This July will certainly mark a high point on this process. Up to 80,000 people will converge on Indianapolis, Indiana, for the National Eucharistic Congress. As a symbolic gesture of this process, there is also a national pilgrimage, which is essentially a Eucharistic procession from four locations around the country (“four corners”) that will converge on the National Congress. Not only does it mark the country with routes that more or less make the sign of the cross, it is also a manifestation of the unity of heart and mind of the Church in the United States, embodied in eucharistic communion.

These national events are meant to stoke enthusiasm for the Good News of the Eucharist and light a fire within us. But the idea of a movement is that we are going somewhere, and that somewhere is not Indianapolis.

The National Eucharistic Congress, like our Diocesan Eucharistic Congress, is going to be a great event, but it is not our destination. Ultimately as a Church, our final destination is our heavenly homeland, of which the Eucharist gives us a foretaste. We still have one final phase of this revival process, the direction in which it was always moving from the beginning: mission.

The good news we have received and pondered during this process is not meant to remain a passing, private phenomenon. The intimate love that we have and continue to experience in the Eucharist is an invitation open to all of humanity. The radical accessibility of Christ in the Eucharist is a gesture of open arms calling all to heavenly intimacy.

This means that we, as those who are aware of and embrace this love in the Eucharist, have work to do. We are being asked to share the truth, beauty and goodness of the Eucharist with others. During this upcoming year of mission, we will no doubt receive a great deal of guidance from our bishops and the leaders in this movement on how to share the gift we have received throughout this process thus far. This will be valuable information for us as we proceed to mission.

Details on some of the national events can be found at eucharisticrevival.org and at charlestondiocese.org/eucharistic-revival. If you are looking for tickets to the National Eucharistic Congress, email catechesis@charlestondiocese.org.

Even as many creative initiatives will emerge from many places within the Church in this missionary year, as the faithful, we must also take the initiative to evangelize and share with others the wonder of the gift of the Eucharist. The movement depends on us. It is not somebody else’s work. It is the mission we were each given in baptism that was deepened and strengthened in confirmation and continues to be nourished by the Eucharist.

The eucharistic liturgy and liturgy in general, like group prayer, is the public work of the Church. It intrinsically demands to be shared. We each need to ask ourselves how the fire that has been stoked in us at this point in the revival will continue to be fed. We also need to ask how that fire translates into our witness to friends, family, neighbors and even strangers.

As we prepare to enter a new phase in Eucharistic Revival, the question that remains for each of us individually is whether we will really allow ourselves to be changed and to be different, even after this process officially wraps up. Are we going to be witnesses or merely bystanders?

It is important to remember that we are not alone in the task given to us. We certainly have each other, but ultimately and more essentially, we have the Holy Spirit, whose work this is truly. We have work to do, but that work is in cooperation with the Spirit, who drives all mission, gives life and changes hearts.

We can then proceed with confidence and trust in the one who animates our efforts.