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I look forward to welcoming you next month to the Eucharistic Congress. Our seventh annual Eucharistic Congress will be held September 23-24, 2011 at the Charlotte Convention Center. I hope you have already reserved these dates on your calendar and that you are planning to attend. Preparations have been underway for more than a year, and many volunteers have already been working countless hours for this year’s Congress.
The theme for our Congress is taken from Jesus’ words to his Apostles at the Last Supper: “Do this in memory of me.” (Luke 22:19).
During the Last Supper Jesus instituted the memorial of his sacrificial death and resurrection. He gave his Body and Blood to his disciples, but he also did more. In addition to giving himself to his disciples, Jesus also instructed them, “Do this in memory of me,” thus indicating that he wanted his disciples to repeat what he did at the Last Supper.
In his book, Jesus of Nazareth (part II), Pope Benedict XVI asks the question: “We may ask: what exactly did the Lord instruct them to repeat? Certainly not the Passover Meal.... The instruction to repeat refers simply to what was new in Jesus’ actions that evening: the breaking of bread, the prayer of blessing and thanksgiving accompanied by the words of consecration of bread and wine.”
What the disciples were told to do, they did in fact carry out, and as a result the Eucharistic sacrifice which Jesus instituted at the Last Supper has continued to remain present in the Church through the centuries.
Do this in memory of me! What blessed words those are, and what fortunate words they are for us! They express the Lord’s desire to remain really present among us, and his desire to continue his work of Redemption. In the encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Blessed John Paul II reminded us of this double gift that comes to us in the Eucharist: “It is the gift of himself, of his person in his sacred humanity, as well as the gift of his saving work…. 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…. Each member of the faithful can thus take part in it and inexhaustibly gain its fruits.”
In the Eucharist, Jesus himself is really present, and at the same time he takes us up into the saving event of his suffering, death and resurrection. He thus continues the work of redemption, transforming us through his paschal mystery.
In the Eucharistic hymn, O Sacrum Convivium, we praise the Lord’s gift of himself and the gift of our being taken up into his redemptive act: “O sacred Banquet, wherein Christ is received; the memory of his Passion is renewed, the mind is filled with grace, and the pledge of future glory is given unto us.”
Abundant grace is available to us through the Eucharist because of the Apostles’ faithful fulfillment of the Lord’s command: Do this in memory of me. May the Eucharistic Congress be for each one of us a joyful celebration of faith in our Eucharistic Lord, and an occasion of growth in holiness. |
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Dedication of Stations of the Cross at St. Joseph, Charlotte |
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Untitled document
St. Patrick Cathedral
March 18, 2008
God is honored by this great gathering today: Bishop Curlin, Abbot Solari, Vicars and so many priests, diocesan and religious; deacons, religious sisters and religious brothers, seminarians, and lay people from many parishes.
The instructions for the Chrism Mass say that the bishop is to encourage the priests to be faithful in fulfilling their office in the Church. The three promises we are about to make to renew our priestly service are organized around the three priestly offices of governing, sanctifying, and teaching. I would like to say a few words about each of those offices.
1. The first promise deals with the spirit with which we pastor the People of God, as a pastor or a parochial vicar. The promise is worded in English: Are you resolved to sacrifice your own pleasure and ambition for your brothers and sisters? Are you willing to sacrifice for them? Some of you have told me of great personal sacrifices you are making in your ministry, and in fact all of us are sacrificing a lot. The Latin original is actually stronger, and is actually more biblical: Are you willing to renounce yourself, and unite yourself to Jesus and conform yourself more closely to him? A spirit of self-renunciation is what the first promise is all about.
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Eucharistic Congress, 2007 |
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Untitled document
September 28, 2007
Charlotte Convention Center
1. In my visits to parishes to celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation, I have reminded the Confirmation students that as confirmed Catholics they are now Christ's ambassadors – that they are to represent Christ to others. That is why Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to the Apostles at Pentecost – so that they would be his witnesses, his ambassadors in the world, and that is why He gives the Holy Spirit at Confirmation. "But," I remind them, "you cannot be effective as Christ's ambassadors unless you really know him well and become his friend. You can't represent someone unless you know that person."
Our Eucharistic Congress this year addresses that theme – "To Know Jesus Christ." The talks and other events of the congress have been directed to coming to know the Lord better, and deepening our friendship with him.
2. Saint Paul can teach us about what it means to Know Jesus.
Before his conversion on the road to Damascus, Paul did not know Jesus. His heart was closed to Jesus, and he persecuted Jesus' followers.
But after his conversion, his heart began to open to Jesus, and then he began really to know Jesus. Love made all the difference in opening him up to the Lord. The more St. Paul knew the Lord and became his friend, the more he loved him, and eventually Jesus became the overriding passion of his life.
Saint Paul is famous for his saying: I now consider everything as loss in light of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord (Philippians 3:8). Nothing else is more important than Jesus. He made his mission to preach Christ: I resolved that while I was with you I would know nothing but Jesus Christ, and him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2).
The knowledge we are talking about here is more than intellectual knowledge. It is, as Pope Benedict says, a knowledge of the heart – a love for Jesus which opens the heart to him. (Catechesis on Clement of Alexandria, April 18, 2007; Catechesis on Origen, May 2, 2007; Homily for Priesthood Ordination Mass, April 29, 2007).
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