Is the Eucharistic Revival promoting a reductionist account of the Blessed Sacrament, downplaying the Eucharist’s connection to communion and mission in favor of individualistic piety?  

That’s the mistaken assessment of Jesuit Father Tom Reese, who penned a column for Religion News Service on the topic, arguing that ongoing emphasis on Eucharistic catechesis, devotion, and service in the United States is “more about Benediction, where the consecrated bread is worshipped, than the Eucharist, where the community is fed.” 

Father Reese’s article, which was retweeted by papal biographer and online provocateur Austen Ivereigh, sharply criticized the Revival just as it nears its apex, with the four routes of its National Eucharistic Pilgrimage set to converge in Indianapolis next week for the National Eucharistic Congress, July 17-21. 

But Father Reese’s account of the Eucharistic Revival doesn’t square with what’s really taking place out there. 

For instance, Father Reese claims that the Eucharistic Revival “focuses on me and Jesus rather than the communion of Christians.” But this statement is difficult to make sense of for those of us who have spent any amount of time on any of the four Pilgrimage routes. 

At hundreds of stops made along the routes, the Revival has profoundly deepened the bonds of Catholic community, something I’ve witnessed firsthand in my coverage of the Marian Route that wended its way through the Midwest. In addition to the celebration of countless Masses, heart-stirring and unity-building Eucharistic processions held in over 60 dioceses across the county have both shown and strengthened the Body of Christ, drawing together thousands of Catholics of different races, ages and health and socio-economic statuses. 

Not to engage in their own one-on-one time with Jesus, like a Eucharistic version of people standing together to listen to music on their own headphones. Nor as some kind of triumphalist “show of strength” to the secular world. 

But instead, to walk together with each other and with the Eucharistic Lord, their faith in Christ’s presence and love strengthened through participation in the very community that His self-gift makes possible.  

As Ulrich Lehner, a Notre Dame theologian, told me after partaking in a cross-campus Eucharistic procession with his wife and three daughters, “We witnessed the beauty of ‘Church as the Body of Christ.’” 

This is not individualistic piety. It is the deepening of the Eucharistic communion that Father Reese seems to think the Revival is neglecting. 

Equally hard to reconcile with reality is Father Reese’s claim that the Eucharistic Revival “focuses on personal experience rather than mission.” 

Certainly, the Revival has emphasized the importance of developing one’s personal relationship with Jesus Christ, present in the Eucharist, including in prayerful adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.  

But this intimacy is never simply for one’s own sake — it’s always been characterized as an act of reception that aids in our baptismal mission to share Christ’s love with the world, as Pope Francis made clear in his own endorsement of the National Eucharistic Revival. 

After all, as Pope Benedict XVI taught in Deus Caritas Est, “a Eucharist which does not pass over into the concrete practice of love is intrinsically fragmented.” This is because in the Eucharist, we are made into Christ’s body through reception of his selfless love and are therefore called to offer that same Eucharistic self-giving with our lives. 

But more than just talking about this connection between the sacrament and charity, the Eucharistic Revival has put it into action. After all, one of the very first events of the Revival back in May 2022 was a retreat for Eucharistic preachers that fused together Eucharistic adoration with service to the poor on Chicago’s West Side. 

The Eucharistic Pilgrimage has modeled the corporal works of mercy along its routes, including time with the elderly in St. Paul, visits to the imprisoned in Ohio, and service to the poor in St. Louis. The Eucharistic Congress itself will include opportunities to “feed the hungry” through dedicated times for voluntary meal packing at the venue in Indianapolis. 

The Revival has also inspired other applications of missionary charity, such as the McGrath Institute for Church Life at Notre Dame’s teaching series on the Eucharist and Catholic Social Teaching, or a new musical sponsored by the same institute that aims to convey God’s Eucharistic love through theater.  

And at the Congress in Indianapolis, the Eucharist will be explicitly connected to the Church’s mission of love at a variety of events, from Eden Invitation’s breakout session on applying a sacramental worldview to discordant experiences of sexuality and gender, to dinners and discussions hosted by the Catholic Worker movement that will focus on a Eucharistic vision of justice and peace. 

The reality is that the National Eucharistic Revival has always been characterized as a grassroots movement, prompted by the initiative of the U.S. bishops, but animated by the Eucharistic devotion and creativity of Catholics throughout this country. 

While Father Reese and other naysayers have rejected this invitation to contribute to the Revival, others have embraced it — and the Church in the United States is all the richer for it, our Eucharistic communion stronger and our capacity for Eucharistic mission enhanced. 

And fortunately, the Revival isn’t over. In fact, the Congress will inaugurate an entire year devoted to “individuals and families going out on mission, motivated by the love of Christ encountered in the Eucharist and equipped through the Catholic community.” 

Perhaps instead of critiquing from the sidelines, Father Reese and Austen Ivereigh will “come and see” what the Revival is all about, offering their own witnesses of Eucharistic devotion and charity. But even if they don’t, they will hopefully be touched by the revitalized Eucharistic communion and mission that, God-willing, will continue to flow from the Revival through the lives of those who have participated in it.