With more than 50,000 U.S. Catholics in one room adoring Jesus in the Eucharist, I was bound to encounter beauty at the National Eucharistic Congress.
Last week, I fell in love with this beauty present in the U.S. Catholic Church. These five moments were the moments that created this love story.
1) Catholicism in the U.S. is not archaic.
On the third night of the National Eucharistic Congress, my phone started to buzz as I exited Lucas Oil Stadium.
One of my closest friends, Issy, who was a perpetual pilgrim on the Saint Juan Diego Route, called me. We had barely seen each other since arriving in Indianapolis and she was inviting me to join her and the other perpetual pilgrims in a game of Banana Grams in the Eucharistic Village outside of the convention center.
When I joined them at the table, I was in awe of the vibrant atmosphere surrounding me.
In front of me sat young pilgrims and brothers from the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal who were telling me all about their past 60 days walking with Jesus throughout the U.S. Behind me was a tent of likely hundreds of people all ages praising the Lord in song. To my left was the packed Saint John the Evangelist Catholic Church, which was home to perpetual adoration throughout the Congress. To my right was a river of tens of thousands of people leaving the stadium to retire for the night.
Amidst all of this, it struck me how wrong the world is about the Catholic faith.
Many people claim the Catholic Church needs to “get with the times,” modernize our practices, and attract a younger audience, yet, the U.S. Catholic Church already has such vibrant people living out the faith without giving up on tradition.
As we got deeper into an intense game of Banana Grams while in the middle of downtown Indianapolis at 11:00 p.m., I saw Franciscan Brothers, fully clad in their traditional habits, speed past me on Lime Scooters.
I saw priests, religious, lay men and women, and children publicly praising Jesus in song for hours. I heard multiple stories about the pilgrims stopping to visit the popular gas station Buc-ee's while traveling towards Indiana.
This is only a snapshot of the vibrancy I experienced throughout the entire week.
One of the most beautiful things I learned about the U.S. Catholic Church is that it is far from archaic and even farther from the perception the greater world has about it.
2) The U.S. Catholic Faith spans across many languages.
One of the first things I noticed after arriving at the Indianapolis Convention Center on Wednesday was that many people were wearing little pins that read “Hablo español,” which means “I speak Spanish.”
One man who wore this pin was Jose.
I was tasked with helping my friend Jayden, a Catholic Influencer on Instagram, film a reel to see how many Catholic priests he could spot in one small section of the convention center. To do this, he walked up to a random man, Jose, and asked, “How many Catholic priests will I see before touching that sign over there?”
Jose, pointing to his pin said, “No English.”
Yet after a little dialogue, Jayden managed to communicate his question and Jose joyfully exclaimed his answer, “Fifty! Cincuenta!”
Unfortunately, Jayden only spotted 14.
Later in the week, papal delegate Cardinal Tagle celebrated the closing mass. At the beginning of his homily, he welcomed listeners in 11 different languages! The crowd responded in at least eight of these languages.
These moments showed me how beautiful it is the Catholic faith in the U.S. spans so many languages. Regardless of the tongue we speak, we still share the same belief in Jesus Christ and His presence in the Eucharist.
3) 6,500 miles of U.S. roads have become the road to Emmaus.
Prior to arriving in Indianapolis, the perpetual pilgrims of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage brought Eucharistic Jesus to hundreds of communities from coast to coast and border to border.
By the time they had arrived, over 100,000 individuals had followed Jesus in processions throughout 6,500 miles of American streets. The National Eucharistic Pilgrimage even called this, “Our national Emmaus moment.”
In Luke 24, the resurrected Jesus joined two disciples while on their journey to Emmaus. The two did not know it was Jesus for the entire journey until arriving at Emmaus and inviting him to stay with them for the night.
At dinner, Jesus blessed and broke the bread, which they ate. Their eyes suddenly opened to the fact that this was the same Jesus who was crucified.
Over the past two months, pilgrims across the U.S. have been joined in their journey to Indianapolis by Jesus, present in the Eucharist. In Mass and adoration, over 50,000 Catholics were reminded of who Jesus is when the host was elevated in the center of Lucas Oil Stadium.
I was personally joined by Jesus on my journey to Indianapolis when the Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Route traveled through the Archdioceses of Washington and that of Cincinnati.
I experienced many Emmaus moments while watching the risen, Eucharistic Lord bless my hometown from the highest point in my city, walk through the streets healing hearts, and when he was praised and adored in our nation’s capital.
4) If we all pretended to be saints for a couple of days, the U.S. would overflow with holy men and women.
In his closing keynote speech, Chris Stefanick challenged listeners to “become Saint ‘insert your name here.’” He embellished a quote from Blessed Carlo Acutis saying,
“Pray to want to be a saint, and if you don't want to do that, pray to want to want to be a saint.”
Encouraging the audience to lean into their spiritual lives following the Congress he said, “Do the things you would do if you were a saint. Imagine! Pretend to be that saint, just play the saint, and give it a couple of years and watch what happens.”
On the final night, Bishop Barron had a similar encouragement. He began to talk about the size of the U.S. Catholic Church and remarked that we make up about a quarter of the U.S. population.
He said, “What if 70 million Catholics, starting tonight, began to live their faith radically and dramatically?... we would change the country.”
The National Eucharistic Congress announced the ‘Walk With One’ initiative where they call each attendee to simply go out and intentionally share the Gospel to one person. This initiative empowers us to identify, intercede for, connect with, and invite just one person to (or back to) the person of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.
Ultimately, I learned that it is possible for the U.S. Catholic Church to bring the entire nation to Christ. It may take many years, but by pretending to be saints and intentionally inviting people into the faith, we have the opportunity to fill the country with millions of holy men and women.
5) We are all hungry.
I saw an Instagram post regarding a conversation a Congress attendee had with their Uber driver that read:
“My Hindu Uber driver asked me tons of questions about the faith this morning and relayed stories of how other Catholics he’d met that week had spoken life to him in the backseat of his car. “When is the next one of these?” he asked. “I would like to go.”
This post couldn’t help but remind me of an Impact Session with Monsignor James Shea. Msgr. Shea spoke about being hungry and needing to be satisfied.
Msgr. Shea said,
“The majority of men and women who have ever lived have spent the greatest part of their time trying to secure their next meal. Yet, we are the chosen few who live in a time and place where we have to constantly remind ourselves not to eat so much.”
He then noted that the market share of the weight loss industry has skyrocketed and that food has been wasted more than ever in the past. Despite this, he said, “somehow we’re still hungry.”
Then, speaking about our spiritual hunger, he said, “God has made us so that we are incomplete unless we are feeding on Him.”
I can only imagine the hunger the Uber driver had after encountering his passengers.
The Instagram post I saw reminded me that we are all deeply hungry for God. Often, as someone who consistently practices my faith, I forget the innate hunger I have for Christ. I can become complacent and forget that I have a God who endlessly fills me up.
It is beautiful to me that this Uber driver longed to learn more about the spiritual food his Catholic passengers were eating.
As Stefanick exclaimed on the last day of the Congress, “When you are face-to-face with the beauty of sanctity, you just want it! You can't even help it!”
I hope that I never stop chasing after this everlasting food and always strive for the sanctity it can fill me with.