The associated reading for this reflection can be found in your Every Sacred Sunday Mass journal or online here.
Dress shoes pounding against concrete steps created the din of a marching army. Over a thousand people stood in awe as men in robes processed by to the backdrop of solemn silence, with no other accompaniment but the singing of birds and the soft rustling of grass in the wind. At the head of the procession was raised a beautiful canopy of white silk arrayed with gold dazzling in the early evening sun, underneath which walked a priest in similarly dazzling vesture. In his covered hands, raised up to his face, was what looked like a piece of the sun forged into metal, and at its center, a glass opening showing what looked like a small, round wafer.
Many in the crowd had seen a Eucharistic Procession before. Many young people, teens or young adults, had probably grown up going to processions like this with their families. Many people, perhaps, had been following the stream of processions on social media, as it weaved its way through the country towards Indianapolis. Many held their breath in anticipation and excitement in seeing the pilgrimage unfolding before their very eyes. But this one felt different.
What is this?, they might have asked themselves as they gazed upon the Bread come down from Heaven.
The ancient Israelites asked this same question in reaction to the ancient mystery that they found scattered on the ground of their camp, the same mystery which Jesus fulfills in the giving of his Body and Blood as food for the world.
Modern man still asks this same question. At the sight of the Eucharist, a mystery ever ancient yet ever new, those gathered at Mundelein Seminary could not help but take out their phones to record videos and take pictures. Deep down, when the Eucharist is treated with the all respect and dignity that it deserves, even we who live in a secular age are moved with a sense of awe and wonder, and they too still ask: What is this?
As the priest raised the monstrance in the air to bless all the faithful, a photographer snapped a photo from a distance, turning the passing moment into a lasting icon.
What is this?
It is the Lord!
Conrad Espino is a seminarian of the Archdiocese of Chicago. Please pray for him!