Let us consider this. That the main objective of the Legion of Mary, says our founder Frank Duff, is to establish the reign of the Eucharist in all hearts. This is the reason we are here today. This is the reason for all those meetings, week after week, year after year, all that coordination of Legionary Activity, all the good works and the prayers: to establish the reign of the Eucharist in all hearts.
It’s why we process today, we take to the streets. Not to fulfill some political agenda. Not to signal our own virtue. Certainly not because there is some earthly reward for doing so. Not even to vent our frustrations with the failures of earthly leaders to bring about peace and justice in our time.
Rather, we process as a witness to the world and maybe even a reminder to our fellow Catholics, that Jesus Christ, the Son of the Virgin Mary, is true God, and that he wishes to establish his Eucharistic reign in the hearts of all peoples, in every place, in every time. His reign is established when we worship him rightly, reverently and devoutly, when we imitate him generously, and when we share our faith, hope, and love of Him with others.
And these are certainly three dimensions of a Eucharistic Procession: worship, imitation, evangelization. A Eucharistic procession is an act of worship. By it, we seek to honor God and to extend the thanksgiving and glory we give to God at the Eucharistic sacrifice of the Mass out in the world. Our processing is a prayer, an act of worship.
Secondly, A procession is an act of imitation. As we walk through the streets of Cleveland today, we perhaps think of the Lord walking from town to town preaching the Gospel throughout Judaea and Galilee, walking the streets of Jerusalem, carrying his cross in the hot sun, parched and bleeding, on his way to offer the ultimate sacrifice on Calvary. We too imitate our Lady who presented Christ her Son to the world. Over and over we see in sacred statues and images, Our Lady holding the Christ Child aloft, presenting the Christ child, inviting souls to believe in him and love him. So, we imitate, too then, Our Lady, when we process the Eucharist, presenting him to the world to believe in him and to love him. Perhaps as we process, she will whisper to hearts, as she did at the wedding feast of Cana. “Do whatever he tells you”.
And finally, a procession is in act of evangelization—a way of inviting others to Faith. How strange we will likely appear to unbelievers believers. Singing our hymns, carrying enshrined in gold, what looks to the world as a piece of bread. Why do they do this strange thing, they might ask. And that can be the beginning of God’s truth breaking into their lives.
In a time of political division and domestic chaos, we process to spread the Goodness, that there is a way to peace the world has not considered: a way not rooted in violence or political activism or the spreading around of wealth. The way to happiness the way to peace the way to eternal life is through union with God through Jesus Christ.
Particularly through the Eucharistic reign of Christ. St. Mother Theresa, whose feast is today teaches that "The cure for all the ills in the Church and human society is Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament." The peace that protesters crave is found in him. The truth craved by the philosophers is found in him. The justice desired by those who work for the oppressed is found in him. The wholeness the broken so long for is found in him.
So, like our Lady, let us lift him aloft for all the world to see today. For to be to be true servants and children of Mary, is to bring souls to the Eucharist and bring the Eucharist to souls, to establish the reign of the Eucharist in all hearts, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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