‘The start of something new’
CHARLOTTE — Nearly 9,000 Catholics from across the western half of North Carolina gathered for Mass Saturday to conclude the Diocese of Charlotte’s 19th annual Eucharistic Congress – with Bishop Peter Jugis bringing to a close a weekend of prayer, worship, fellowship and a dramatic procession through the streets of Charlotte.
In the cavernous hall of the Charlotte Convention Center, the spiraling sound of brass instruments and choral voices greeted a colorful stream of banners representing parishes from around the diocese to open the two-hour liturgy. Dozens of children who recently celebrated their first Holy Communion filed into the hall dressed in white suits and dresses, followed by deacons and priests and the bishop blessing the crowd.
The Mass concluded with a standing ovation for the bishop, who will celebrate his 20th anniversary as shepherd of the diocese in October.
“Bishop Jugis, I’d like to congratulate you on your upcoming jubilee anniversaries – 20 years as the fourth bishop of Charlotte and 40 years as a priest,” Archbishop Gregory Hartmayer of Atlanta said in a video featuring a dozen priests reflecting on the bishop’s impact on the diocese and its people. “Your steadfast leadership of one of America’s fastest-growing dioceses is a testament to your love of Jesus and His Church.”
Bishop Jugis said he had been “caught completely off guard” and attributed all of his accomplishments to “the gift of a living God.”
The focus of the two-day celebration was the Eucharist and the reality of Christ’s Real Presence in the sacrament. In his homily, Bishop Jugis focused on the vital importance of that Real Presence.
“We have arrived at the high point of the Eucharistic Congress, the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass,” Bishop Jugis told the crowd. “All the events of the Congress lead up to this point because the Mass is the source and summit of the Christian life.”
The bishop urged people to use the weekend as the beginning of a personal spiritual renaissance.
“Let this Congress be the start of something new for you,” he said. “Resolve to deepen your relationship with Jesus in the Eucharist. You are probably very busy, as most people are nowadays. But there is Someone waiting for you at Church, in the tabernacle. And I do say Some-One, not some-thing. It is the Lord Jesus who is waiting for you. Don’t you need to visit someone who loves you?”
The bishop also encouraged the crowd to find more time during their daily lives to spend time with Christ, whether through Eucharistic Adoration, stopping by a church to pray, or attending Mass more frequently than only on Sunday.
“Resolve to deepen your relationship with Jesus in the Eucharist. You are probably very busy, as most people are nowadays. But there is Someone waiting for you at Church, in the tabernacle. And I do say Some-One, not some-thing. It is the Lord Jesus who is waiting for you. Don’t you need to visit someone who loves you?” — Bishop Peter Jugis
Organizers estimated the largest attendance for the event since 2016, when Cardinal Timothy Dolan from the Archdiocese of New York visited Charlotte. Participants took part in two days of worship, prayer, Eucharistic Adoration, educational talks and fellowship.
Among the speakers were two Nicaraguan priests who came to the diocese in February after being imprisoned in their home country. They spoke about their faith during persecution and drew applause from several thousand attendees.
The Saturday morning procession also drew thousands. Clergy carrying the Blessed Sacrament led the stream of people amidst glass towers and closed streets uptown, followed by a long line of clergy and consecrated religious men and women, as well as the faithful. The mile-long procession included a diverse group people of all ages, some walking in silence while others sang, played music, danced and prayed the rosary.
Bishop Jugis stressed the need to raise awareness of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist to counter research indicating that not all Catholics believe in that Presence, but instead think it merely “symbolizes” Christ. He also reminded the crowd that Christ would remain with them after the Mass and the Eucharistic Congress in their daily lives.
“The Holy Eucharist is the entirely unique way that Jesus fulfills His promise to
remain with us, because the Eucharist is Jesus,” the bishop said. “There are many, many ways that Jesus is with you always. He is with us in the sacraments…He is with you in your prayers. He is present in the poor, the sick and the imprisoned.”
The Real Presence was reflected in the theme for this year’s congress, taken from Christ’s words in the Gospel of Matthew 28:20: “I am with you always.”
— Christina Lee Knauss. Photos by Troy Hull, David Puckett and Patrick Schneider Photography
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Read the Bishop's full homily:
We have arrived at the high point of the Eucharistic Congress, the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. All the events of the Congress lead up to this point, because the Mass is the source and summit of the Christian life. The Mass is the source and summit of the Eucharistic Congress.
Why do we have the Eucharistic Congress? The purpose of the Eucharistic Congress is to celebrate our faith in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist – to affirm our Catholic faith in His Real Presence.
Some years ago (in the mid 1990’s) a New York Times/CBS poll surveyed Catholics about their faith, in which they were asked which of the following two statements best represented their faith about the Eucharist: 1. The bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ, or 2. The Eucharist is a symbolic reminder of Jesus. A majority of adult Catholics between the ages of 18 and 65 were not able to say that the bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ. Jesus, however, says differently.
In this Gospel, we have just heard Jesus say, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him” (John 6: 56). In other words, he says, I personally remain in the one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood. Christ Himself lives in us through the Eucharist, and His living in us is possible because Jesus is really and truly present in the Eucharist. It is the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
The theme of our Eucharistic Congress this year is Jesus’ promise to his apostles: I am with you always. The Holy Eucharist is the entirely unique way that Jesus fulfills his promise to remain with us, because the Eucharist is Jesus.
There are many, many ways that Jesus is with you always.
He is with us in the sacraments. When you are baptized, He is with you. When you go to Confession, He is with you as you confess your sins. When you are at Mass, He is with you. He is with you in the sacrament of Confirmation. He is with you when you receive the Anointing of the Sick. He is with the married couple in the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.
He is with you in your prayer. He is present where two or three are gathered in His name. He is with us in His Word. He is with us in the person of his sacred minister: the bishop, the priest, or the deacon. He is present in the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned.
Jesus says that He is with you always, meaning that it is a forever promise to be with you. You are always the object of his love, at any time of day, through all the hours of the night, through all the days of your life. He has made a covenant of love with you. With compassion He accompanies you on your life’s pilgrimage. He does not forget you or abandon you.
But, of all these ways that Jesus is with us always, He is especially with us in a totally unique way in the Holy Eucharist. In the Eucharist, He is present in the fullest sense of the word ‘present,’ meaning it is a substantial presence of Jesus Christ (CCC 1374) unlike the other presences of Christ. The whole Christ is truly present, his body and his blood, together with his soul and divinity. And this is the way Jesus wanted it.
At every Mass, we offer Jesus to God the Father for the salvation of the world. Jesus is the sacred offering we lift up to heaven at the Consecration as our sacrifice of reconciliation, for the forgiveness of sins. He offered himself on the cross as the sacrifice of forgiveness for the world’s sins, and the Father was pleased to accept Jesus’ gift of Himself. And Jesus commanded us to continue to offer him to the Father as our sacrifice of reconciliation, our thanksgiving sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. And so at every Mass we lift up to heaven our sacred offering to the Father, asking God for his mercy. The Mass is a sacrifice, and Jesus is the sacrifice we offer.
Jesus says, I am with you always. Yes, it is really Jesus who is present.
We have celebrated this Eucharistic Congress together as one diocesan family, with brothers and sisters from parishes all across the diocese. Let this Eucharistic Congress be the start of something new for you. Resolve to deepen your relationship with Jesus in the Eucharist. You are probably very busy, as most people are nowadays. But there is someone waiting for you at Church, in the tabernacle. And I do say some-One, not some–thing. It is the Lord Jesus who is waiting for you. Don’t you need to visit someone who loves you? - to visit the Lord in the tabernacle when the church is open during the day outside of Mass times? – to visit Him in Eucharistic Adoration? - or to be a Mass at least one time during the week in addition to your Sunday Mass? Someone is waiting for you to visit Him. It is really Jesus.
Let this Eucharistic Congress be the start of something new for your spiritual life. Go deeper in your relationship with the Lord in the Eucharist.
— Bishop Peter Jugis