In this time of Eucharistic Revival, a captivating scene has brought tears to our eyes and hope to our hearts all across the country—Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, held high and carried through our streets.
Three thousand strong behold Jesus
That was the experience many of us had on June 7 in La Crosse, as a seemingly endless stream of people walked in procession across the Cameron Street Bridge and down to the La Crosse Center for a eucharistic rally that packed the arena with a crowd of 3,000 strong. Similar scenes unfolded for six days at pilgrimage sites across our diocese and in cities and towns throughout the U.S. At the sight of the consecrated body of Christ held aloft in a gleaming monstrance, devout Catholics and casual bystanders alike bowed their heads and crossed themselves, many dropping to their knees.
Visual Icon of the Year of Going Out on Mission
This compelling image might well be an icon for the third year of the National Eucharistic Revival in which we find ourselves “The Year of Going Out on Mission.” Why? Because it is a visual reminder that we never go forth alone. The same Jesus who told the apostles to “Go and make disciples of all nations,” also told them at the Last Supper, “Remain in me…remain in my love” (Jn 15:4) and “Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5).
It is a paradox that we can never go out fruitfully unless we remain in Christ, abiding in His love. Our eucharistic processions make this beautifully vivid because, in them, we indeed go out on mission, bearing visible witness to Christ in the world, all the while holding tightly to Him, walking with Him and remaining in His eucharistic presence.
Called to show Christ to the world
And think about what happens when we receive Jesus in holy Communion. We become, it is often said, “living tabernacles,” enclosing in our very bodies our Eucharistic Lord. And then we carry Him out into the world as we leave Mass. We go on mission (the very word “Mass” has the same Latin root—missio, or “sent”). Truly, then, we are not just living tabernacles—we are living monstrances, radiant vessels sent forth to show (monstrare is Latin for “to show”) Jesus to the world, to carry Him into the world in the procession of our lives.
Where does our mission take us? Where are we sent? There are so many mission fields: our families, our workplaces, our neighborhoods, our parish communities, our acts of love on behalf of the sick, the elderly, the poor, the marginalized. Will we “bear much fruit”? Ah, that depends on whether we remain in Him, becoming people of prayer, adoring Him, receiving His very body and blood in Communion and His forgiveness in confession.
St. Mother Teresa’s wisdom
St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the greatest missionary of love of our time, knew that her fruitfulness, and that of her sisters, was utterly dependent on remaining in Jesus. She once said, “Where do the sisters get the joy and the energy to do what they are doing? From the Eucharist. If we have Our Lord in the midst of us, with daily Mass and holy Communion, I fear nothing for the sisters nor myself. He will look after us. But without Him, I cannot be. I am helpless.”
It is for this reason that Mother Teresa made sure her sisters, her Missionaries of Charity, started their day with an hour and a half of prayer and Mass before going out to minister to the hungry, the sick and the dying. They then spent an hour in eucharistic adoration in the late afternoon before going out again to serve in the evening.
Our mission has only just begun
What does our “going out on mission” look like—for each of us personally, our parishes and our diocese? In what concrete ways are we to become holy vessels that carry Jesus to others, even in the most ordinary moments? If we remain in the love of our Eucharistic Lord, He will show us. And so, this final year of the three-year National Eucharistic Revival, this Year of Going Out on Mission, marks not the end of our missionary journey, but only the beginning. We are not just living tabernacles—we are living monstrances, radiant vessels sent forth to show Jesus to the world, to carry Him in the procession of our lives.”
Story by Chris Ruff, Director of the Office for Ministries and Social Concerns
Published in the September/October 2024 issue of Catholic Life Magazine