give witness to the importance of the Eucharist when we take seriously our commitment to come and participate actively in the Mass, and when we arrange our schedule with the Mass as a priority rather than as an afterthought. Our active participation in the Mass increases when we sit in a place where we can get the most out of it, when we try our best to sing the songs, when we pray the prayers, and when we allow God to speak to our hearts through the Scripture readings.

As we begin the three-year journey of our National Eucharistic Revival, every one of us can find a way to contribute to its success through our personal witness. My hope is that we will all do our part by inviting, explaining, and reflecting the truth of the Eucharist.

For more information about the Eucharistic Revival, please explore the helpful website offered by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at eucharisticrevival.org. This website provides opportunities to become a prayer partner for this revival, share a personal testimony, and explore Catholic teaching about the Eucharist. Our diocesan website also offers additional material at https://sanangelodiocese.org/eucharistic-revival.