In his keynote speech at the National Eucharistic Congress Thursday evening “Revival Session,” Father Mike Schmitz, host of the popular The Bible in a Year podcast, used a word that one doesn’t hear very often these days. He called on the Catholics gathered in Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium to repent.

“If this is going to be a Revival, if it’s going to be a real Revival, here’s the reality: In the history of Christianity, you can never have a revival without repentance,” said Father Schmitz, chaplain at the University of Minnesota-Duluth Newman Center.

Father Schmitz, whose YouTube videos and podcasts have made him a household name among Catholics and non-Catholics alike, was met with a standing ovation from the crowd of more than 50,000 when he walked onto the stage on the second night of the five-day event to deliver his talk titled, “The Greatest Love Story.”

The National Eucharistic Congress is a culminating event of the U.S. Catholic bishops’ three-year-long National Eucharistic Revival, an initiative that aims to renew Catholics’ faith that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist, a central tenet of Catholicism. 

The bishops in 2019 decided to embark on the initiative following a Pew survey that found that only one-third of Catholics believed that the consecrated bread and wine in the Mass are the body and blood of Jesus.

While some have disputed the methodology of that particular survey, belief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist has been widely acknowledged to have declined in recent years.

Father Schmitz told the crowd attending the conference, however, that believing in the doctrine of the Real Presence that teaches that the Eucharist is Jesus is not enough. 

Comparing Catholics today to the people of Jerusalem to whom the prophet Jeremiah preached about the need to repent, Father Schmitz said the problem is not that we don’t know about the Eucharist, it’s that we are indifferent to it. 

“Too often,” he said, Catholics are “the people Jeremiah was speaking to. ... We say, ‘We have the Real Presence; we have the Real Presence; we have the Real Presence,’ but our hearts are far from him. We know — we just don’t care.” 

“If the remedy for ignorance is to get to knowledge, and the road to knowledge is truth, the remedy for indifference is love, and the road to love is repentance,” he challenged the gathering.

Father Schmitz, who at one point seemed to tear up while talking about the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, told the crowd that belief in the Real Presence of Jesus is “not the point of the Mass.”

“This whole conference, we’re talking about the Real Presence of Jesus. Amen. Yes, Jesus is truly present, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in every Eucharist, in every Mass, in every tabernacle around the world,” he said.

“Is the point of the Mass the presence of Jesus? No. It’s the presence of Jesus that makes the point possible. I want to say that again: The presence of Jesus is not the point of the Mass,” Father Schmitz said.

“The Real Presence makes the sacrifice possible. We fall into a big trap when we say, ‘Oh, no, the point is that you’re here.’ Or, ‘The point is I get to receive you.’ Those are amazing things. But what saves us is the sacrifice of the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus to the Father in humble obedience,” he said.

He called on the assembled to repent — of large sins and “those small things that we settle for.” Both, he said, can “snuff out” the flame of our love for Jesus.

Everyone, he said, should ask themselves: “If I’ve lost the fire of my love for the Lord, my first love, the first fire, what are the fire extinguishers in my life?” 

He concluded by calling on those gathered for the conference to resolve to make changes in their lives.

“I can’t expect to take the fire of this weekend and bring it back to my home if I’m trying to cram it into the life I just left,” Father Schmitz continued. “Something has to change. Someone has to redecorate my home. We have to do some remodeling. That’s the plan. Tonight, be able to make some of those decisions. What are the fire extinguishers I know I’m returning to when I go back home? It’s time to remodel because I cannot fit the fire of God’s love ... [in] the life I left behind.” 

The evening also included a keynote speech from Mother Olga of the Sacred Heart, who shared her experiences of Eucharistic miracles and healing that she has witnessed in her own life and in her work in the Archdiocese of Boston. 

She recounted her experiences helping a young cancer patient and a significantly premature baby access the Eucharist. Both defied the odds and are thriving today, she said.

“I give thanks to God for allowing me to be present and to witness these miracles so I can come and be a voice for him and for them, so that you go out and share with everybody. Eucharistic miracles are real, and Our Lord truly present, and he’s here in our midst, wherever you go, any parish, any church, any diocese,” she said.

Lila Rose, the founder and president of the pro-life human-rights group Live Action, and Ken and Mary Ann Duppong, parents of Servant of God Michelle Duppong, also offered testimonies about their faith.

Before the conclusion of the event, the faithful knelt in adoration of the Eucharist, which was processed into and out of the stadium by Bishop William Byrne of Springfield, Massachusetts.