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CHARLOTTE — The theme for the 16th Annual Eucharistic Congress has been announced by Bishop Peter J. Jugis: “As I Have Loved You.”

In announcing the theme, Bishop Jugis notes the integral connection between the love of Christ and the Eucharist: “The Holy Eucharist is the sacrament of Christ’s great love for us, a love which He showed us by His sacrifice on the cross for our salvation. Christ is really present in the Holy Eucharist, and through the Eucharist He strengthens our charity.”

The 2021 theme comes from the Gospel of John 13:34.

In a treatise on John’s gospel, St. Augustine explains Jesus’ words, “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another” (Tractate 65, 1-3: CCL 36, 490-492).

In it, he says, “This commandment that He is giving them is a new one, the Lord Jesus tells His disciples. Yet was it not contained in the Old Law, where it is written: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself?’ Why does the Lord call it new when it is clearly so old? Or is the commandment new because it divests us of our former selves and clothes us with the new man? Love does indeed renew the man who hears, or rather obeys its command; but only that love which Jesus distinguished from a natural love by the qualification: ‘As I have loved you.’”

St. Augustine continues, “This is the kind of love that renews us... This love is the gift of the Lord who said: ‘As I have loved you, you also must love one another.’ His object in loving us, then, was to enable us to love each other. By loving us Himself, our mighty Head has linked us all together as members of His own Body, bound to one another by the tender bond of love.”

The Eucharistic Congress will be held Sept. 17-18, 2021, at the Charlotte Convention Center.
— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter

Get updates online

At www.goeucharist.com: Get information about the 2021 Eucharistic Congress, in English and Spanish, as it is developed.

Your DSA contributions at work

The diocese’s Eucharistic Congress is funded in part by contributions to the annual Diocesan Support Appeal. Learn more about the DSA and how you can contribute at www.charlottediocese.org/dsa.