Friday, 17th Week
St. Peter Julian Eymard
Knights of Columbus Board Meeting, Quebec
August 2, 2024
An Embarrassment of Riches
When we fly or take a train, the carrier always thanks us, reminding us that we have our choice of airlines and trains – even though, most of the time, we have no choice whatsoever. Today, in the Church’s liturgical calendar, we do have a choice. We could have celebrated a votive Mass of the Sacred Heart or the feast of St. Eusebius of Vercelli – both of which would be beautiful. But there was yet another choice for today’s liturgy, viz., St. Peter Julian Eymard, “the Apostle of the Eucharist” as Pope St. John XXIII called him. For us who aspire to be Knights and Ladies of the Eucharist, I think the choice is obvious.
The Life of St. Peter Julian Eymard
This afternoon, then, let me speak briefly about St. Peter Julian. The late Cardinal Francis George once said that when godless ideologies shatter human society, the Church is there to pick up the pieces and to rebuild. St. Peter Julian was one of the saints who helped rebuild not only the Church in France, but also French society itself in the wake of the Revolution.
St. Peter Julian did this by his love for the Eucharist. Even as a child he was extraordinarily devoted to the Eucharist, so it came as no surprise that he was called to the Priesthood. He entered the Oblates of Mary and was ordained in 1834, at the very time St. John Vianney was rebuilding the Church and society through his tireless priestly ministry at the parish of Ars. St. Peter Julian’s homilies and instructions were all centered on the Eucharist, and those who were blessed to have him as a spiritual director had the eyes of their soul fixed on the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
In 1851, he made a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Fourvieres, and there promised the Blessed Mother he would found a congregation of priests wholly devoted to the worship of the Blessed Sacrament. He did this because, like St. John Vianney, he encountered in French society a cold indifference to the Eucharist and absence from Sunday Mass – not unlike the indifference Jesus himself encountered in today’s Gospel reading. St. Peter Julian ardently wanted people to know and experience the truth and beauty of the Eucharistic mystery and to do reparation for such apathy and hostility to Christ’s own gift of self. He recognized that the key to human happiness and salvation is contained in the true and living Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, whereby we are joined to the Lord as branches to a vine. By worthily and fruitfully receiving the Most Blessed Eucharist the very life of Christ flows into our being, nourishing and strengthening our bond of love to Christ and the Church, and enabling us to lead lives that bear the good fruit of Christian love.
To complete the story, let me add that, with the bishop’s permission, in 1856, with only two members, St. Peter Julian opened a religious house where the Blessed Sacrament would be continually adored. Thus did he launch the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament which spread throughout Europe and America. He also founded a group of cloistered nuns, the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament, wholly devoted to the Eucharist. And we have St. Peter Julian to thank for spreading Forty Hours Devotion and beginning the Eucharistic League of Priests.
The Knights of Columbus
It’s not hard for us to see the light which this great saint shed upon the Church which has just celebrated in the United States a beautiful Eucharistic Congress as part of an ongoing Eucharistic revival. It’s also not hard for us to see the relevance of St. Peter Julian in our lives as leaders in the family of the Knights of Columbus as we participate in and support the Eucharistic revival, not only in the United States but everywhere where the Order is present. After all, we are called to be Knights and Ladies of the Eucharist. So let me suggest three ways St. Peter Julian speaks specifically to us.
First, if St. Alphonsus Ligouri, whose feast we celebrated yesterday, pointed to the primacy of charity in our daily lives as Christians and as Knights, St. Peter Julian brings us to the source of charity in our daily lives, namely, the Eucharist, Christ’s gift of self to the Father for us & for our salvation. St. Peter Julian teaches us the link between the Eucharist and a life of charity, the link between Christ’s gift of self and our gift of self.
Second, St. Peter Julian urges us to encourage attendance at Sunday Mass, whether it is members of our families, fellow Knights who may have lapsed, colleagues, friends, & parishioners who absent themselves from the Eucharist. If every member of the Order brought back one Catholic to the Eucharist that would be two million more gathered at the banquet of Christ’s Sacrifice. If every member of the Order fell deeply in love with the Eucharistic Lord and bore witness to the Church’s Eucharistic faith by word and example, how many minds and hearts, now indifferent to the Lord, would be awakened and how many would gratefully return to his Eucharistic embrace.
Third, let us be confident that in attracting people to the Eucharist, we are indeed helping to rebuild a society shattered not only by its lack of truth and charity but by its lack of fraternity and solidarity. When we actively participate in the Eucharist and worthily and fruitfully receive the Holy Eucharist, we are bound together by the One Bread and the One Cup we receive. We are equipped not only to build up the Church but to make the Church an effective sign of the unity and solidarity that should prevail in any society that is just and peaceful.
Eucharistic Congress
Walking in the vast Eucharistic procession in Indianapolis, accompanied as it was by innumerable Knights and Ladies, I was struck by the number of people who were both joyful and reverent as the Most Blessed Sacrament passed by … tens of thousands … witnessing to the innate hunger of the human spirit for the divine love which is, so to speak, encapsulated in the Most Blessed Eucharist.
Through the intercession of St. Peter Julian Eymard, let us ask for the grace to be Knights and Ladies of the Eucharist, Eucharistic missionaries who attract many to our beloved Order which itself flowed from the year of a Eucharistically centered priest, the Blessed Michael J. McGivney. O Sacrament Most Holy, O Sacrament Divine, all praise and all thanksgiving, be every moment Thine!