Eucharist & America continues ...

“At one end of Ground Zero there is the metal that when it fell formed into a huge cross. It is still there, reminded us that even in the greatest tragedy God is there, He has not abandoned us. At the other end of Ground Zero there is Saint Pauls Chapel. By a miracle it was not destroyed.” Only a block from the World Trade Center, rubble fell around the chapel and onto the grounds, but it stood unscathed. Trinity Episcopal Church and Saint Paul’s chapel was the base for months for relief efforts as the rescue, retrieval and cleanup were conducted.

“Inside Saint Paul’s chapel is an oil painting of the Great Seal of the United States,” Father Nieli said. “It hangs above the pew where George Washington knelt to worship” in the first two years of his presidency. And on the Great Seal, these words: “E Pluribus Unum.”

“That’s Latin, and it means, ‘Out of many, One.’”

What a Coincidence? Not likely.

This is exactly what Jesus and the Church teaches us about the Eucharist. Through the sharing of the Body and Blood of Jesus “we many different kinds of people become one Body through our Lord Jesus Christ,” the priest said.

“There are no coincidences, no accidents,” he said. “I believe that God is still telling us that the Cross and the Eucharist cannot be separated from this nation.” It is time for Catholics, Protestants, Jews and all people of good will to “pray to God, to pray with each other” and to pray through the Eucharist so that someday we can put it all together. America is meant to be a land of Christian unity.

He cited the work of evangelists like the Revs. Martin Luther King and Billy Graham, both of whom worked hard to try to bring people together in Christ. The former was assassinated for his effort just a few blocks away from Saint Patricks parish in Memphis, Tenn., where Father Nieli is associate pastor. In fact, King spoke at Saint Paul’s shortly before his death. Father Nieli drew a parallel from the Rev. King to a namesake, Saint Martin of Porres born in Lima, Peru, in 1579 of a Spanish gentleman and a black free woman of Panama. “He too knew what it was like to be discriminated against because of his color,” Father Nieli said. Martin joined a Dominican monastery at age 15, and while he wanted to go to foreign lands, evangelize and perhaps even suffer martyrdom for the Lord, he never left his native land, or the monastic order either. He was a barber and a hospital worker, and friend to all.

Martin became a saint, not through the martyrdom he had hoped for, said Father Nieli, but because he had the Eucharist, and through it the strength to live as one for others. (The saint performed many miracles including aerial flight and bilocation.) It is the Eucharist, in which Catholics communicate directly with the crucified and risen Christ, which empowers us to overcome obstacles to peace and justice, he said.

The potential is astounding, the priest said. “Out of the Eucharist He (Jesus) not only gives us the power to be one people now. The Eucharist joins heaven and earth as well. … All of your ancestors in heaven are there at the Mass. All of the apostles and faithful throughout the ages are there, and they are there for you through the power of Jesus Christ. Because the veil of the Temple was torn in two as Jesus died on the Cross, He now brings your loved ones, all the saints, all your ancestors to the Table of the Eucharist.”

“Through the Table of Brotherhood,” he implored, “we can bring together all peoples. All can come together to erase the divisions between red state and blue state. We can become one people in Christ.”
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Father Nieli received his Bachelor in Philosophy from St. Paul's (Washington D.C.), his Masters on Pastoral Counseling from Iona College, and was ordained a Paulist priest, May 5, 1973 in New York City. In addition to his duties as a priest, Father Nieli served as Director of Evangelization, Texas Catholic Conference and is currently a Paulist National Catholic Evangelist and Missionary. He has served on the Conference of Catholic Bishops and has been a consultant to the Ad Hoc Committee on the Observance of 500 years of Evangelization in the Americas. (Source: Mepham Hall of Fame)

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