in the church — People of God and the Body of Christ.
“Christ in You” indicates the presence of Jesus Christ in the church,
which is also the church for the Gentiles and of the Gentiles. Thus,
the church itself is present as mission, the church is itself missionary
mandate and event.
The Eucharist, sacramental and real embodiment of this presence, is
thus within the church in time its hope of glory for all peoples, for
all of humankind and all creation. When the Eucharist is celebrated,
this presence is sacramentally realized and the hope rekindled,
experienced anew.
Congress History and Current Practice
International eucharistic congresses may seem to be relics of the past
which now insert themselves with difficulty into the contemporary
world. Like the old vestments of sacristies, once shining gold but
now ravaged by time, to many they have become just reminiscences
of days gone by: the popular manifestations of the late nineteenth
century and the early twentieth, through which the regality of Christ
was put into the limelight in the biggest capitals of the world: the
unending processions which involved tens and thousands of the
faithful, the gathering of masses of adorers so as to pay the homage
of faith, love, and reparation to Jesus Christ, God hidden under the
veil of the sacrament, “insulte