THE BISHOP'S CROZIER: Sacrament of Humility, Unity, and Charity

By Bishop James R. Golka

In the last month, we have witnessed two very impactful events in our country. On July 13, we witnessed a shocking assassination attempt on a former president.  Days later, we witnessed one of the largest gatherings of  Catholic faithful in recent history at the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis.

The former event revealed the real need for humility, unity, and charity in our country and in our political discourse. The latter event was humility, unity, and charity on full display as thousands from across the Church in the United States gathered around our Eucharistic Lord. 

As I was reflecting upon these events, I feel strongly that the Eucharist is a great hope for us and for our times. Our Lord desires to heal our country and the Church. Through the Eucharist, our Lord is able to use each of us as his instruments in this healing.

We see that our world is broken in many ways by the sin of pride, but Jesus in the Eucharist calls us to humility.  In the Eucharist, we are to become who we receive — one who came to serve others in humility.  As St. Paul teaches us, “Have this in mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself in the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”  (Philippians 2:5-7) Jesus also gives us the command to serve others in humility after washing the disciples’ feet at the Last Supper.  “For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done for you.”  (John 13:15) When receiving the Eucharist, the more we give ourselves in humility to Christ, the more Christ transforms us and can use us for his purposes.  As St. Francis of Assisi taught his friars, “Humble yourselves that you may be exulted by him!  Hold back nothing of yourselves for yourselves, that he who gives himself totally to you may receive you totally!”

We also see that one of the great tactics of the evil one is to divide — to divide us from Christ and to divide us from each other. However, the Eucharist is the Sacrament of Unity through which Jesus desires to heal the wounds of division in both the world and the Church.  In the Eucharist we not only become intimately united with Jesus, but we also become united with each other in the mystical body of Christ, the Church.  As St. Paul teaches, “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break is it not a participation in the body of Christ?  Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” (1 Corinthians 10:16-17)

Why is this unity so important, and why does the evil one want to destroy it?  It is because our unity in the Eucharist is the source of our mission in Christ. St. John Paul II powerfully explains this: “By its union with Christ, the People of the New Covenant, far from closing in upon itself, becomes a ‘sacrament’ for humanity, a sign and instrument of the salvation achieved by Christ, the light of the world and the salt of the earth . . . The Church’s mission stands in continuity with the mission of Christ: ‘As the Father has sent me, even so I send you’ (John 20:21). From the perpetuation of the sacrifice of the Cross and her communion with the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist, the Church draws the spiritual power needed to carry out her mission. The Eucharist thus appears as both the source and the summit of all evangelization.” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 22)

This finally leads to the Eucharist being the sacrament of charity, because the mission that we are all called to in Christ is a mission of love.  In the eucharistic breaking of the bread, the heart of Jesus is broken open for us in love so that we can break our hearts open in love for others and our lives then become a gift “given up for you.”  Pope Benedict XVI speaks of the Eucharist compelling us to no longer live for ourselves but for others:  “Each celebration of the Eucharist makes sacramentally present the gift that the crucified Lord made of his life, for us and for the whole world. In the Eucharist Jesus also makes us witnesses of God’s compassion towards all our brothers and sisters. The eucharistic mystery thus gives rise to a service of charity towards neighbor, which ‘consists in the very fact that, in God and with God, I love even the person whom I do not like or even know.’”  (Sacramentum Caritatis, 88)

As we continue this time of Eucharistic revival, may our participation in the Eucharist strengthen us against the temptations of pride, division, and antagonism and allow Jesus to use us as his instruments of humility, unity and charity to transform and heal our country and the Church.