Proem

Pope St. John Paul II began calling for a New Evangelization shortly after his election as Supreme Pontiff and, indeed, the Church realized a new springtime during his pontificate. Pope Francis¹ and Pope Leo XIV² have renewed this call and, in the United States, we have seen the birth of numerous organizations with the expressed and genuine desire to assist and guide the Church in her work of evangelization. These initiatives, rightly and almost universally, highlight the importance of the Eucharist being offered in the most efficacious manner as essential to this new process of evangelization.

Evangelizing with the Eucharist?

On one hand, we have numerous examples of the power of the Eucharist—Christ himself—acting as the immediate cause of conversion. André Frossard, an atheist, proclaimed, “Dieu existe, je l’ai rencontre (God exists, I have met him),” after entering the adoration chapel on the Rue D’Ulm in Paris.³ Scott Hahn recognized the Lamb of God at Mass in a chapel in Milwaukee.⁴ The disciples on the road to Emmaus returned to Jerusalem after he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. Concrete examples of the power of the Eucharist to cause interior change can easily be multiplied.

On the other hand, it would seem that the Eucharist is not the instrument of evangelization, but the final consummation for those who have been evangelized. Even the name given to the Supper at which the Eucharist was instituted indicates that it was not the first event Christ celebrated with his apostles but the Last. After the Resurrection, the Lord was not made known to the disciples on the road in the breaking of the bread until he first explained to them all that was spoken of him in the Scriptures, beginning with Moses and the prophets. The entire history of the Church—from Christ to St. Paul to ecumenical councils to contemporary pontiffs to canon law⁵—exhorts conversion, initiation, and a proper state of mind prior to participation in the Eucharist. Sacrosanctum Concilium states: “But in order that the liturgy may be able to produce its full effects, it is necessary that the faithful come to it with proper dispositions, that their minds should be attuned to their voices, and that they should cooperate with divine grace lest they receive it in vain” (SC, 11). Although it permits of exception, the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults maintains as normative the “Dismissal of the Elect.”⁶ We can even note that the proper ordering of the Sacraments of Initiation places the Eucharist after Baptism and Confirmation.

What is Evangelization?

Evangelization is the imperative given by Christ in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines evangelization as “the proclamation of Christ and His Gospel by word and the testimony of life, in fulfillment of Christ’s command” (CCC, 905). Pope St. Paul VI taught that the Church exists to evangelize⁷ and that the act of evangelizing consists not only in the proclamation of the Gospel but in the interior conversion of the person and of humanity: “The purpose of evangelization is therefore precisely this interior change, and if it had to be expressed in one sentence the best way of stating it would be to say that the Church evangelizes when she seeks to convert, solely through the divine power of the message she proclaims, both the personal and collective consciences of people, the activities in which they engage, and the lives and concrete milieu which are theirs.”⁸

Since evangelization occurs in specific times and places, Pope St. John Paul II enumerated three milieux or contexts in which the Church carries out her mission: the context in which Christ and the Gospel are unknown; the context in which Christians fervently live out their faith; and the context in which entire groups of the baptized have lost their living faith.⁹ While the end or goal of evangelization remains constant, the means of evangelization must be configured to the ground into which the seed of the Gospel is planted.

Evangelization and the Eucharist

The Second Vatican Council taught that the Eucharistic sacrifice is the “fons et culmen” of the Christian life¹⁰ and Pope St. John Paul referred explicitly to the Eucharistic Jesus as the “source and summit of all evangelization.”¹¹ We often find this phrase translated as “source and summit” of the Christian life but it is more literally translated as the “source (font) and culmination.”¹²

The “source (font)” is that from which not only every ecclesiastical work and ministry gains its strength and its very existence, but also from which the Church is built and grows.¹³ In Thomistic terms, we might call this the efficient cause or agent cause as well as the first/final cause of the Church, because the Eucharist is Christ. Although a hammer is an instrument wielded by the arm to drive a nail into a piece of wood, the Eucharist is not an instrument in this way, but the primary mover, Christ substantially present. The Eucharist builds up the Church and incorporates individuals into Christ’s body because the Eucharist is Christ himself who acts in the sacrament as the principal agent.

The Eucharist is also the “culmination” of the Christian life. The Eucharist—as Christ himself—motivates all ecclesiastical activity including evangelization, and the Eucharist is the end to which evangelization aims. Since the most noble good is that which is sought for its own sake and not for some other purpose,¹⁴ the Eucharist should not be used as a means to another end but is the end itself. Not only did Pope St. John Paul refer to the Eucharistic Jesus as the “source and summit of all evangelization,” but Pope Benedict XVI stated, “We cannot, as we have seen, talk as if the Eucharist were some kind of publicity project through which we try to win over people for Christianity.”¹⁵ In Thomistic terms, the Eucharist would be the first and final cause of evangelization. Once again, the Eucharist cannot be an instrument of evangelization but its motivation and goal.

Pastoral Implications

If we take evangelization to be the initial proclamation of the Gospel to those who do not know Christ or to facilitate the return of the baptized who have lost their living faith,¹⁶ then the Eucharist ought not to be instrumentalized as a tool of evangelization, but is the first/final cause of evangelization. The celebration of the Eucharist should not be diluted to accommodate the uninitiated, but the uninitiated must be advanced in the process of conversion so that the Eucharist might have its full effect.

Large numbers of Catholics are in nominal or even adversarial relationships with the Church. Practicing parishioners possess a legitimate desire to bring back into the fold family members or close friends who have drifted away from the practice of the faith. Since the friend has articulated some dissatisfaction with a supposed or authentic teaching of the Church as the cause of departure, the parishioner wishes to find a reason to convince the friend to return. Seeking to change the teaching or practice of the Church or, at least, convincing a particular priest to compromise this teaching, may seem easier than attempting to change the interior state of a friend or family member.

The well-meaning parishioner may also reverse cause and effect or not realize that a cause must be proportionate to its effect. Hence, if the effort to change the Church’s teaching or convince the pastor to compromise this teaching becomes a bridge too far, then the parishioner may seek to lure his friend back to Mass by a means that has nothing to do with the actual purpose of returning, i.e., union with Christ. The well-meaning parishioner may entice the friend with donuts, cool music, or an exciting and relevant homily. The temptation will be to form the liturgy in our image and likeness instead of allowing Christ in the Eucharist to form us in his image and likeness. “If I can just get her to come back, then all will be right.”

Consequently, the friend returns to the Eucharistic celebration only to find that nothing has changed. The process of attempting to change the Church rather than the person continues. Since nothing has changed at church, the parishioner, out of concern for the friend, begins to petition the pastor to have even more exciting music, an awesome homily, and, most importantly, donuts. The problem is that we find ourselves attempting to entice our friend’s return with something other than the only Person who can save him. Our end or goal becomes getting the person back to church rather than seeking the person’s conversion. The first step, in a better approach, would likely be a series of open and honest conversations to bring the fallen-away Catholic into the proper state of mind, seek Reconciliation, and, then and only then, return to the Eucharist.

Errant Methods

Although the Church has made clear the value of incorporating compatible elements of a particular culture into the celebration of the Eucharist and the necessity of using contemporary technology and media in the work of evangelization,¹⁷ she cautions against the incorporation of cultural elements that stand in direct contrast to the Gospel message and communion with the universal Church.¹⁸ We must not be so naïve as to think that good intentions immunize us from incorporating evangelically incompatible ideas into our celebration of the Eucharist. For example, rather than assisting a community in understanding the purpose and meaning of the Introit chant, which is the first and preferred choice of the Roman Missal, many parishes choose an opening hymn based on the likes or dislikes of a certain segment of its congregation or, even worse, its target congregation. Many a parish worship commission and parishioner in the pew take as self-evident the principle: “If we want to attract people, we need to have exciting music!” This begs the question: Is attracting people the job of the Eucharist? Is the Eucharist not good enough or Christ not a sufficient attraction?

Radical individualism (self-will), pragmatism (loss of divine purpose), consumerism (the customer is always right), proportionalism (each person has his own good), and self-gratification (I like this, not that) ought not motivate liturgical decisions consciously or unconsciously. Each of these common philosophical errors stands in direct contrast to the Gospel message, yet they are easily embraced when we lose sight of the Eucharistic celebration as the fons et culmen of the Christian life, treating the Eucharist as an instrument and not the good sought for its own sake.

For God’s Sake

The Eucharist—Christ—as the “source and culmination” of the Christian life is the “source and culmination” of evangelization. Evangelization is the instrument. The Eucharist is the end sought for its own sake. Although evangelization must take into account the ground into which the seed of the Gospel is planted, no benefit will be received by changing our ultimate end, Christ, into someone who looks more like us and less like him. Christ must remain immutable so that, as St. Athanasius writes, we might become like him.¹⁹

1. Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, (November 24, 2013), 14-18.
2. Pope Leo XIV, Dilexi te, (October 4, 2025), 7. Pope Leo XIV, Homily of Pope Leo XIV, Solemnity of Christmas, (December 25, 2025).
3. Andre Frossard, God Exists I Have Met Him, trans. Marjorie Villiers (Collins, 1970).
4. Scott Hahn, The Lamb’s Supper (Random House, 1999), 7-9.
5. Code of Canon Law, can. 912-916.
6. Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, 165.
7. Pope St. Paul VI, Evangelii nuntiandi, 14.
8. Evangelii nuntiandi, 18.
9. Pope St. John Paul II, Redemptoris missio, 33.
10. Lumen Gentium, 11. “Taking part in the Eucharistic sacrifice, which is the fount and apex of the whole Christian life (totius vitae christianae fontem et culmen), they offer the Divine Victim to God, and offer themselves along with It.” Pope Pius XII’s Mediator Dei uses the terms “caput ac veluti centrum”: “The mystery of the most Holy Eucharist which Christ, the High Priest instituted, and which He commands to be continually renewed in the Church by His ministers, is the culmination and center (caput ac veluti centrum), as it were, of the Christian religion. ” Pope Pius XII, Mediator Dei, 66.
11. Pope St. John Paul II, “Address of the Holy Father John Paul II to Jubilee Pilgrims from the Italian Dioceses, Hungary and Various Associations,” (October 21, 2000).
12. Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, Vol II, ed. Norman B. Tanner, SJ (Sheed and Ward, 1990), 857.
13. Joseph Ratzinger, Collected Works: Theology of the Liturgy (Ignatius Press, Kindle Edition), p. 446.
14. Nicomachean Ethics, Bk. I, Par. 2.
15. Cf. Joseph Ratzinger, Collected Works: Theology of the Liturgy (Ignatius Press, Kindle Edition), p. 462n13.
16. Redemptoris missio, 33.
17. Redemptoris missio, 33. Pope Leo XIV, “Message of the Holy Father to Participants in the Builders AI Forum,” (Collegium Maximum of Rome, November 6-7, 2025).
18. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1206. Redemptoris missio, 54.
19. St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation of the Word, 54.