In the past year and a half in Kirksville, I have listened to many people share their memories of the late Fr. Bill Kottenstette. It is evident that he was a good spiritual guide to many people and a significant influence in the faith journey of many in the community.

At the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises group that meets every other Thursday, someone shared how Fr. Bill talked about transformation. The context was how mercy transforms us. When we experience mercy from God or someone else, we just don’t feel better. We are transformed in such a way the we act differently from that point on. In the same way, when we offer mercy to another, we can help them transform what is an experience of indebtedness and lack, to one of fulfillment and hope.

Fr. Bill would often encourage people to approach the celebration of the Mass with this in mind. What do we bring to the Eucharist that we need God’s mercy to transform? We bring that intention to Church and place it on the altar when the priest prepares the bread and the chalice. A portion of our sacrificial giving is joined with the perfect Sacrifice of Jesus, the Lamb of God, and is offered to God the heavenly Father. All our offerings are made one in Christ and are offered up.

This theme of transformation is particularly relevant to Lent. The season of penitence is our response to Christ’s call to repent and believe the Good news. Conversion. Metanoia. Change. We heard the call preached quite boldly by the prophet Joel on Ash Wednesday: “Let the bridegroom quit his room and the bride her chamber.” That’s how serious Joel was with his call to conversion. The prophet is saying to all of us, “Those of you who are living life as if on a honeymoon, it’s time to come back home and face the slog of everyday life!”

Of course the Eucharist is about transformation. Our Catholic Tradition identifies a particular and unique transformation that takes place during the Sacrifice of the Mass. We call that transformation transubstantiation. The bread and the wine’s very substance becomes the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. The Eucharistic species look like bread and wine, but it indeed is the Real Presence of Christ.

The Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith. It is where we most surely meet Christ Jesus. It manifests the unity of the Church with God and among the members of the Body of Christ. We know that unity has been disturbed by sin. Betrayal, abandonment, abuse, conflict, and simple neglect have threatened the unity of the People of God, especially in regard to participation in Sunday Mass.

Noticing the steady drop in attendance, especially the lack of a full rebound after the pandemic, and motivated by disturbing findings that there are many Catholics who do not appreciate the meaning of the Eucharist and the transformation that takes place on the altar, the Bishops of the United States initiated a Eucharistic revival in June of 2022. Together we will work in restoring and reviving our faith in the Eucharist as the healing the Church needs and the healing that the Church can offer the world. [cf. https://www.eucharisticrevival.org/]

The first year of a Eucharistic Revival is centered on Diocesan renewal. In June of 2023, the second year will focus on revival of the Eucharist in parishes. Our Worship Commission will guide us in planning events, activities, and retreats that will help us all become more committed to the Eucharist and better appreciate the great gift that Christ left the Church in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

In the meanwhile, I invite all of us to reflect on what Fr. Bill preached and lived in his daily life:  how can the Eucharist transform us into the people God created us to be in his image and likeness. How the Eucharist can transform us into better disciples of the Lord Jesus?
A good learning strategy is to begin with what we know and are familiar with. Then through a process of comparison and contrast, we can learn something new and different. I believe that the role of conversion in the life of a disciple of Christ is a good step along the way toward understanding and living the Eucharist more effectively.

Those who have experienced the recovery process in themselves or others understand how it goes. At a very human level, we know how hard change can be. At times we hit rock bottom and don’t think it is possible that things can be different. Darkness overwhelm us. We feel powerless. Then grace comes to us in some surprising and new way. We acknowledge that there is a power beyond us that we can’t quite comprehend, but can depend on to lift us out of the pit of despair. The true miracle of change takes place where no change was seen possible. We begin to take concrete and real steps that transform lives.

The Christian believes that repentance and conversion is possible even for the most lost soul. That there is a hope of new life is illustrated by every parable, healing, or act of forgiveness which Jesus gave. The greatest and truest miracle is that death is transformed into life through the power of the resurrection.

To place our hope and trust in the Eucharist is to believe in the real power of the Holy Spirit to transform that which is of this Earth into the stuff of Heaven. Men and women are made the sons and daughters of God in the waters of Baptism. The fullness of the Spirit of God is poured upon them at Confirmation. Sins are forgiven. Health is restored. A man and a women become one flesh in Matrimony. “Those who receive the sacrament of Holy Orders are consecrated in Christ's name to feed the Church by the word and grace of God.” The memorial of Christ’s death and resurrection is perpetuated in the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood.
 
This then is the sacramental economy of the Catholic faith whereby the goods of the earth through the prayers of the Church are transformed into the living presence of Christ. In participating in them, we are all transformed, as Saint Paul so beautifully puts it in Romans 12:  “I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.”

The first pillar of Lent is prayer. The perfect prayer is the Eucharist. This is the everlasting memorial that Christ gave his Church at the Last Supper. There is no better way to embrace the call to conversion and transformation than to participate in the Mass, to look upon how Christ himself became the sacrificial lamb, once and for all, and to do all of this in his memory.