‘How much are you in love with Jesus?’

By Anna Githens

Correspondent

On June 16, the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops voted overwhelmingly in favor of a 10-year plan to address the pastoral needs of Hispanic/Latino Catholics.

“I think it’s a blessing,” Andrés Arango, the Bishop’s Delegate for Hispanic Ministry and director of Evangelization for the Diocese of Camden, said during the Region III Encuentro of Hispanic Leaders held June 17 in the Diocese of Metuchen’s Pastoral Center.

About 250 delegates of Region III, which consists of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, came together on the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary to discuss outreach to Latino Catholics, the National Eucharistic Revival and Pope Francis’ worldwide call to be a synodal Church.

“I think the big challenge for the Church in the United States, and also for the Latino community, is the second and third generation of Latinos,” Arango said.

Luz Escobar, administrative assistant in the Office of Hispanic Evangelization and Pastoral Ministry for the Diocese of Metuchen, agreed.

“We have more relations with the parents and grandparents because they come from Latino and Spanish countries [and] don’t speak English well,” she said. “We need to involve the youth in activities in the dioceses because they are the bridge between the first and second generations.”

Arango said one of the top priorities of the U.S. bishops’ National Pastoral Plan for Hispanic/Latino Ministry “is the youth and how we can serve them.” The 62-page plan aims to respond to the needs of about 30 million Hispanic/Latino Catholics in the United States and strengthen such ministries at the national, local and parish level.

Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., of the Archdiocese of Newark, celebrated Mass, commenting that the U.S. bishop’s vote and the Encuentro, or meeting, both occurred on feast days in the Church.

“The Sacred Heart of Jesus took flesh in the heart of Mary,” Cardinal Tobin said in his homily, which he preached in Spanish. “We say in the Angelus, ‘And the Word was made flesh.’ In Mary’s heart, the flesh became Word. … Jesus teaches us the wisdom of love, and Mary teaches us how to accept that wisdom.”

He continued, “We are celebrating this feast [Immaculate Heart of Mary] together at a precise moment in history, as our gathering takes place the day after the assembly of the bishops of this country approved a new National Pastoral Plan. And we are journeying with all the Catholics of this world along the synodal path, listening like the disciples on the Road to Emmaus to discern how we must change to live a more abundant life. We are looking for more than new documents, because synodality is not a program, but a way of being Church.”

Speaking on the National Eucharistic Revival, he said, “It is more than a catechesis on the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar, but an awareness that the celebration of the Eucharist commits us to a mission. But the fruits will only multiply if the faithful learn that the Eucharist they receive is destined to make them missionaries who bring the presence of Christ, who is now in them, to people who do not yet know the Lord.”

Those sentiments resonated with Deacon Asterio Velasco, director of Hispanic Ministry for the Archdiocese of Newark. “Our call to be synodal means walking and working together, clergy and laypeople, so that we all participate. Sometimes we are tempted to stay in our circles. We pray and feel holy, but what about the rest? Where is Christ outside the Church, especially those who are more in need?”

Maria Moncaleano, director of the Office of Hispanic Ministry in the Diocese of Paterson and representative of Hispanic Ministry Region III, said, “We should be people who walk with others. We have to leave the pews.”

During the daylong Encuentro, Arango led a talk on “Becoming Eucharistic People, and Velasco spoke on “Called to be a synodal Church.”

During his presentation, Arango asked the delegates to take out their Bibles and read along with him John, Chapter 6. “That was probably the most difficult preaching of Jesus, because he said if you want to have eternal life, you need to ‘eat my flesh and drink my blood.’ He [performed] two miracles before that. He multiplied the loaves and fishes and then He walked on the water to demonstrate that He was God and He is able to give His flesh and blood for us. If we want to go to heaven, here He is. We need to eat Jesus’ flesh. And it’s not just to go to heaven. If we want to have life in abundance here, we need to have Communion.”

“I think before we can be Eucharistic people, we need to have a personal encounter with Jesus,” he continued. “My spiritual father was a bishop in [my native] Colombia, and he used to ask us, ‘How much are you in love with Jesus?’ He said the measurement is how much time you spend alone with Jesus every day, not just going to Mass, not just praying the Rosary, but intimately speaking with Jesus.”

Father Ronal Vega Pastrana, parochial vicar in Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Bernardsville, the Diocese of Metuchen, suggested ways to strengthen that relationship such as placing a ciborium on the altar after communion to create a greater awareness of Christ while those pray after receiving the Blood and Body.

“The secular [world] is pushing us to be active all the time,” the priest explained. “God pulls you toward Him to think about what you’re doing, not just go through the motions, and to refocus.”

Anna Githens is a correspondent for The Catholic Spirit, the newspaper for the Diocese of Metuchen.