Dear Friends,
In our previous catechesis, we defined a Eucharistic missionary as someone who has encountered Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, received Him in Holy Communion, and allowed this encounter to transform their modus viviendi (way of life), modus loquendi (way of speaking), modus orandi (way of praying), and modus operandi (way of acting). With this transformation, the person goes forth with conviction to witness to the world, demonstrating how their personal encounter with Jesus has reshaped their life, relationships, and religious sensibilities. Becoming a Eucharistic missionary, as this definition reveals, is a journey that begins with an encounter with the Lord, similar to the experience of the two disciples on the way to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). During their encounter with the Eucharistic Lord, their eyes were opened (Luke 24:31), their joy increased, and their understanding of divine truth was deepened. This revelation, equipped them to love the Lord with greater appreciation as they ruminated, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scripture?” With profound joy, the two disciples returned to Jerusalem, sharing their joy, their story, and their conviction with the eleven Apostles (Luke 24:34). This encounter with Jesus transformed them, and they became joyful witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus and the profound power of the Holy Eucharist.
The experience of the two disciples on the way to Emmaus has been echoed in the lives of countless saints and devout men and women over two millennia of Christianity. Many holy men and women have allowed their encounter with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament to impact both their own lives and the lives of those around them. These saints, through their inspiring faith in the Blessed Sacrament, have healed nations, saved souls, renewed lives, enriched evangelization efforts, and transformed the lives of the poor and the marginalized. These holy men and women hailed not only from the Eternal City (Rome), the City of David (Jerusalem), the Land of Mary (Spain), God’s own Country (Kerala, India), and God’s own State (Abia State, Nigeria), but were also from places like Egypt (St. Mary of Egypt), Peru (St. Rose of Lima), the United States of America (St. Elizabeth Ann Seton), Mexico (San Juan Diego), France (St. John Mary Vianney), Assisi (St. Francis of Assisi and St. Clare), the Philippines (St. Lorenzo Ruiz), Lebanon (St. Charbel Makhloufi), and Poland (St. Faustina and St. Pope John Paul II). Some of these saints ministered in foreign lands and mission territories such as Kolkata, India (St. Teresa of Kolkata), Padua, Italy (St. Anthony of Padua) and Molokai, Hawaii (St. Damien of Molokai). Others served impoverished and marginalized communities in Travancore, India (St. Francis Xavier). Cartagena, Columbia (St. Peter Claver) and Uganda (St. Charles Lwanga and his companions).
The second spiritual and evangelical pillar for becoming a Eucharistic missionary is to embrace a Eucharistic identity. As beloved children of God, nourished at the Altar of God, we are called to become what we eat and to allowing this sublime meal- the food of the angels - to transform us, thus helping us to discover our true identity in Christ. At every priestly ordination, I am always moved when the ordaining prelate presents the Bread and Wine to the newly ordained priest and gives this profound instruction: “Receive the oblation of the holy people, to be offered to God. Understand what you do, imitate what you celebrate, and conform your life to the mystery of the Lord’s Cross.” Conforming our lives to the mystery of the Lord’s Cross means allowing Jesus to transform both who we are and what we do. A Eucharistic missionary is one who lives in Christ, for Christ, from Christ, and with Christ. This was the radical identification that St. Paul experienced when he said, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” The same sense of total surrender and identification with Christ is evident in the prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola, who prayed: “Take Lord and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and possess. You have given all to me. To you, O Lord, I return it. All is yours; dispose of it wholly according to your will. Give me your love and your grace, for this, is sufficient for me.” In this oracion of St. Ignatius of Loyola, we accept the truth that “The Lord made us for Himself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Him” (St. Augustine, The Confessions, 1.1.1). Thus, it is in God that we live, and move, and have our being (Acts 17:28).
In his great love for the Eucharist, Pope St. John Paul II, on the 50th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood, prayed to Jesus, the High Priest, “Take from me, O Lord, that which I am unable or unwilling to give, so that my whole life may become a pure offering for the glorious chalice you have placed in my hands.” Pope Francis, appreciating this spiritual ardor of allowing oneself to rediscover one’s identity in Christ through the Eucharist, noted, “Liturgy is about praise, about rendering thanks for the Passover of the Son whose power reaches our lives…I repeat: it does not have to do with an abstract mental process, but with becoming Him. This is the purpose for which the Spirit is given, whose action is always and only to confect the Body of Christ. It is that way with the Eucharistic bread, and with every one of the baptized called to become always more and more that which was received as a gift in Baptism; namely, being a member of the Body of Christ. St. Leo the Great writes, ‘Our participation in the Body and Blood of Christ has no other end than to make us become that which we eat” (Pope Francis, Disederio Desideravi, no. 41).
The experience of rediscovering one’s identity in Christ through fervent devotion to the Holy Eucharist as seen in the saints and many holy men and women, is not limited to the canonized saints but extends to all who strive to conform their lives to the mystery of the Lord’s Cross. Growing up in Africa, I was blessed to know a devout and humble child of God, the late Brother Ferdinand Ogu (aka Brother Fred), from my village of Eziala-Ogwu Nguru, Imo-State Nigeria. His devotion to the Holy Eucharist profoundly influenced those who were privileged to know him. He attended Mass daily, receiving Holy Communion with awesome reverence, unassuming penitential humility, and illuminating holy gestures. At the communion rail, this holy and humble man welcomed his Lord and his God (John 20:28) with great spiritual joy and an inward smile that illuminated his face. The happiness he radiated after receiving communion was reminiscent of the expressions seen on the faces of the multitude of men and women of all languages, tribes, and nations, worshipping our God eternally in heaven, as recorded by St. John in the last book of the Bible thusly: “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9-10).
Brother Fred’s prayers on his way to Mass revealed his deep understanding of the Eucharistic celebration as the coming together of God and man; divinity and humanity, heaven and earth, infinite and finite, and the embrace of the eternal and the temporal. For him, going to Mass was akin to climbing to Mount Moriah, where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac (Genesis 22:3), or ascending Mount Sinai, where Moses had the privilege of encountering God (Exodus 19:4). Attending Mass was like going up to Mount Carmel, where the power of God manifested through Elijah’s victory over the prophets of Baal (1 kings 18: 20), or experiencing the peace of the Lord as Elijah did on Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:11). It was a time to join those worshipping the living God on Mount Zion (Hebrew 12: 22) and an opportunity for transformation akin to the experience of Peter, James and John when they were with Jesus on Mount Tabor (Matthew 17: 1-9; Mark 9:2-10; Luke 9:28-36).
Brother Ferdinand Ogu fully embraced and trustingly discovered his identity in Christ. Anyone that encountered Brother Fred felt as though they were in the presence of a friend of God. Father Jerome, a monk at the Abbey of Notre Dame de Sept-Fons of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance wrote, “Because the ‘man of the world’ wants to change his place, his destiny, his idols, and to change them perpetually, the ‘friend of God’ must remain and stay in the place where God has put him. Indeed, between the ‘friends of God’ and the world there is an antithesis and a rupture. What the one chooses, the other rejects. Otherwise there would no longer be two camps, but only one: the world.” As a ‘friend of God,’ Brother Fred was an extraordinary spiritual person, who offered his body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God (Romans 12: 1). His Eucharistic identity empowered him to embrace wholeheartedly, the invitation from Jesus: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up of his cross and follow me. For whomever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16: 24-25). Brother Fred took this Gospel message to heart as he walked the streets of our village and town practicing corporal and spiritual works of mercy, engaging in fraternal correction, speaking the truth even when it was difficult, and inviting others to see the Cross as a means of salvation. For him, the Cross is the way of life, a staff for the lame, consolation for the poor, medicine for the sick, the terror of demons, and the glory of the martyrs.
In our next catechesis, we shall explore some implications of rediscovering one’s identity in Christ through biblical narratives, theological grounds, and personal experiences of God’s holy people.
Ad majorem Dei gloriam.
Rev. Benedict Nwachukwu-Udaku, Ph.D. is the Director of Academic Formation, St. Junipero Serra House of Formation, Diocese of San Bernardino.