“Before coming here, I asked the Holy Father if he had a message for you. He told me: ‘Conversion to the Eucharist'”

This is how Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle began the homily with which he concluded the National Eucharistic Congress of the United States, held at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The cardinal took up Francis’ invitation to reflect on the link between Eucharistic conversion and missionary conversion, since, as he pointed out, the Congress “will continue to be sent by Eucharistic missionaries.”

Artificial relationships

With the first point, which he called “Mission and gift”, the pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization stopped at the pages of the Gospel in which Jesus speaks of his mission. Christ, he said, “has a deep consciousness of having been sent” by the Father, and “sent to be given.” The missionary – Cardinal Tagle stressed – “is a gift” and perhaps – he observed – “where missionary zeal is lacking, perhaps it is due in part to a weakened appreciation for gifts and gratuitousness.”

If this horizon disappears, he continued, “if our horizon is only that of success and profit, there is no place to see and receive gifts.”

Some people – the cardinal also noted – “prefer to relate to ‘friends’ or ‘dates’ generated by artificial intelligence because they do not see gifts in flesh and blood people.” And this observation was followed by a series of questions addressed to the consciences of men, women, priests and lay people, bishops and fathers and mothers of families, urging them to give themselves as Jesus did.

Let’s not lose our hearts

But “Jesus is a gift or a problem,” the Filipino cardinal continued, moving on to the second point. When he told the disciples that receiving him “means first believing in him, and secondly eating his flesh and drinking his blood,” they “began to doubt” and many abandoned him.

“And also at this point Cardinal Tagle posed another series of questions that went straight to the heart: “Is it possible for us disciples to contribute to others distancing themselves from Jesus”, to departing from the faith?”

Do our parish communities offer an experience of closeness and care for Jesus? Are our families still the main educators and transmitters of the faith? Do young people feel heard and understood in their search for Jesus?

Many of the so-called “hidden” people – the poor, immigrants, the elderly, the homeless, the indigenous – “may feel like foreigners.” But the invitation is, “let us not be discouraged. Jesus will not tire of coming to us with the gift of himself, even if he is wounded.”

Jesus does not impose himself on anyone

Speaking in the third point about the missionary aspect, better still about the “Eucharistic missionaries”, Cardinal Tagle returned to the moment when Jesus asks the apostles if they plan to leave him too. I wish, was the cardinal’s hope, “that we can respond like Saint Peter: I will remain with you. Let us refuse to live apart from your presence.”

“But these – he maintained – must not be empty words. Like Saint Peter, we must believe with conviction. Jesus does not impose himself on anyone. He appeals to our inner freedom.” The pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization asked the missionaries to go and share “the tender love of Jesus” with tired people, with those in need of compassion.

In the letter he sent me, Cardinal Tagle also said: “Pope Francis expressed the desire that ‘the participants in the Congress, fully aware of the universal gifts they receive from heavenly food, will be able to transmit them to others’”.

An experience

Cardinal Tagle concluded by sharing an experience. As a parish priest, he had noticed a woman “extraordinarily dedicated to the Church,” who arrived early on Sundays to help with all the masses and other activities, and only went home when the church was clean and the doors closed.

One day, he recalled, “I thanked her for her dedication and thanked her family for allowing her to serve. Her answer surprised me: ‘Father, don’t worry about my family. I stay here in the Church and attend all the masses because I don’t want to see my husband or my children. I wish every day were Sunday, so I could avoid my family.’”

“Dear friends – was the cardinal’s conclusion – when the priest or deacon says: ‘The Mass is over. Go in peace, please go! Go. What they have heard, touched and tasted, they must share with others for ‘the life of the world.'”