2021: The Year of the Eucharist and St. Joseph

This weekend, we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, and, in the Archdiocese of New Orleans, we will begin the celebration of the Year of the Eucharist and St. Joseph. Can you explain why you have decided to dedicate a year to those two purposes?

The Mass is the center of who we are, and very often, people do not fully understand the meaning of the Mass and the theology contained within the Mass. Our first goal is to explain the various parts of the Mass and their meaning to our daily lives. Secondly, surveys show that many Catholics do not understand the theology of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The Eucharist doesn’t merely “point” to Christ – it is Christ. Bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ. And, thirdly, we look forward to the time, when COVID-19 is over, when we can return to church for the celebration of the Mass. Yes, there is an obligation for Catholics to celebrate Mass on Sunday, but why is there an obligation? We’d like to delve into the meaning and the history of the obligation. It goes back even to the Ten Commandments when we are told to “keep holy the Lord’s day.”

One of the things you have emphasized is that the Mass is an act of worship that includes both the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Can you explain that in more detail?

Sometimes it’s neglected that the table of the Word leads us to the table of the Eucharist. If you go back to the earliest of Christian communities, they gathered around and read the Jewish Scriptures, they told stories about Jesus and then they celebrated Eucharist. I think we have lost that sense – because our celebration is so formalized. The church makes it clear that it’s not two separate things but one single act of divine worship. We eat the “Word.” The Word nourishes us. We are supposed to be fed at the table of the Word, as God speaks to us, which leads us to the table of the Eucharist, where we receive the body and blood of Christ. 

How did the celebration of the life of St. Joseph come to be added to the Year of the Eucharist?

We already had planned the Year of the Eucharist for the archdiocese when the Holy Father announced on Dec. 8 that 2021 would be a year dedicated to St. Joseph. So, in order to continue with our plans and to honor his, we’re making it a dual year of the Eucharist and St. Joseph. If you look at pictures, St. Joseph is always looking at the Christ child, and so he would have no problem sharing this with his foster son. If it were only a year of St. Joseph, we’d be pointing to Christ anyway. That’s how we pray in the church. I think the two focuses definitely do go together, and we’ll have some special events and some special prayers that can be used to honor St. Joseph and to learn more about the Eucharist. St. Joseph would never want us to point to him anyway. He would always want us to focus on Jesus.

You’ve mentioned before that people have told you and other priests how much they are hungering for the Eucharist and how much they miss being at church with the entire parish community, which hasn’t been possible during COVID. Are you concerned, though, about Mass attendance returning to normal levels when the social-distancing restrictions are lifted?

I’m not into the gloom and doom. Our goal is having the celebration of the Mass make sense so that people want to come back. We are tapping into a hunger for the Eucharist. I’ve been amazed at the number of pastors who have told me that their Mass attendance numbers keep increasing. I want to be clear that the spreading of the disease has not been tracked back to our churches or our schools. It’s been tracked back to other large gatherings where people aren’t wearing masks. We’ve been very careful to ask Massgoers to wear face coverings and to have social distancing. Several parishioners have come up to me in tears saying how much they missed the Eucharist when they couldn’t attend church. We want to invite people who have become very comfortable watching Mass at home to try to come back to church when the time is appropriate. In the meantime, we definitely understand that some people cannot come and that some people are afraid to come, and we respect that. We wait in hope for the day when we will all be together again, worshiping around the table of the Word and the table of the Eucharist.

Questions for Archbishop Aymond may be sent to [email protected].