Christ the Cornerstone

May the Church live its mission with Eucharist-inspired boldness and zeal

All Christians must understand the true nature of the Church and her Mission. In fact, it is sometimes said that our Church does not have a mission. The Church is a mission.

The Church, instituted by Jesus, is the People of God and the Body of Christ. Beyond any institution or building, the Church is the community of believers which is missionary by its very nature. Baptized Christians are gathered together as one family, sisters and brothers in Christ, called to carry out the mission given to us by our Lord. That makes us missionary disciples of our Lord and brother, Jesus Christ.

What is the mission of the Church? It is to give witness to the person of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word of God, whose passion, death and resurrection have set us free from slavery to sin and death.

In my recent letter, “Peace and Unity: A Pastoral Reflection,” I write:

The Church’s Mission, instituted by Jesus, is the proclamation of the Good News with a focus on making missionary disciples of people of all nations without exception. At the heart of both Church and Mission is Christ-centered evangelization and catechesis in cooperation with the Holy Spirit to bring about the Kingdom of God, which is the very essence of true peace and authentic unity. To that end, a personal encounter with Jesus is essential to the spiritual life of every baptized Christian. No tenet of Christian faith or Catholic belief will ever make sense apart from an encounter with the person of Jesus Christ.

How does this encounter with Jesus Christ happen? There are many possible ways. Some encounters are instantaneous, like St. Paul whose conversion on the road to Damascus was abrupt and dramatic.

Others are more gradual, like St. Augustine or St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) whose searches for God took place more slowly over many years of study, trial and error.

Most Catholics encounter Jesus indirectly in their daily lives through prayer, reflection on God’s Word in the Scriptures and holy reading, and in concrete interaction with the holy women and men who give witness to Jesus in their self-sacrificing service to others, especially the poor and vulnerable.

We Catholics believe that the most powerful direct encounter with Jesus Christ takes place when we reverently receive him in the Holy Eucharist. We believe in the Real Presence of Christ, body and blood, soul and divinity, under the outward signs of bread and wine in the Blessed Sacrament. To the extent that we allow him to enter our minds, hearts and souls, Jesus becomes one with us. In this encounter, which we call “holy communion,” we are united intimately with the One Christ in whom we are all one body, the Church.

This great mystery of Christ’s gift of himself to us in the Eucharist is not meant to be an end itself. On the contrary, as St. Augustine teaches, we become what we eat and drink in this great sacrament. In other words, when we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, we become more fully his body, the Church, and when we accept this truth by saying “Amen,” we agree to serve as Christ’s missionary disciples who give witness to him in our daily lives to everyone we meet.

A little more than a year ago, during the National Eucharistic Congress held in Indianapolis on July 17-21, 2024, we witnessed a phenomenal series of encounters with Jesus Christ as people from all over our country, and around the world, came together to celebrate this great mystery of our faith—the true presence of our Lord in the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist.

The 10th National Eucharistic Congress is over now, but it launched us into the final year of the three-year Eucharistic Revival: A Year of Missionary Sending.

As the Eucharistic Congress ended last summer, it was clear to all that now is the time to put the grace of the Eucharist into action by reaching out to our neighbors with the saving message of Jesus as well as spiritual and corporal works of mercy.

At last year’s historic gathering, Catholics of all ages came together to worship our Eucharistic Lord with expectant faith. There, the Holy Spirit promised to enkindle a missionary fire in the heart of our nation as we reconsecrate ourselves to the source and summit of our faith.

Let us pray that, despite all the challenges we face in our society and in our Church, the Holy Spirit will fill our hearts with the fire of his love so that we can carry out the mission that is the Church with Eucharist-inspired boldness and zeal.
 

(To read Archbishop Thompson’s pastoral reflection in English and Spanish, go to archindy.org/pastoral2025.) †