Witnesses of the Faith | August 2024

Miles Christi at the Eucharistic Congress
Testimony from Dcn. Benjamin King

I was stuck. There was no way out. I was a kid, about ten-years-old, and I had become convinced of the Real Presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. If any of you have had the grace of this experience, this grace, then you know what I mean when I say that there is nowhere else to go. Only in the Catholic Church can you find this constant miracle, this unimaginable grace and sign of love. Within this Sacrament is found our entire Faith, because this Sacrament is Jesus Christ, truly present. Once you have come to believe this, you’re stuck, there is no where else to turn… you are Catholic.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that the Eucharist is the “source and summit of the Christian life” (CCC 1324). A few weeks ago, we had the grace to travel with a group of 20 young men and women to the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis and see this beautiful statement made flesh and bone. We all came with our particular petitions and graces to be asked for and prayed for, keeping in mind that this was a pilgrimage and not just a fun event (although it was that too!). We didn’t know what to expect, but we knew that we were going to spend the weekend focusing on the peak of the Catholic Church, that “summit” of Christian life—the Eucharist.

The first morning opened inside the Indianapolis Colts stadium with about 50,000 people joining together. The joy was visible, audible, almost palpable as men, women and children…LOTS of children!… went from here to there, one conference to another, adoration to Mass, to this that or the other thing, but all focused on the Eucharist. We had carved out a piece of the United States and claimed it for Christ. I ran into one friend I had studied with in Rome, now a priest in Minneapolis, and he told me, “This is like a Catholic Disneyland!” Looking around it was hard to think about all the political chaos we are facing these days, and it was hard not to see what our country is lacking… The Catholic Faith.

Our young adult group was connected by different Miles Christi activities, but we didn’t all know each other before. During those intense days we all began to bond and become closer, little by little feeling more like a group, more united. What I found to be truly interesting was that the closer we all became the more comfortable we felt within the bigger group, the more united we felt to the whole Eucharistic Congress. Everyone was there to adore and praise Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and as we all bonded in the individual parishes, youth groups, etc. we also become closer to the very reason we were there, the source of grace and of our joy, the Eucharist. In that way, focusing on Him and growing in our relationship with Him was the key to becoming closer, a real community and building one another up through Faith.

Hopefully this event will truly be the spark to create a more lively Eucharistic Faith in the United States! Maybe we will see you all there at the next National Eucharistic Congress in 2033!

May the heart of Jesus, in the Most Blessed Sacrament, be praised, adored, and loved with grateful affection, at every moment, in all the tabernacles of the world, even to the end of time!