A week filled with blessings: The Eucharistic Congress and Priests’ Convocation

BISHOP KEVIN J. SWEENEY

It was just about a year ago when we learned that Archbishop Rino Fisichella would be available to lead our Diocesan Eucharistic Congress on the weekend of Sept. 23 to 25. When we looked at the Diocesan calendar, we realized that having the Eucharistic Congress on that weekend would mean it would be immediately before our Priests’ Convocation, an event that occurs once every three years. While there was some hesitation, wondering if it might be “too much” to have these two significant events “back-to-back,” we also thought that they could complement each other, especially within the context of our Diocesan Year of the Eucharist. Now, looking back, I believe that the two events did, in fact, complement one another and, in my experience, resulted in a very blessed seven days.

The Eucharistic Congress: Gathering as the Body of Christ

We are currently in the process of making available the texts of the four talks given by Archbishop Fisichella during the course of the Eucharistic Congress. The opportunity to prayerfully read and study these reflections is one of many ways the Eucharistic Congress can be a blessing for us going forward.

Rather than just an event that took place over three days, the Congress hopefully has been an experience of the Church and her leaders coming together to be taught, strengthened, and inspired to be “sent” as missionary disciples into the Lord’s vineyard. It is still true that “the harvest is rich and laborers are few” (Mt. 9:37–38) and that we need to beg (pray) the Lord of the Harvest to send laborers into his vineyard. I am hoping that the Eucharistic Congress will inspire many of the “laborers” in the vineyard of Paterson to even more enthusiastically share our love for and appreciation of the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

As you may know, we gathered on Friday night with our consecrated religious (sisters, brothers, and priests), deacons and wives, seminarians, and diocesan priests. On Saturday, Archbishop Fisichella spoke to ministers, catechists, and lay leaders, in the morning in English and in the afternoon in Spanish. Then, on Sunday afternoon, we gathered for the closing Mass, for which Archbishop Fisichella was the main celebrant and homilist. I hope that many who attended any or all of the particular events had the experience that I did in the sense that, although the total number who attended was a small percentage of the whole diocesan Church, there was a feeling throughout the weekend that the whole Church, the Body of Christ, was united in prayer and reflection.

It would take many pages to begin to describe some of the powerful content of Archbishop Fisichella’s presentations. Still, I would like to briefly share two themes woven through the four presentations. First, the archbishop invited us to reflect on how the Eucharist makes us “contemporaries of Jesus.” Many are aware that we believe that, at each Mass, we participate in the very “Paschal Mystery,” the suffering death, and Resur­rection of Jesus. We believe that, in some mysterious but real way, the Mass unites us to Jesus’ institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, His sacrifice on Calvary, and His Resurrection on Easter Sunday. At the same time, by our participation in the Mass, Jesus is truly present to us here and now. We receive Him in Holy Communion, and He abides in us, just as He remains really and truly present in every tabernacle throughout the whole world. This truth is surely something that too many of our Catholic brothers and sisters are “missing” or do not fully appreciate. As I said and asked on each day of the Congress, it is up to each of us to do whatever we can to try to invite and encourage our sisters and brothers to appreciate and recognize the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

Another beautiful theme to which Archbishop Fisichella returned a number of times during his presentations was the importance of recovering the meaning of Sunday, “the Lord’s Day.” It is true that, in many ways, we have lost the sense of “keeping holy the Sabbath. Twenty-four years ago, in 1998, St. Pope John Paul II had a sense of our need to recover the meaning and importance of Sunday and wrote an Apostolic Letter, Dies Domine, appealing to the people of God to “keep the Lord’s Day Holy.” In a lighter moment, Archbishop Fisichella spoke about “holy Friday,” not in a religious sense, but commenting on our culture and the way in which weekends, Friday, and Saturday nights are filled with parties, celebrations, and relaxation (which, in themselves, he did not criticize). However, he emphasized that if the celebrations on Friday and Saturday mean that people are not giving time to God or finding time to go to Mass on Sunday, something has truly been lost.

The Priests’ Convocation: The balance between prayer and work, and strengthening fraternal bonds

From the time that I became bishop of the diocese and began to meet our diocesan priests, I heard a great deal about the “Convocation” that takes place once every three years. I have learned that this is a tradition that goes back more than 40 years, as I believe it began under Bishop Casey. For the last 30 or so years, the Convocation has been held at The Breakers in Spring Lake, and I came to see how nice it was to spend three days on the Jersey Shore. Fortunately, we were blessed with beautiful weather. The Gospels tell us that there were times when Jesus told the apostles that they needed to “get away” to a quiet place where they could rest and pray, especially following times that were particularly busy or stressful in their ministry. Each priest and consecrated religious must take a yearly spiritual retreat of at least five days. The Convocation is somewhat of a “hybrid” between a retreat, conference, and business meeting. The presenter at this year’s Convocation was Fr. Boniface Hicks, a Benedictine Monk, spiritual director, and seminary professor who helped us reflect on the “Eucharistic Heart” of the priest.

I was very happy that more than 100 of our diocesan priests were able to attend all or part of the Convocation, and I was particularly encouraged by the wonderful fraternal spirit, as we were able to gather in such a relaxed atmosphere and setting. It was also a blessing to be able to pray together, both the Liturgy of the Hours, Morning and Evening Prayer and daily Mass. It may be a surprise to some readers that priests do not always “see eye to eye” or agree on the direction or approach that we are taking as a diocese (or as a Church). The Convocation gave us an opportunity for great conversations, to listen to one another, both when we agree and disagree. The convocation was a wonderful opportunity for me to see the “unity in diversity” that exists amongst the priests of our diocese. I can now see how important it is to have this opportunity, at least once every three years, when we can spend “quality time” together. Finally, the Convocation was a reminder to me of something I have been learning over the past two-plus years: our diocese is blessed with many holy, humble, talented, and generous priests, and, as a group, we can do what the Lord is asking us to do and have some laughs and some fun as we do it.

A year ago, I was a little nervous when we decided to have the Eucharistic Congress and the Priests’ Convocation “back-to-back.” Now, I am glad that we did it and very grateful for the seven days. It truly was a week filled with blessings.