It was the year 2000. A young boy walked into Mass at the Catholic Church that his family had called home for his entire life, greeted parishioners who had known him practically since he was born, waved good morning to the priest as he vested in the sacristy, and proceeded into the small room where the altar server robes hung. As he put on his alb and cincture to prepare to serve the Mass, the little boy thought about how crazy his short life had been, how much he felt alone in the world, how uncertain he was about the future. He wondered if he would ever find his place. Would he ever know his purpose or the meaning of his life? Would he ever know his value?

Later at Mass, the boy began to realize that his place of solace, the place where he was most at peace was in that Church. It was the place where he felt most like himself. Then as he listened to the words of the Eucharistic Prayer, he actually heard them for the first time. As he saw the priest elevate the host and the chalice, he understood that it was Jesus being made present. The Lord and creator of the universe was in his midst. And in that moment, he heard the voice of the Lord speak to his heart: “This is your place. You are safe here with me.”

Today, we celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus. It is a feast that calls us to reflect deeply on the profound mystery and the unparalleled gift of the Eucharist. It is a moment to rekindle our devotion and renew our understanding of this sacrament, which lies at the very heart of our faith.

The Eucharist is more than just a symbol…it is not just bread and wine that we receive, it’s not just a cracker and grape juice. It is the real presence of Jesus Christ – His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. As Catholics, we believe that in the words of consecration in the Eucharistic Prayer, as the priest calls down the Holy Spirit, the Spirit descends upon these simple elements of bread and wine and changes their very substance into the Body and Blood of Jesus. Jesus becomes physically present in our midst.

In the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John, known as the Bread of Life discourse, Jesus tells His disciples, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (John 6:51). Those words remind us that in the Eucharist, we encounter the living Christ. Jesus again steps into the chaos of our world, into the chaos of our lives; He steps into our human reality. And He does it because He desires to dwell within us, He desires to nourish us with His very life, He desires to enter more deeply into our hearts.

When we come to Mass, we participate anew in the Paschal Mystery: the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Each time we gather around the altar, we are not simply remembering an event that happened in the past. Instead, we are being drawn into the eternal sacrifice of Christ. The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us, “The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice” (CCC 1367). This means that the power and the efficacy of the Cross is made present to us here and now through the Eucharistic celebration.

It is not just a reenactment of the Crucifixion; it is the actual Crucifixion happening right now. We are taken back to that moment when Jesus offered His entire self for us, for our salvation; He is giving us the entirety of His Body, sacrificing Himself so that we can be saved. This sacred mystery invites us into an intimate communion with our Savior…and it should totally transform our hearts and lives. This is the most profound gift of God’s love that we could ever receive.

I’ve often said, that if people truly understood what happened at Mass, if people truly understood the sacrifice that is happening here, if people knew the grace and the gift that was being given to us in the Sacrifice of the Mass, our Churches would be bursting at the seams…they would be absolutely packed at each and every Mass. People would wait for hours in line just to get a glimpse of the Eucharist. Instead, so many of us fail to recognize what is taking place here…so many of us fail to appreciate the gift that we are being given.

This is why the Church in the United States has begun this year of Eucharistic Revival. We are in great need of a revival in our Church, in great need of a renewal of our commitment to embracing the mission that has been entrusted to us by Christ of bringing His presence into the world. The last few years have brought to light the many ways that we are failing to live out that mission.

Post-pandemic, more than 30 percent of Catholics have not returned to the weekly celebration of the Mass. We have also seen in recent data that the majority of those Catholics who do attend Mass regularly “do not believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist,” which is a major problem. Throughout the past decade, we have also seen an unprecedented rise of the “nones,” those non-affiliated with any religion among millennials…in fact, today, more than 40 percent now self-identify as “unaffiliated.” On top of that, many of our young people find the faith to be irrelevant to the meaning of their lives.

As we can see, we have a lot of work to do. But we can’t do that work, we can’t be those missionaries that bring others to an encounter with Jesus if we first do not let Him change our lives. We have to foster and deepen our own love for the Eucharist before we can make Christ present in the world.

We do that by diving deeper into the teachings of the Church around the Eucharist, growing in our understanding of this great mystery of our faith. We have to spend time in prayer with Scripture about the Eucharist and develop that personal relationship with Jesus. We have to ask the Lord to lead us to an encounter with His presence in the Eucharist, to be able to recognize that it is truly Jesus and that He desires to come into our hearts to transform us. If we don’t experience the Lord anew in the Eucharist, we will never be able to find our place and our meaning in the world.

That little boy that I talked about at the beginning of my homily, you might have been wondering if I would ever come back to him. That moment with the Eucharist when he was in 6^th grade truly changed him forever. It was also the moment that he absolutely knew that the Lord was calling him to be a priest…you’re looking at him. Jesus present in the Eucharist completely changed my life. That was the day that I experienced wholeheartedly, for the first time, the depth of God’s love for me. He saw me when I needed someone the most; He loved me when I felt so unworthy of love; He entered into my life when I was at one of my lowest points and told me that I was important to Him. That’s what He does for all of us every single time we come to Mass and receive Him.

Y’all, let us never take for granted the gift of the Eucharist. Each time we receive Holy Communion, let’s do so with a heart full of faith and love, recognizing that we are receiving the greatest gift God can ever give – the gift of Himself.

Photo: Emmanuel by Jacob Bentzinger. Used under Unsplash license.